Competencies

• Apply epidemiological methods to settings and situations in public health practice
• Select quantitative and qualitative data collection methods appropriate for a given public health context
• Analyze quantitative and qualitative data using biostatistics, informatics, computer-based programming, and software, as appropriate
• Interpret results of data analysis for public health research, policy, or practice

• Compare the organization, structure, and function of health care, public health, and regulatory systems across national and international settings
• Discuss the means by which structural bias, social inequities, and racism undermine health and create challenges to achieving health equity at organizational, community, and systematic levels

• Assess population needs, assets, and capacities that affect communities’ health
• Apply awareness of cultural values and practices to the design, implementation, or critique of public health policies or programs
• Design a population-based policy, program, project, or intervention
• Explain basic principles and tools of budget and resource management
• Select methods to evaluate public health programs

• Discuss the policy-making process, including the roles of ethics and evidence
• Propose strategies to identify relevant communities and individuals and build coalitions and partnerships for influencing public health outcomes
• Advocate for political, social, or economic policies and programs that will improve health in diverse populations
• Evaluate policies for their impact on public health and health equity

• Apply leadership and/or management principles to address a relevant issue
• Apply negotiation and mediation skills to address organizational or community challenges

• Select communication strategies for different audiences and sectors
• Communicate audience-appropriate public health content, both in writing and through oral presentation to a non-academic, non-peer audience with attention to factors such as literacy and health literacy
• Describe the importance of cultural humility in communicating public health content

• Integrate perspectives from other sectors and/or professions to promote and advance population health

• Apply a systems thinking tool to visually represent a public health issue in a format other than standard narrative 

• Apply descriptive techniques commonly used to summarize public health data. 
• Apply common statistical methods for inference.
• Apply descriptive and inferential methodologies according to the type of study design for answering a particular research question.
• Interpret results of statistical analyses found in public health studies
• Develop written or oral presentations based on statistical analyses for both public health professionals and educated lay audiences.

• Critically evaluate the current literature in environmental health sciences including identifying gaps and uncertainties in the knowledge base and in the methodological approaches to solving environmental health problems.  
• Evaluate the risk of environmental exposures to human populations through the incorporation of exposure, toxicologic and other relevant data into risk assessment methodology, including hazard identification, exposure assessment, dose-response evaluation, and risk characterization.
• Propose approaches for assessing, preventing, and controlling hazards that pose risks to human health and safety.   
• Communicate effectively in writing and orally a knowledge of environmental hazards to other professionals and the public, including effective risk communication.
• Recommend appropriate interventions to control environmental risks and evaluate environmental control programs to relevant decision-makers.

• Appraise epidemiological literature critically in a defined problem area using advanced bibliographic and informatics resources for purposes of evaluation, summary, and translation.
• Analyze public health problems in terms of magnitude; person, time, and place; the distribution and determinants of both chronic and infectious diseases; and principles of disease prevention in different populations.
• Select among common epidemiologic study designs (including ecologic, cross-sectional, cohort, and case-control) and explain their uses for solving epidemiological problems based on study goals and key sources of available data.
• Apply appropriate epidemiologic and statistical measures to generate, calculate, and draw valid inferences from public health data
• Apply the foundational ethical or legal principles pertaining to the collection, maintenance, analysis, and dissemination of epidemiologic and public health information when analyzing public health data and community-based measures of health.

General Public Health allows students to tailor competencies at an individual level in consultation with their advisor. Therefore, department competencies in General Public Health will vary by student. 

• Assess issues related to healthcare quality, access, cost, and equity using economic methods, organizational theory, and policy analysis.
• Evaluate the fiscal performance and sustainability of an organization using financial analysis and accounting and budgeting principles.
• Apply economic concepts and theories to inform health policy development and management decision-making at the microeconomic and macroeconomic levels.
• Apply fundamental principles of research methods and data management to develop and synthesize research questions in health policy and management.
• Manage projects and report outcomes that advance an organization’s mission while continuing to develop professional responsibility and self-awareness.

• Advocate for ethics, social justice and human-rights principles surrounding long-term, action-oriented public health research, policies, or programs.
• Develop strategies to engage with diverse communities, with attention to privilege and power dynamics, and to human resource assets and constraints in diverse locations and contexts.
• Design and synthesize methodologically-sound, evidence-based research to improve both public health practice and policy in one or more of the main substantive areas of the Department (sexuality and sexual and reproductive health and rights; child, youth, and family health; maternal and child health; health and human rights; public health and humanitarian action; implementation science; and complex health systems).
• Implement data collection strategies and instruments to guide program development and monitoring and evaluation strategies for use in a broad range of local and global contexts, particularly in resource-constrained settings.
• Propose viable, effective, and context-specific programs in the primary substantive areas of the department and articulate the location of these programs within public health systems and local contexts.

• Apply concepts, theories, and methods from the social and behavioral sciences to address public health challenges through program and policy development.
• Explain relevant mixed-research methodologies and assess reliability and validity of measures used in research to study theory-driven research questions.
• Identify, collect, and/or analyze qualitative/quantitative data through methods including in-depth interviews, focus groups, ethnography, participant observation, R programming, and/or inferential statistical analysis.
• Communicate research and program findings through recommendations and limitation that are appropriate for varied audiences and sectors.
• Employ ethical and culturally competent frameworks in research design and conduct.