AJPH article profiles refinement of HBHE’s Master of Public Health program

A recent article in the American Journal of Public Health, written by faculty members and alumni of UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health’s Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, profiles the School’s educators, students and programs as models for public health education.

 

Authors of “Engaging Key Stakeholders to Assess and Improve the Professional Preparation of MPH Health Educators” include associate professor Laura Linnan, ScD; professor Allan Steckler, DrPH; assistant professor Suzanne Maman, PhD; alumna and field training coordinator Meg Ellenson, MPH; instructor Elizabeth French, MA; clinical associate professor and alumna Lynn Blanchard, PhD; research associate professor Mike Bowling, PhD; alumnae Nina Yamanis, PhD, Stacey Succop, MPH, and Amy Davenport (MPH); and research associate professor Beth Moracco, PhD. The article appears in the Aug. 19 issue of AJPH.

 

The authors describe a systematic review of requirements for a Master of Public Health degree in the UNC health behavior and health education department by students, alumni, faculty and staff members, employers and practicum preceptors. Engaging these key people in the review process, the authors conclude, resulted in significant improvements to the degree program requirements, including better advising and mentoring, replacement of the master’s paper requirement with capstone project deliverables that are negotiated with community partners, and refining and re-sequencing the core curriculum to allow students more flexibility while emphasizing core competencies and real-world skills in evaluation, budgeting and project management.

 

“We undertook a rigorous evaluation of our MPH program requirements, including a benchmarking study of peer institutions and participation from all key stakeholders,” said co-author Linnan, who directs the health behavior and health education master’s program. “That really paid off in terms of program improvements here at UNC. We are pleased that the process we developed to achieve these results is useful to others who want to consider curriculum review and improvement efforts.”

 

In the same issue of AJPH, co-author Steckler also co-wrote a commentary about Godfrey Hochbaum, PhD, developer of the health belief model, the first social-psychological theory that directly addressed health behavior.

 

UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health contact: Ramona DuBose, director of communications, (919) 966-7467 or ramona_dubose@unc.edu.