Health Promotion Research and Practice

Well-designed health promotion programs are essential to the health of individuals and communities. Informed at the intersection of core public health knowledge, the individual trained in this area is uniquely positioned to be an agent for change in communities locally and globally.

In order for health promotion and disease prevention programs and interventions to be effective, they should be based on a body of relevant theory and research. Unfortunately, many programs are primarily informed by precedent, tradition, or intuition, leading to limited success.

The purpose of this Certificate is to enable students to rigorously design, implement, and evaluate health promotion and disease prevention programs and interventions which work on the individual-, interpersonal-, organizational-, community-, and policy-levels, and are guided by theory and grounded in available evidence.

Graduates may take jobs in federal, state, and local health agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health; academic settings and research organizations; advocacy groups; voluntary health organizations; and community-based health promotion settings in the United States and other countries.

Admissions Eligibility

Health Promotion Research and Practice is open to Columbia MPH students in:

Sociomedical Sciences

Learn More

Visit the School's Academics website for more information about Health Promotion Research and Practice's required courses, certificate electives, and scheduling.