DrPH Program Requirements

With extraordinary access to world-renowned experts and scientists, doctoral students at the Mailman School work at the cutting edge of public health science and practice. Collaborating closely with faculty mentors, students develop their capacity to create knowledge in the field and make a vital contribution to improve population health.

Both doctoral programs train candidates to create new knowledge and research and apply them to important public health issues and identify and implement potential solutions. The DrPH degree is for individuals seeking expertise in the application of science to public health leadership, practice and program development.

Graduation Requirements

The DrPH and PhD doctoral program requirements include course work, written qualifying examinations, and the completion and oral defense of a doctoral dissertation representing original research.

Competencies

The DrPH is aligned with the below twenty competencies organized across 4 domains established by the Council of Education for Public Health (CEPH). All DrPH students, regardless of department, will demonstrate each of these CEPH competencies by graduation.

Data and Analysis

  • Explain qualitative, quantitative, mixed methods, and policy analysis research and evaluation methods to address health issues at multiple (individual, group, organization, community, and population) levels
  • Design a qualitative, quantitative, mixed methods, policy analysis, or evaluation project to address a public health issue
  • Explain the use and limitations of surveillance systems and national surveys in assessing, monitoring, and evaluating policies and programs and to address a population’s health

Leadership, Management & Governance

  • Propose strategies for health improvement and elimination of health inequities by organizing partners, including researchers, practitioners, community leaders, and others
  • Communicate public health science to diverse audiences, including individuals at all levels of health literacy, for purposes of influencing behavior and policies
  • Integrate knowledge, approaches, methods, values, and potential contributions from multiple professions, sectors, and systems in addressing public health problems
  • Create a strategic plan
  • Facilitate shared decision making through negotiation and consensus-building methods
  • Create organizational change strategies
  • Propose strategies to promote inclusion within public health programs, policies, and systems
  • Assess one’s own strengths and weaknesses in leadership capacities, including cultural proficiency
  • Propose human, fiscal, and other resources to achieve a strategic goal
  • Cultivate new resources and revenue streams to achieve a strategic goal

Policy and Programs

  • Design a system-level intervention to address a public health issue
  • Integrate community-informed knowledge such as cultural values and practices in the design of public health policies and programs
  • Integrate scientific information, legal and regulatory approaches, ethical frameworks, and varied parties’ interests in policy development and analysis
  • Propose interprofessional and/or intersectoral team approaches to improving public health

Education and Workforce Development

  • Assess an audience’s knowledge and learning needs
  • Deliver training or educational experiences that promote learning in academic, organizational, or community settings
  • Use best practice modalities in pedagogical practices