Public Health Education Programs

The Graduate Program in Public Health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai’s (ISMMS) mission is to educate our students to prevent disease, protect the environment, and promote good health in partnership with the populations they serve. Through interdisciplinary research and innovation, policy analysis, and advocacy, our students and graduates translate knowledge into practice to serve local, national, and global communities.

There are five options for students enrolled in the Graduate Program in Public Health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

  • Master of Public Health Degree: The MPH is a 45-credit, two-year competency-based degree program that offers a general public health course of study as well as seven areas of specialization. It is intended for someone looking to enter or advance in the field.

  • Master of Science in Epidemiology Program: This innovative 12-month program provides rigorous training in the foundational concepts, theory, and advanced methods of epidemiology with an emphasis on applying quantitative research skills to address complex public health problems.

  • Advanced Certificate Program: This one-year program is designed specifically for professionals already working in public health who feel the need to acquire an additional academic credential – without devoting two full years to the endeavor. It offers three areas of specialization.
  • Non-Matriculating Students: You can take individual courses within the Graduate Program in Public Health without matriculating toward a degree. Tuition is per credit and any coursework that you take as a non-matriculated student can be applied toward a degree later. Non-matriculating students are limited to 12 credit hours, after which they must apply for the MPH degree.

Program Goals

To fulfill our mission, we have developed a series of specific goals and objectives. For each, we assess our students’ mastery of the skills by examinations, through their participation in small group discussions, by their involvement in a public health practicum, and through their efforts to produce a thesis or capstone project.

  • Educate our students to enhance the health of diverse populations, consider the health of individuals within the context of the community and the environment, work within an interdisciplinary milieu, and to be competent public health practitioners.
  • Equip our faculty and students with the skills and resources necessary to conduct and engage in interdisciplinary research that critically evaluates health issues of vulnerable populations and communities and leads to the development of solutions to complex public health problems.
  • Provide public health-related service in collaboration with appropriate stakeholders to local and global communities, public health organizations, and institutions.

ISMMS is committed to promoting and supporting diversity and inclusion in the research, clinical, and educational realms, and to meeting the needs of our diverse students, faculty, staff, and the communities we serve. We are committed to increasing the representation of women, ethnic minorities, and individuals who are members of groups underrepresented in medicine and science among our trainees, research and clinical faculty and our leadership.

Diversity in the health professions and science benefits every aspect of health, healthcare and biomedical research by addressing the needs of the world¹s diverse communities. In addition, a diverse professional and academic environment enhances the learning experiences of all students, trainees, and postdoctoral fellows and effectively impacts culturally diverse populations to achieve health equity and improve health outcomes.

Mount Sinai¹s commitment to diversity is reflected in our continued determination to increase the diversity of our faculty and trainees. Our longstanding tradition of successfully attracting, retaining, and promoting a diverse student body has made us a national leader in the movement to train future physicians and scientists belonging to groups historically underrepresented in medicine and science.

The Graduate Program in Public Health is dedicated to improving the health of communities and individuals. The Program is based on the following core values:

Community: We value joint program-community participation in identifying and improving the health status of communities by enabling them to identify and address their unique public health problems.

Sound Science: We value the use of the scientific method to identify the basic conditions necessary for optimum public health, to protect the public health and to promote good health practices for populations and individuals. 

Diversity: We value the recognition of the cultural context of individuals and populations and work to educate a public health professional workforce with the cultural competencies necessary to understand, respect and serve diverse populations.

Social Justice: We value fostering and advocating for public health resources and policies that reduce or eliminate health disparities.

Engagement: We value working with others through cooperation and collaboration using interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary and trans-disciplinary teams in education, research and service delivery.