Culturally Responsive Public Health Practice

This concentration area has been developed to expand the skills of working public health professionals in the delivery of culturally responsive services. It is part of a major effort to encourage participation by members of underserved and underrepresented communities in public health education opportunities.

• Community-Based Participatory Research
• Complementary Therapies in Public Health Practice
• Culturally Based Community Health Immersion: Focus on African-American Communities
• Human Rights, Leadership and Public Health
• Public Health Nursing for Refugee Populations
• Risk Communication for Underserved and Limited English Populations
• War and Public Health

Environmental Health Sciences

The courses in environmental health sciences consider the environment and its effects on human health. Issues of water and air quality, food safety and the effects of industrialization are considered as well as major ecological problems. Interactions between the physical environment and biological health risks are also examined. Courses include content based on research and best practices across public health disciplines and opportunities for participants to apply concepts and principles in practice settings through hands-on activities, case studies, group discussion and/or field trips.

• Application of Genomics to Public Health
• Ecosystem Health
• Environmental Health Effects: Introduction to Toxicology
• Ergonomics and Prevention of Workplace Injuries
• Manure Management to Protect Water Supplies
• Personal Protective Equipment and Respiratory Protection

Food Protection

Food protection courses focus on food security as it relates to populations having access to an adequate supply of food; biosecurity as measures taken to protect a closed animal population from the introduction of a pathogenic agent such as influenza; and/or food defense as actions needed to prevent, detect and respond to intentional contamination of the food supply.

These timely, practical courses are designed for public- and private-sector professionals who plan to or currently work in food regulatory agencies, food production, food processing, agricultural industries or public health organizations.

• Application of Microbiology to Food Monitoring
• Business Continuity Planning for Disasters and Emergencies
• Ecosystem Health
• Environmental Health Effects: Introduction to Toxicology
• Food Facility Biosecurity: Cleaning and Sanitation for Food Facilities
• Food Labeling: The Law, Science and Public Policy in the Use of Labeling Regulation for Food Safety, Public Health and International Trade
• Global Food Safety System Leadership
• Global Food Systems: Dairy
• Global Food Systems: Poultry
• Manure Management to Protect Water Supplies
• Principles of Public and Animal Health Surveillance Systems
• Principles of Risk Communication
• Public Health Law
• The Science Behind Food Safety in Food Manufacturing
• Surveillance of Foodborne Pathogens in Humans
• World Food Problems

Global Health

Courses in this new concentration area provide opportunities to explore relationships between health, environment, politics, culture and economics in developed and in developing nations. Practical application of theory in the field is a major component of the courses and participants will not only identify major factors influencing global health but will consider ways to develop appropriate policies to alleviate public health problems.

• Ecosystem Health
• Food Labeling: The Law, Science and Public Policy in the Use of Labeling Regulation for Food Safety, Public Health and International Trade
• Global Food Safety System Leadership
• Global Food Systems: Dairy
• Global Food Systems: Poultry
• Globalization and Health
• Public Health Nursing for Refugee Populations
• Topics in Infectious Diseases: Epidemiology and Ecology of Mycobacterial Diseases
• Topics in Infectious Diseases: Malaria
• War and Public Health
• World Food Problems

Infectious Disease Epidemiology

The epidemiology of infectious diseases worldwide is growing increasingly complex with the many emerging social, political and demographic changes in population as well as dynamic changes in animal and vector populations and the environment.

• Approaches to Infectious Disease Control in Animals and Human Populations
• Ecosystem Health
• Topics in Infectious Diseases: Epidemiology and Ecology of Mycobacterial Diseases
• Topics in Infectious Diseases: E. Coli
• Topics in Infectious Diseases: Malaria

Public Health Leadership

As professionals assume management roles and need to enhance their leadership skills, these practical courses are designed to help them manage programs, staff and careers with creativity, awareness and passion.

• Global Food Safety System Leadership
• Human Rights, Leadership and Public Health
• Leadership and Change
• Political Savvy and Business Acumen for Public Health Nursing Leaders
• The Politics of Policy: Turning Good Ideas into Better Health
• Public Health Accreditation Review Course

Public Health Preparedness, Response and Recovery

This concentration area includes courses designed to improve the capacity of frontline public health workers and other health and human service professionals responding to public health threats. Course content is built on competencies identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as essential to effective emergency and bioterrorism readiness for public health personnel.

• Business Continuity Planning for Disasters and Emergencies
• Communication and Information Technology Tools for Public Health Emergency Response
• Concepts of Disaster Behavioral Health
• Exploring the Challenges of Radiological Emergencies
• Food Labeling: The Law, Science and Public Policy in the Use of Labeling Regulation for Food Safety, Public
• Health and International Trade
• Mass Fatalities Response: When a Nightmare Comes True
• Media Relations Practicum
• Principles of Risk Communication
• Public Health Law
• Risk Communication for Underserved and Limited English Populations
• War and Public Health

Public Health Nursing Practice

Public health nursing combines public health and professional nursing practice. Public health nurses enhance the health and well-being of populations, and the individuals, families, and communities within those populations through health promotion and disease, injury and disability prevention. Public health nurses integrate community involvement and knowledge about the entire population with their clinical understanding of the health and illness experiences of individuals and families within the population. They translate and articulate the health and illness experiences of diverse, often vulnerable individuals and families in the population to health planners and policy makers. These courses are designed to enhance the competence and expertise of public health nurses and other public health professionals

• Advanced Population-Based Public Health Nursing: The Next Generation of the Intervention Wheel
• Complementary Therapies in Public Health Practice
• Omaha System Introduction: Language, Documentation and Pathways
• Omaha System: Documentation, Data Quality, Analysis and Reporting
• Political Savvy and Business Acumen for Public Health Nursing Leaders
• Public Health Nursing for Refugee Populations
• Qualitative Research Methods: Discovering the Value of "Voice" in Words, Stories and Photographs
• War and Public Health

Research Methods

Evaluation - determining significance, worth or condition by careful appraisal and study - is a challenge and can be done in a variety of ways. This series of courses presents different evaluation approaches that are credible, practical and useful, and include strategies for design.

• Advanced Population-Based Public Health Nursing: The Next Generation of the Intervention Wheel
• Application of Epi Info Software in Epidemiologic Investigations and Data Management
• Community-Based Participatory Research
• Designing and Conducting Focus Group Interviews
• Designing Program Evaluation
• Navigating an MPH Project
• Omaha System Introduction: Language, Documentation and Pathways
• Omaha System: Documentation, Data, Analysis and Reporting
• Qualitative Research Methods: Discovering the Value of "Voice" in Words, Stories and Photographs
• Social Epidemiology

Women and Child Health and Nutrition

Courses in this concentration area strengthen and expand the abilities of health and human service professionals to identify and promote social and environmental conditions contributing to the health of families, mothers and children, and to develop public health programs that include health promotion and disease prevention as well as primary care services.

• Assessment, Prevention and Treatment of Child and Adolescent Obesity
• Community-Based Participatory Research
• Culturally-Based Community Health Immersion: Focus on African-American Communities
• Designing and Conducting Focus Group Interviews
• Human Rights, Leadership and Public Health
• Leadership and Change
• Motivational Interviewing: Strategies to Effect Behavioral Change
• Public Health Nursing for Refugee Populations
• Qualitative Research Methods: Discovering the Value of "Voice" in Words, Stories and Photographs
• Risk Communication for Underserved and Limited English Populations
• Social Epidemiology
• Transition to Adulthood for Youth with Chronic Conditions
• Women's Mental Health and Reproductive Outcomes