Public Health

Public Health professionals engage in epidemiological analysis, assess population and community needs for health interventions; plan, implement and administer health education strategies, interventions and programs; conduct evaluation and research; serve as a health education resource; and communicate and advocate for the general health of the public. Effective Public Health is ecological in its approach. When planning the focus of interventions, public health professionals consider all factors that contribute to health and disease: individual behavior; group dynamics; environmental conditions; economics; politics, laws and policies; culture, ethnicity, and gender; and the availability, accessibility, and quality of health services.

Housed in the Department of Health and Human Development, Western's Public Health Program is nationally, regionally, and locally recognized, and lives up to its mission: To provide students with a rigorous and dynamic hands-on educational experience that prepares them to effectively and compassionately improve the public’s health and advocate for social justice through community involvement and collaboration.

The Public Health curriculum teaches students the effect of health promotion and education on individuals and their relationships with their environment. Students learn to approach public health using a social ecological perspective, which considers health outcomes as they relate to factors of individual, social, and environmental influence.

Students take public health-focused coursework and classes from interdisciplinary fields including social sciences (e.g., anthropology, psychology, political science, and sociology), and biological and physical sciences (e.g., anatomy and physiology, exercise physiology, and chemistry). Faculty have experience in a wide array of public health topics including but not limited to nutrition, global health, reproductive health, college health, and environmental health.

Western's Public Health Program is accredited by the Council on Education for Public Health as a stand-alone baccalaureate program with two concentrations: Behavioral & Community Health (BCH) or Global & Population Health (GPH). Most of the students’ coursework for two concentrations will be completed as an entire cohort. However, during the last two-quarter of coursework, Public Health students will split into two classes based on their declared concentrations. GPH students focus on the understanding of the emergence and distribution of disease in populations. BCH students focus on health intervention and education, community engagement, and health promotion programming and implementation. BCH students are prepared to succeed on the Certified Health Education Specialist qualifying exam. In fact, Western’s public health students have a CHES examination pass rate higher than that of the national average. Students’ preparation for success on the exam includes knowledge acquisition of public health theory and practice, and extensive participation in individual and team projects that require community engagement and collaboration.

Western’s Health and Human Development Department is part of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

Internships

When students complete their coursework, they engage in a 10-week, full-time, community based internship. The internship program is highly regarded by community partners across Washington state and beyond. Public health students have completed internships with Swedish Medical Center, Seattle Children's Hospital, Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, Sea Mar Community Health Clinics, Mt. Baker Planned Parenthood, Whatcom County Health Department, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C., and have served abroad in Guatemala, Uganda, Egypt, Australia, and Nepal and additional locations throughout the world.

Research

Students interested in participating in research are invited to join public health faculty research projects. Past students have published peer-reviewed articles, presented at national conferences including, for instance, the Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE) and the American Public Health Association’s annual conferences. Students have also successfully competed in and applied for national public health competitions and scholarships.

Community Service

Over the last decade, public health students have contributed more than 100,000 hours of work within communities. This work allows our students to practice the skills they have learned in the classroom while assisting communities in the process. In the last eight years, Public Health students have contributed more than 90,000 hours of service through course work, internships, and on their own.