Environmental Health Policy

Environmental health policy provides broad, multidisciplinary training in environmental health issues, including occupational health, risk assessment and risk management, and decision making and policy analysis. Individuals interested in the policy process and environmental health are encouraged to apply to this program.

The multidisciplinary curriculum includes course work in core public health and environmental health sciences, research methods, statistics, exposure and risk assessment, environmental and occupational health policy, and policy economics. Internship experiences are arranged with leading occupational and environmental health policy experts who assist students with synthesizing and applying their academic experiences to potential professional settings. Students participate in ongoing research in the areas of policy making and evaluation, risk assessment and risk management, and policy communication.

Degree Options

The Master of Public Health (M.P.H.) degree option is designed for students with an interest in policy making and policy evaluation who are considering careers in government, consulting firms, industry, or advocacy groups. The M.P.H. program plan emphasizes social science issues, including policy evaluation, policy economics, and political and popular communication. Students are admitted to the School of Public Health's environmental health major. The requirements for this degree option generally take two years. MPH Curriculum

The Master of Science (M.S.) degree in environmental health is designed for students with an interest in exposure evaluation, risk assessment, or risk management and communication. It includes more environmental sciences course work than the M.P.H. option, and may include laboratory work. Students are admitted to the Graduate School's program in environmental health. The requirements for this degree option take two years. MS Curriculum

The Ph.D. program is designed to bring students to a high level of academic competence through a combination of advanced course work and research. Post master's level course work emphasizes the statistical and analytic methods required to conduct original research, and topics specific to the student's dissertation topic. Students develop their dissertation topics from funded research projects. The thesis must make an original contribution to the body of knowledge in environmental or occupational health. Prospective doctoral students must have fulfilled the requirements, or the equivalent, of the master's program in environmental health before admission to the program, or take additional courses to meet that level of knowledge. PhD Curriculum

Career Opportunities

Opportunities exist nationwide for individuals with multidisciplinary training that incorporates knowledge of environmental and occupational science and policy issues and processes. Students completing an M.P.H. or M.S. degree can work in government, industry, consulting or non-government organizations in the areas of risk assessment and management, regulatory compliance, health and safety, risk communication and policy analysis. The Ph.D. program prepares students for research careers in academia or leadership roles in industry and government.

Financial Assistance

Students are eligible to apply for several scholarships and traineeships available within the division. Full-time master's students may apply for research assistantships through funded research projects. A 50% time research assistantship provides full tuition reimbursement and a salary. Doctoral students are usually supported as research assistants during their doctoral research projects. More information about financial assistance.

Admission

Probationary Admission

Applicants may be admitted to the MPH program on a probationary basis. Each application for probationary admission will be evaluated and considered individually. Full time students will be required to take three courses in the first semester (PubH 5320, Fundamentals of Epidemiology; PubH 5414 Biostatistical Methods I; and one of three core EOH courses) and maintain a minimum GPA of 3.0. Part-time students will be required to take the same courses over a period of two semesters and maintain a GPA of 3.0. Students who successfully complete these requirements will be admitted to regular student status.

Primary Faculty