Gillings MPH Core

Gillings COMPASS (Core Online Modules to Promote and Accelerate Student Success)
A 5-module overview covering ethics and justice, quantitative skills, leadership, teamwork and much more.

SPHG 711 - Data Analysis for Public Health (2 credits)
This introductory course focuses on the biostatistics and analysis methods commonly found in public health. Students will learn to produce, interpret and use straightforward data analyses.

SPHG 712 - Measurements and Methods for Public Health Practice (2 credits)
This course introduces epidemiologic concepts and how to quantitatively describe population patterns of health, inequities and their determinants. Students will focus on what to measure, how to measure it, whom to measure it in and how to do so in ways that minimize bias. These concepts and skills are used to critically review the public health evidence base.

SPHG 713: Systems Approaches to Understanding Public Health Issues (2 credits)
In this course, students will explore: 1) what constitutes a public health issue and why; 2) what factors determine population health patterns and inequities; and 3) strategies for communicating in culturally appropriate ways with diverse audiences about public health issues. Students will work in interdisciplinary teams on an assigned health topic, integrating what they learn in this course with the methodological and analytical skills developed in other courses.

SPHG 701: Leading from the Inside-Out (2 credits)
This course prepares students for public health practice by introducing fundamental leadership skills necessary to advance equity and recognize and address bias in organizational settings.

SPHG 721 - Public Health Solutions: Systems, Policy and Advocacy (2 credits)
This course introduces students to the health systems and the US health system in particular. It provides an introduction to the role of health policy in addressing public health problems and advancing health equity, and how evidence, law and ethics play a role in policy-making. It provides students with the skills to communicate information about public health problems and solutions to diverse audiences and introduces them to concepts of public health advocacy.

Spring Team Project Deliverable
Throughout this course students will work collaboratively to develop a solution to the public health issue they worked on for the Fall white paper. The team’s deliverable will be a comprehensive written proposal and oral pitch describing a proposed solution.

SPHG 722 - Developing, Implementing and Evaluating Public Health Solutions (4 credits)
This course is organized around the Gillings Framework for Planning and Evaluation. Students will develop skills to help refine and enhance their understanding of specific public health problems; identify and prioritize potential solutions; adapt evidence-based interventions for a particular context; and develop, implement and evaluation proposed solutions. In addition, students will learn how to identify and effectively engage with stakeholders throughout this process and how to plan for, conduct and disseminate the results of program evaluations.