Master of Public Health (MPH)

Make an impact.
It starts with you.

The UNC Gillings School’s Master of Public Health (MPH), offered on-campus, online and distance by the top public school of public health in the country, is a comprehensive, integrated program that will give you the skills and knowledge you need to solve urgent public health problems in North Carolina and around the world. Upon entering the program, you’ll begin gaining knowledge and skills in the Gillings MPH Core, the foundation of the MPH program.

At the Gillings School, you can choose from among 13 concentration areas, matching your education to your passions. You will join a diverse, dynamic, “open doors” community of world-class faculty, student colleagues and exceptional staff. Together, you will gain the knowledge, skills, experience and networks to make a difference right away.

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Gillings MPH Core

14 credits

Concentration courses

15 credits

Comprehensive Exam

Culminating experience

3 credits

Practicum

1 credit +
200 (minimum) hours

Electives

9 credits

42 total credits from start to finish

The Gillings MPH will help you achieve your dreams of making a difference locally and globally. Which path will you pursue?

About the Concentrations

Our 13 concentration areas include a wide range of research and practice portfolios – from helping to solve the opioid abuse epidemic, to preventing and controlling cancer, to improving water access and quality, to using big data and machine learning. Explore all of these areas and see how our engaged faculty, students and staff members work with communities and across disciplines — in North Carolina and around the world — to solve some of our most challenging health problems.

Questions about the MPH? Visit the Residential MPH Frequently Asked Questions page for more information.

Dogwoods, North Carolina's state flower, blossom around a sign at the entrance to the Gillings School.

Epidemiology — the study of the distribution and determinants of disease or other influencing risk factors in a population — is the cornerstone of public health inquiry and problem solving. Unlike clinical medicine that predominantly focuses on an individual’s well-being, epidemiology uses a broader lens to examine the health of populations. As part of this concentration, you’ll learn to use epidemiologic tools to drive solutions to public health issues affecting diverse groups of people.

Elizabeth Christenson, environmental sciences and engineering student, tests the water quality in a local waterway. As a Boren Fellowship awardee in 2018-2019, Christenson will use her scientific training to work on community-based public health and disease prevention initiatives in the Middle East.

The environments in which we live, work and play invariably affect public health. In fact, environmental exposures – most of which can be prevented – account for nearly one quarter of all diseases worldwide. The Environmental Health Solutions concentration is designed to equip future public health professionals with the skills and know-how to predict and identify environmental problems and mitigate their impacts on human health.

Hayley Welgus (far right) works with Save the Children colleagues in Haiti.

Designed to train professionals to solve public health problems locally and globally, the Global Health concentration provides students with skills to advance the health and well-being of populations in diverse global settings. Students will gain skills in the development, implementation, and evaluation of public health programs and projects that are aligned with local culture, contexts, and resources. This concentration is available only in a residential format.

Students visit Puerto Rico to help with disaster relief.

The Health Behavior concentration prepares students for leadership positions in public health practice. Through coursework and a year-long service-learning project, you will gain experience using social and behavioral science to develop, implement and evaluate programs and policies. Graduates of this concentration are equipped to promote health, prevent disease and injury, foster social justice and reduce health inequities at all levels of the social ecological framework – from the individual to organizations, communities and policies.

Minority Health Conference attendees stop to chat.

Students in the interdisciplinary Health Equity, Social Justice and Human Rights (EQUITY) concentration develop the skills to improve population health through identifying health inequities and eliminating them with innovative approaches. Graduates possess a foundational understanding of how social determinants contribute to health inequities and have hands-on experience applying strategies, methods and interventions to advance social justice and human rights.

A student visits the VA to provide a survey.

The Health Policy concentration trains future leaders in policymaking and practice so they can produce cutting-edge analyses that address the complex challenges of health care delivery. Students learn the skills to design, implement and evaluate health care and public health policies in a variety of settings, and to advocate for and lead changes in a policy setting. Graduates can demonstrate an intricate understanding of the current U.S. health care system, have expertise in analysis and advocacy, and possess the skills to effectively manage financial and human resources.

Students chat during a poster presentation.

The Leadership in Practice concentration is designed for professionals interested in transforming health systems in all areas of public health practice. Our program, offered on-campus and online, will provide you with the knowledge and skills necessary to lead teams, projects, organizations, and systems in local and global communities. The curriculum fosters relational skills needed to co-design systems with community partners in order to identify and prevent problems, mitigate and eliminate inequities, and improve and advance health outcomes. Leadership MPH students gain skills and expertise in systems and design thinking, evidence-based problem-solving and decision-making, and community engagement and conflict management strategies. Graduates of the Leadership in Practice MPH students are equipped to mobilize change at the community level to advance equity and social justice, address underlying conditions that affect individual and population health, and innovate to improve the social determinants of health.

The Maternal, Child and Family Health concentration focuses on determinants and systems that promote the health and safety of women, children and their families — with the goal of enhancing the welfare of society and subsequent generations. With a strong foundation in frameworks and methods for program planning and impact evaluation, this concentration equips graduates with an adaptable toolkit for leading interdisciplinary efforts requiring multiple perspectives and competencies in domestic and global contexts.

Dr. Ammerman visits a farmer's market with students.

The Nutrition concentration focuses on nutrition science as well as on behavior change, communication, counseling, and the effects of dietary culture on the individual and within communities. Students gain the skills to assess scientific evidence for nutritional guidelines, effectively communicate nutritional information to the public, evaluate how social, cultural and environmental factors affect nutrition-related health outcomes, and practice in compliance with federal regulations and state statutes.

The Nutrition and Dietetics concentration integrates the scientific study of nutrition and dietetics with a foundation in public health practice and research. Meant for aspiring clinical dietitians who are motivated to help people live healthier lives through better nutrition, the program offers students customized internship placement services to help fulfill the requirements to sit for the Commission on Dietetic Registration exam.

The sun sets in the Asheville mountains.

The concentration in Place-Based Health centers people and their communities as the catalyst for transforming systems to promote wellbeing for all. The joint MPH program features small cohorts of up to 24 students, case and community-based activities, and instruction by interdisciplinary faculty and community practitioners who bring real-world experience to the classroom.

The Population Health for Clinicians concentration is designed for medical students, practicing physicians, and other clinicians who wish to increase their knowledge in public health and population science to better serve their communities. This concentration offers a unique interdisciplinary focus on clinical, prevention, population, and policy sciences which enable students to improve clinical environment when they complete the program. This concentration is available only in a full-time, residential format.

The Public Health Data Science concentration — one of the first applied data science programs situated within a school of public health — gives students the skills and knowledge to employ cutting-edge data science tools and respond to pressing public health issues with effective solutions. Data science combines the statistical skills to manipulate data and make inferences, the mathematical skills to model phenomena and make predictions, and the computer science skills to manage and analyze large data sets.

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Applied Epidemiology

Dr. Aiello (right) discusses an app with a student.

New research on the impact of incretin-based therapies (IBTs) in older adults with diabetes shows this type of therapy may not increase the risk for diabetic retinopathy, a complication of diabetes that threatens sight.

A new study is the first to examine multiple genes that influence the age at which a woman starts her period and experiences menopause among a large sample of United States women of diverse ancestries. The findings highlight the benefits of including diverse populations in studies of the genetics of female growth and development.

A recent study in North Carolina found that, in the first two weeks after being released from prison, former inmates were 40 times more likely to die of an opioid overdose than someone in the general population.

Learn more about the Applied Epidemiology concentration. Learn more about the Applied Epidemiology concentration.

Environmental Health Solutions

The N.C. Policy Collaboratory has received a $5 million appropriation from the N.C. General Assembly to support water quality testing for a set of chemicals including GenX, a potentially toxic industrial compound that has been detected in the Cape Fear River. The Gillings School will manage the study, and Dr. Jason Surratt will serve as lead investigator. Graphic courtesy of The Intercept.

Dr. Glenn Walters, director of the Environmental Sciences and Engineering Design Center at the Gillings School, is teaching 'Introduction to Design and Making,' a course that introduces students to state-of-the-art technology while proving that hard work and perseverance through failure can be rewarding.

Dr. Jamie Bartram and Clarissa Brocklehurst are co-first authors of a paper that reviews implementation targets and indicators for the United Nations' sustainable development goal for water and sanitation. Their observations were published April 26 in the new open access journal, NPJ Clean Water.

Learn more about the Environmental Health Solutions concentration. Learn more about the Environmental Health Solutions concentration.

Global Health

Hayley Welgus (far right) works with Save the Children colleagues in Haiti. Photo credit: Reginald Louissaint

A new study by Drs. Sachiko Ozawa and James Herrington, and colleagues, found that substandard and falsified medicines, including medicines to treat malaria, are a serious problem in much of the world. In low- and middle-income countries, more than 13 percent of the essential medicines that satisfy the priority health care needs of the population fall in this category. Map design by UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy.

Dr. Sian Curtis is co-author of a MEASURE Evaluation report about programs integrating HIV and tuberculosis care in Ukraine. An abstract of the report won a top prize at the International AIDS Society annual conference in Amsterdam.

A collaboration between researchers at the Gillings School, RTI International and UNC's School of Medicine has resulted in the first study to assess and compare United States travelers’ knowledge levels about the Zika virus across three regions, as well as their willingness to take a prophylactic Zika vaccine that currently is in development.

Learn more about the Global Health concentration. Learn more about the Global Health concentration.

Health Behavior

Drs. Krista Perreira and Jonathan Oberlander are co-authors of an article about a proposed federal plan that could have major life and health consequences for millions of immigrant families. Photo by Rutgers School of Nursing.

Central America’s first study to critically document the process of creating a community-based clinic for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for gay men has been selected to receive the International Council of AIDS Service Organizations’ (ICASO) 2018 Robert Carr Research Award. Dr. Clare Barrington is the leader of the UNC research team on the collaborative project.

Learn more about the Health Behavior concentration. Learn more about the Health Behavior concentration.

Health Equity, Social Justice and Human Rights

Participants at the 2016 Minority Health Conference examine materials from related organizations at UNC.

Results from the longest and largest obesity prevention intervention ever tested in young children showed that children and their families in low-income communities were able to make some sustainable behavioral changes to their diet and activity level. In the end, however, rates of early childhood obesity were unchanged.

Dr. Karine Dubé shares new research into the ethics of incentives. She and her co-authors advocate for additional guidance on payments in clinical research and promote the idea of creating a database of payment practices specific to HIV research.

Learn more about the Health Equity, Social Justice and Human Rights concentration. Learn more about the Health Equity, Social Justice and Human Rights concentration.

Health Policy

The Department of Health Policy and Management also offers two residential master’s degrees, a Master of Healthcare Administration (MHA) and a Master of Science in Public Health (MSPH). To make sure you are applying to the program that is most aligned with your career goals, please carefully compare these two degrees with the MPH Health Policy concentration.

Questions about the MPH? Visit the Residential MPH Frequently Asked Questions page for more information.

Ama Achampong spent her summer at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Fayetteville, N.C.

Dr. Jonathan Oberlander has written about the Affordable Care Act for nearly a decade. His new article in The New England Journal of Medicine describes the Act as being 'in purgatory' -- impossible to destroy as a result of its popularity and the purpose it serves, but made less effective through partisan dismemberment and defunding. Photo by Max Englund.

Cervical cancer screening with cytology – commonly known as a Pap test – is one of the most widely used cancer control interventions in high-income settings. A recent study demonstrated, however, that HPV testing detects cervical dysplasia earlier and more accurately than cytology.

Learn more about the Health Policy concentration. Learn more about the Health Policy concentration.

Leadership in Practice

A student shows off her group's interactive nutrition display for the annual North Carolina Science Festival.

Dr. Diego Garza, alumnus and adjunct faculty member at the Gillings School, was honored March 9 with Triangle Business Journal’s Health Care Hero Award. Garza is director of telehealth at Carolina Partners in Mental HealthCare PLLC, in Durham, N.C.

About 36.7 million people worldwide currently live with HIV. Two recently published papers co-authored by Dr. Karine Dubé help map the complex ethics of research into an HIV cure. Image of HIV drugs is courtesy of NIAID.

Learn more about the Leadership in Practice concentration. Learn more about the Leadership in Practice concentration.

Maternal, Child and Family Health

Peace Corps volunteer Charlotte Lane (center) cooks with villagers in Burkina Faso.

Doctoral student Anna Austin led a study predicting which children are at risk for intervention by child protective services agencies. Risk factors include the mother's marital status, educational and socio-economic levels, and whether she had experienced initimate partner violence in the year prior to the child's birth. Photo by Petras Gagilas.

In North Carolina and South Carolina, a new effort is aimed at improving maternity care and breastfeeding rates in underserved areas – and helping babies get the healthy start they need.

Dr. Alison Stuebe led a revised opinion on postpartum care from the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG) that establishes a “fourth trimester” of comprehensive care for new mothers.

Learn more about the Maternal, Child and Family Health concentration. Learn more about the Maternal, Child and Family Health concentration.

Nutrition and Dietetics Concentration

Graduates of the RD program provide their test menus.

Dr. Steven Zeisel looks into a microscope.

A feature on Dr. Steve Zeisel describes his groundbreaking research on the micronutrient choline. It is reprinted here with permission from the Carolina Alumni Review. Photo courtesy of the Carolina Alumni Review.

An article in UNC's Endeavors magazine features Dr. Alice Ammerman, praising her for being "a powerful force for nutrition research and community-based health promotion."

Learn more about the Nutrition and Dietetics concentration. Learn more about the Nutrition and Dietetics concentration.

Nutrition

An article in UNC's Endeavors magazine features Dr. Alice Ammerman, praising her for being "a powerful force for nutrition research and community-based health promotion."

Learn more about the Nutrition concentration. Learn more about the Nutrition concentration.

Place-Based Health

Learn more about the Place-Based Health concentration. Learn more about the Place-Based Health concentration.

Population Health for Clinicians

Clinicians discuss their work in Africa.

Drs. Rohit Ramaswamy and Audrey Pettifor are interviewed about implementation science courses they teach at University of the Witwatersrand, in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Learn more about the Population Health for Clinicians concentration. Learn more about the Population Health for Clinicians concentration.

Public Health Data Science

Drs. Michelle Jeong and Noel Brewer found that data collected from low-cost convenience sampling in research experiments was comparable to that collected from state-of-the-art and costly probability sampling. The finding is useful for behavior scientists interested in gathering timely data on a budget. Photo by Patrick G. Kelley.

A new study in Nairobi, Kenya, found that self-collection of specimens was comparable to physician-collection for the screening of four sexually transmitted infections in a population of female sex workers.

Dr. Anastasia Ivanova will lead a five-year, $61 million study to identify more effective treatments for asthma attacks and will do so by combining two important tools -- precision medicine and 'big data' analysis. The work is funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

Learn more about the Public Health Data Science concentration. Learn more about the Public Health Data Science concentration.

Looking for more flexibility? Explore the online version of our MPH program.

Learn about our Online MPH

Inclusive excellence is one of our core values.

At the Gillings School, we cultivate a diverse and inclusive environment to better prepare students for the world that awaits them – a world that seeks culturally competent people to serve as its leaders. When we embrace the myriad differences of our students, faculty and staff, we enrich the quality of coursework, research and practice within the School and beyond.

It's more than what you do, it's where you'll do it.

The Gillings School's MPH program consistently is ranked among the best in the country. Our faculty and alumni include some of the most renowned researchers and practitioners in the field of public health.

Our students collaborate inside the classroom and out in the world, engaging with communities to help prevent cancer, reduce health inequities, improve access to clean water, prevent obesity and create practical, cost-effective solutions that improve health policy.