PhD in 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.

Faculty Mentors – Population Health & Disease Prevention
Faculty Mentors – Health, Society, & Behavior

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:

  1. Demonstrate knowledge of the major theoretical and methodological underpinnings of advances in biobehavioral health research.
  2. Integrate theory and research methods to identify, assess, and alter biobehavioral pathways to health.
  3. Analyze interrelationships among social, psychological, and biological factors impacting health and illness.
  4. Formulate research hypotheses in the intersection of biobehavioral health mechanisms and public health.
  5. 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.
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:

  1. Demonstrate knowledge of the major theoretical underpinnings of strategies for disease
  2. Explain the relationship between theory and research methods focused on understanding the association of risk, behavior, and vulnerability with respect to disease pathways.
  3. Analyze interrelationships among the determinants of illness and maladaptive health behaviors using theories of health
  4. Formulate research hypotheses in the intersection of health risk factors, health behavior, and health promotion and policies toward disease
  5. 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:

  1. Demonstrate knowledge of the major theoretical underpinnings of advances in global health
  2. Explain the relationship between theory and research methods focused on understanding the association of risk, vulnerability, and outcome in global
  3. Compare and contrast the health status of different populations with respect to their burden of
  4. Formulate research hypotheses in the intersection of risk factors, vulnerable populations, and burden of
  5. 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.