The focus of Public Health is on the prevention of diseases, disabilities, and disorders through a variety of practices and programs. Public Health involves critical thinking and decision-making about health and healthcare on a population level. The study of Public Health is inherently interdisciplinary, as sociocultural, political, and economic issues determine the quality of a society’s health. As such, Public Health is of significant interest to sociologists, economists, anthropologists, humanists, and policy makers, as well as biologists and health care providers. Public Health has a long and venerable history, and the research it stimulated has been shaping health care policy since the outset of the Industrial Revolution. Recently, the field has been the focus of much debate among policy makers, health care providers, and ordinary individuals, due in part to the high costs of healthcare in the U.S. Health in today’s world must be understood in a broader context, however, as inequities in healthcare provision and outcomes exist both in the U.S. and across the globe, resulting from government policies, sociocultural influences, and other factors.

Public Health majors are trained to pursue a number of different career paths. Recent graduates of our program have gone on to graduate work in public health or the biosciences at such prestigious universities as Boston University, Brown, Columbia, George Washington University and Rutgers. Others have gone to work for international health consulting firms, local and state health departments, private and public health care providers and client advocacy organizations.