Department of Public Health Education
Doctoral Program
The DrPH is an innovative program designed to prepare individuals for careers in universities, private research institutions, or public health agencies. A primary innovation in this doctoral program is the creation of research teams that will include students, faculty members, and community partners. Students and graduates of the program will take a strategic role in addressing the public health research-public health practice divide through (1) the translation of practice-based problems to relevant research questions, and (2) the translation of research into practice. More specifically, the proposed doctoral program has the following underlying attributes:
- An emphasis on preparing doctoral students for careers in academia, where they will train new generations of applied prevention researchers for academic settings;
- An emphasis on researching and preventing health disparities based on race, ethnicity, gender, age, and social class;
- The use of a socio-ecological perspective for understanding the health of populations and broad determinants of health;
- A recognition that interventions designed to prevent the health problems of populations must focus on behavioral and contextual factors in people’s lives;
- An emphasis on researching and preventing health problems that contribute significantly to the overall health status of the citizens of North Carolina and the United States; and
- A commitment by faculty to work in partnership with professionals, agencies, and community members to address the priorities emerging out of public health practice and the experiences of communities.
This approach to research and teaching/learning in this doctoral program should accelerate the translation of new knowledge into practice in other ways as well. For example, findings generated by research teams (students, faculty, community partners) will have immediate implications for improving the undergraduate and master’s curricula that prepare practitioners. In addition, selected B.S. and MPH students will be encouraged to participate on research teams, with the intention of strengthening both their research skills and their appreciation of research driven by practice.