As part of the Susan & Henry Samueli College of Health Sciences, the mission of the UC Irvine Joe C. Wen School of Population & Public Health is the achievement of health equity for all populations through research, teaching, service, and public health practice, locally and globally. Championing the principles of evidence-based public health science, Wen Public Health aspires to understand and impact population-level social, biological, and environmental determinants of health and well-being.
In the summer of 2020, the Wen Public Health went from a single Department of Population Health to a school with four distinct departments representing the foundations of public health: the Departments of Environmental and Occupational Health; Epidemiology and Biostatistics (both of which migrated from the School of Medicine); Health, Society and Behavior; and Population Health and Disease Prevention.
Leveraging the strengths of Wen Public Health, the campus has officially established the Joe C. Wen School of Population and Public Health, making us the fourth school of public health in the 10 campus UC system and the first in Orange County, Calif.
In the 2024 U.S. News and World Report Rankings, Wen Public Health ranked among the top 50 schools/programs of public health. Wen Public Health is made up of approximately 1,450 undergraduates and roughly 200 graduate students as of Fall 2024, and has nearly 175 dedicated faculty and staff who support the school’s academic programs and research endeavors.
The curriculum brings a multidisciplinary approach to public health practice and research. Undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students explore epidemiology, genetics, health informatics, chronic and infectious diseases, environmental and global health sciences, social and behavioral health sciences, and health policy and administration. Students are encouraged to learn through researching critical issues, such as air and water pollution, natural disasters and emergency health response, maternal and child health, and occupational health and industrial ecology.
Faculty members and alumni are pioneers in crucial areas of public health, taking part in innovative research, policy analysis, global environmental assessments, occupational health, and clinical and translational sciences that impact our region, nation and world.
Accreditation Statement
The Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH) is an independent agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education to accredit schools and programs of public health. UC Irvine Public Health was initially accredited as a Program of Public Health in October 2012. In July 2018, CEPH acted to re-accredit (see CEPH Final Report).
The Joe C. Wen School of Population & Public Health at UC Irvine is currently undergoing a review by the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH) for reaccreditation as a School of Public Health. Part of this process includes the provision of a third-party comment period, which allows anyone, including students, alumni, faculty, staff, community and practice partners, and members of the public, to share relevant information about Wen Public Health directly with CEPH.
If you have any information about the school you would like to share with CEPH to inform their review, send your comments to submissions@ceph.org by August 29, 2025.
For more information or questions, please contact Sautra Yazdanian at sautray@hs.uci.edu.
