September 17, 2009
Cassandra Thompson accepts her Certificate in Core Public Health Concepts from Senior Associate Dean David Potenziani in December 2008.

Cassandra Thompson accepts her Certificate in Core Public Health Concepts from Senior Associate Dean David Potenziani in December 2008.

The certificate education program at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health celebrated a major milestone in August – the 500th graduate of the Certificate in Core Public Health Concepts program. The Core Concepts certificate, operating since 2000, is one of five online certificate programs currently offered by the public health school for graduate-level students.

At a recent graduation luncheon honoring Core Concepts, Field Epidemiology and Leadership Certificate graduates, faculty, staff, graduates and incoming students celebrated both the 500th graduate of the Core Concepts program and the 100th graduate of the Field Epidemiology program.

Through the years, about 29 percent of the Core Concepts graduates and 14 percent of the Field Epidemiology graduates have enrolled in a degree program at the Gillings School of Global Public Health.

“The Certificate program was an avenue towards entering the Master’s program,” recent graduate Linda Cook said. “There are many online programs out there, but I believe this program offered by UNC is far superior.”

Managed by the public health school’s N.C. Institute for Public Health, the Certificate in Core Public Health Concepts was created to help train the current and future public health workforce in five core areas of public health: epidemiology, biostatistics, health policy, environmental health and health behavior.

The Certificate in Field Epidemiology began in 2005 to provide training to epidemiologists working in health departments, where an estimated 40 percent were untrained. This 12-credit-hour program offers specific training in infectious disease, surveillance and field epidemiology methods.

“I used course information and strategies while investigating two norovirus outbreaks in our community,” program graduate Shawn Johnson said. “I would recommend [the certificate] to any professionals working in local health departments.”

The school’s certificate programs attract a wide variety of students, including those currently working in public health but lacking the appropriate training, those wishing to make a career change to public health and those who may be interested in entering a master’s program at the school. Many of the credits earned in the Core Concepts and Field Epidemiology certificate programs transfer toward the school’s master’s degree programs.

In addition to the Core Concepts, Field Epidemiology and Leadership Certificate programs, the school offers a Certificate Program in Community Preparedness and Disaster Management and an Occupational Health Nursing Certificate, sponsored by the Department of Health Policy and Management and the Public Health Leadership Program, respectively.

Two new programs, the Certificate in Maternal and Child Health Leadership and the Online Global Health Certificate, are enrolling students this fall. The first cohort for Maternal and Child Health Leadership begins in the spring, while the first cohort for the Global Health Certificate begins in fall 2010.

 

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

 

 

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