Competencies

The Master of Public Health (MPH) is aligned with the below twenty-two competencies organized across 8 domains established by the Council of Education for Public Health (CEPH). 

Strengthening existing and developing new competencies is the essence of the APEx. To ensure that the APEx fulfills this expectation, students will choose a minimum of three of the CEPH 22 competencies listed across any of the eight public health domains, as well as a minimum of two departmental competencies.

The Master of Health Administration (MHA) has similar requirements as well from the Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Management Education (CAHME). 

CEPH Competencies 

Evidence-Based Approaches to Public Health

  • Apply epidemiological methods to the breadth of 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

Public Health & Health Care Systems

  • Compare the organization, structure, and function of health 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

Planning & Management to Promote Health

  • 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, specifically after funding for a project is secured
  • Select methods to evaluate public health programs

Policy in Public Health

  • Discuss the policy-making process
  • Propose strategies to identify stakeholders 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

Leadership

  • Apply leadership and/or management principles to address a relevant issue; such principles may include creating a vision, empowering others, fostering collaboration, and guiding decision making
  • Apply negotiation and mediation skills to address organizational or community challenges

Communication

  • Select communication strategies for different audiences and sectors
  • Communicate audience-appropriate (i.e., non-academic, non-peer audience) public health content, both in writing and through oral presentation
  • Describe the importance of cultural competence in communicating public health content

Interprofessional and/or Intersectoral Practice

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

Systems Thinking

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

 

Departmental Competencies

Biostatistics

  • 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 and oral presentations based on statistical analyses for both public health professionals and educated lay audiences.

Environmental Health Sciences

  • 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.

Epidemiology

  • 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; and 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 and legal principles pertaining to the collection, maintenance, analysis, and dissemination of epidemiologic and public health information when analyzing public health data.

General Public Health

  • Interpret research results for quality improvement projects in patient-centered, community-based, and national healthcare settings to inform program and in program and intervention design.
  • Coordinate the organization, management, and development of interdisciplinary teams in clinical, research and other specific areas of professional expertise.
  • Employ the highest standards of ethical and professional behavior in clinical and research environments inclusive of investigating resources and requesting advice when needed.
  • Propose strategies to mitigate social inequities in healthcare systems.
  • Formulate innovative and effective communication strategies, including digital ones, that recognize patterns of resistance, counteract disinformation campaigns, and reach marginalized populations in low, middle and high-income countries.

Health Policy and Management

  • 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 level.
  • Effectively communicate health policy and management problems in the healthcare system using oral, written, and visual forms.
  • 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.

Population and Family Health

  • Advocate for ethics, social justice and human-rights principles surrounding long-term, action-oriented public health research, policies, and programs.
  • 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 the main substantive areas of the Department.
  • 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.

Sociomedical Sciences

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