PhD in Public Health – Doctoral Programs – UC Irvine Wen Public Health

About

The Departments of Population Health and Disease Prevention and Health Society and Behavior jointly offer a unique, research training doctorate degree, culminating with a PhD in Public Health with concentrations in biobehavioral mechanisms of health, disease prevention, or global health. Admitted students will have the opportunity to conduct research with top-tier faculty on the biopsychosocial determinants of health status of populations, and the translation of such knowledge to improve health and prevent disease and disability.

Graduates of the PhD program will be prepared for independent and collaborative research careers, and to teach at advanced levels of instruction. Students who complete the research training program will create new knowledge through a deep understanding of the theoretical underpinnings of public health challenges, research methods, and their application to contemporary and emerging trends in public health.

Students enrolled in the PhD in Public Health must choose a concentration in one of the following concentrations: Biobehavioral Mechanisms of Health, Disease Prevention, or Global Health.

In most cases, students will have a primary faculty mentor from the core faculty from either the Department of Health Society & Behavior or Department of Population Health and Disease Prevention. However, students are encouraged to work with a variety of core and affiliated faculty.

Students enrolled in the PhD in Public Health are required to serve as Teaching Assistants in public health courses for two quarters during their graduate study. Teaching is an important component of graduate training, as it helps graduate students learn how to communicate effectively about their field of knowledge. In addition, teaching experience is valuable to those planning for a career in academia. Graduate students with comparable prior teaching experience (e.g., through postgraduate degrees earned at UC Irvine or other comparable institution) may request a waiver of the teaching requirement.

The following faculty mentors are accepting students for the Fall 2024 admissions cycle.

Name	Title	Areas of Research
Sean Arayasirikul	Associate Professor in Residence	Social etiology and root causes of health among sexual and gender minoritized communities
Jason Douglas	Vice Chair & Associate Professor	Structured observation of neighborhood-level assets and challenges that may encourage or encumber health-promoting behaviors
Suellen Hopfer	Professor	Health communication research to advance communication theory, address health disparities, & design effective public health communication interventions
Alana LeBrón	Associate Professor	Structural racism and health, health of Latino/a communities, and community-based participatory research
Brittany Morey	Associate Professor	How structural barriers shape racial/ethnic health inequities with focus on social and physical environments impact the health and well-being of AAPI communities
Annie Ro	Associate Professor	Social determinants of immigrant health, health demography, discrimination and health, and social epidemiology
Dylan Roby	Chair & Professor	Health policy, health reform, insurance markets, the Affordable Care Act passage and implementation
Sora Tanjasiri	Professor	Cancer health disparities, cancer prevention, breast and cervical early detection, & community-based participatory research
Leigh Turner	Professor	Public health ethics, translational research ethics, ethics of stem cell research & regenerative medicine

The following faculty mentors are accepting students for the Fall 2024 admissions cycle.

Name	Title	Areas of Research
Michael Hoyt	Chair & Professor	Biobehavioral cancer survivorship research, behavioral medicine, and clinical health psychology
Matthew Landry	Assistant Professor	Nutrition, behavioral interventions that promote plant-forward and plant-based diets
Yunxia Lu	Associate Professor	Cancer etiology and prevention, cancer prognosis, obesity epidemiology, and pharmacoepidemiology
Dele Ogunseitan	Distinguished Professor	Global health and development, toxic environmental pollution, microbial diversity, ecology, and health.
David Timberlake	Associate Professor	Epidemiology, marketing, and policy pertaining to tobacco, cannabis, and other substances
Tetyana Vasylyeva	Assistant Professor	Global health, molecular and socio-behavioral epidemiology

Concentrations

Biobehavioral Mechanisms of Health

The focus of the PhD concentration in Biobehavioral Mechanisms of Health is to train excellence in research to discover the pathways and mechanisms linking social and psychological factors with biological processes and physical health. Biobehavioral research considers psychological, social and cultural, and biological processes that underlie health outcomes, with a strong emphasis on neuroimmune pathways, autonomic nervous system physiology, neuroscience, and human genomics. A focus on biobehavioral mechanisms of health incorporates the potential for contextual influences, psychological stress processes, and biological systems to influence health. It bears the potential to help solve our most pressing public health problems.

Learning Objectives:

Demonstrate knowledge of the major theoretical and methodological underpinnings of advances in biobehavioral health research.
Integrate theory and research methods to identify, assess, and alter biobehavioral pathways to health.
Analyze interrelationships among social, psychological, and biological factors impacting health and illness.
Formulate research hypotheses in the intersection of biobehavioral health mechanisms and public health.
Compose research proposals and conduct original research resulting in discoveries that contribute to improved understanding of the role of biobehavioral mechanisms of health in specific populations, with the goals of applying the knowledge to public health.

Please note that the Biobehavioral Mechanisms of Health concentration is not yet accredited by the Council on Education for Public Health.

Disease Prevention

The focus of the PhD concentration in Disease Prevention is to train excellence in research to discover insights into how human behavior, social constraints, and other contextual factors influence strategies to prevent disease in populations that are vulnerable to risk factors. The program emphasizes the ecological model of disease prevention, with research hypotheses emerging through multi-layered analysis of determinants of health status, including individual, interpersonal, organizational, community, and overarching policy. Students generate the hypotheses for their research in the nexus of risk factors, health behavior, and vulnerable populations.

Learning Objectives:

Demonstrate knowledge of the major theoretical underpinnings of strategies for disease
Explain the relationship between theory and research methods focused on understanding the association of risk, behavior, and vulnerability with respect to disease pathways.
Analyze interrelationships among the determinants of illness and maladaptive health behaviors using theories of health
Formulate research hypotheses in the intersection of health risk factors, health behavior, and health promotion and policies toward disease
Compose research proposals and conduct original research resulting in discoveries that contribute to improved understanding of the role of behavior and health promotion strategies in mitigating the vulnerability to health risk factors in specific populations, with the goals of applying the knowledge to disease prevention.

Global Health

The focus of the PhD concentration in Global Health is to train excellence in research through engagement in hypothesis-driven projects to investigate the global context of disease burden and the improvement of population health status. The program will attract candidates who seek to analyze problems at the intersection of risk, vulnerability, and disease. Activities may include investigation of strategies to make research results that have already produced benefits in one country or region effective in underprivileged regions. The program trains students in integrative expertise essential for global health research with hypotheses in the nexus of content (risk analysis), context (vulnerability assessments), and process (translation of knowledge to reduce the burden of disease).

Learning Objectives:

Demonstrate knowledge of the major theoretical underpinnings of advances in global health
Explain the relationship between theory and research methods focused on understanding the association of risk, vulnerability, and outcome in global
Compare and contrast the health status of different populations with respect to their burden of
Formulate research hypotheses in the intersection of risk factors, vulnerable populations, and burden of
Compose research proposals and conduct original research resulting in discoveries that contribute to improved understanding of risk factors and variations in disease burden in a population, and strategies to alleviate the burden at the global level.

Time to Degree

It is expected that students will need 5 years to complete the program.

Career Opportunities

The PhD in Public Health prepares graduates to initiate independent and collaborative research careers in academic institutions, to teach at advanced levels of instruction, and to lead research efforts at agencies dedicated to public health at all levels of organization. Graduates of the PhD in Public Health will gain employment at research universities, government agencies, or private sector organizations including research institutes, hospitals, and public health foundations.