1. Master of Public Health
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General Public Health Concentration

EDUCATION

General Public Health: A Career-Focused, Flexible MPH

The General Public Health concentration is designed for students who seek broad, interdisciplinary training across the core pillars of public health—policy, management, epidemiology, and biostatistics—while maintaining the flexibility to build deep, job-ready expertise in a specific area of interest.

The Power of Your 11 Elective Credits

Our curriculum is structured to progressively build practical competencies that align with current workforce needs. Beyond the concentration core, students choose 11 elective credits in consultation with the Concentration Director. These credits allow you to transform your General MPH into a specialized degree in one of our two primary focus areas:

  1. Focus Area: Health Promotion & Disease Prevention

Advancing Health Equity through Intervention and Advocacy

This pathway prepares you to investigate and act on the root causes of disease by examining how social systems, environmental exposures, and infrastructure shape health outcomes. You will gain the tools to transform public health systems and improve the health of communities at the local, national, and global levels.

  • Core Competencies: Use established theories of health behavior to inform program design; evaluate environmental exposures; and develop policies that mitigate health risks.
  • Recommended Elective Clusters: Deepen your expertise with 11 credits focused on Community-Based Participatory Research, Health Communications, and Social Justice in Public Health.
  1. Focus Area: Health Care Management

Bridging Public Health Science and Health System Leadership

For students aiming for roles in hospital administration, consulting, or executive leadership, this pathway allows you to pair public health foundations with high-level management skills.

By utilizing your 11 elective credits to take graduate-level courses from our Master of Health Administration (MHA) program, you can graduate with a meaningful concentration in healthcare management within a single degree.

Currated MHA Electives (Select up to 11 Credits):

  • Healthcare Finance: Budgeting and economic decision-making.
  • Healthcare Strategy & Operations: How health systems plan and compete.
  • Quality Improvement & Patient Safety: IHI-aligned methods for care delivery.
  • Organizational Behavior & Leadership: Leading teams and managing change.
  • Project Management in Healthcare: Frameworks aligned with PMP/CAPM certification.

Why this matters: You will speak both languages—the language of population health and the language of the organizations that deliver care. This combination is increasingly rare and in high demand.

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Learn More About This Concentration

  1. Examine and characterize how environmental and system conditions influence patterns of health and disease across populations.
  2. Design public health programs and policies within a socio-ecological framework, including plans for implementation, evaluation and improvement.
  3. Use established theories and models of health behavior to inform the design and implementation of public health programs.
  4. Identify and evaluate environmental exposures and their impact on human health using appropriate epidemiologic and biostatistical methods.
  5. Inform the development of policies and practices that mitigate health risks and promote health in populations.

MPH 4000 (Formerly MPH 0014) Program Planning

3

MPH 4001 (Formerly MPH 0216) Health Promotion Strategies

3

MPH 4002 (Formerly MPH 0419) Environmental & Occupational Epidemiology

3

MPH 4003 (Formerly MPH 0020) Implementation Science

2

Students must choose an additional 11 elective credits in consultation with the Concentration Director

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Meet Your Concentration Director

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John T Doucette, PhD

Associate Professor, Environmental Medicine and Public Health

Dr. Douchette earned his PhD from Yale University and is the Concentration Advisor for General Public Health.

Bisharat Minhas headshot

Bisharat Minhas, MBBS, MPH

"The MPH program fundamentally reshaped how I understand public health challenges. Through coursework in epidemiology, biostatistics, and health data analysis, I gained tools to examine disease patterns, health systems, and outcomes at scale. The program also exposed me to the growing role of artificial intelligence and machine learning in research."

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Bisharat Minhas, MBBS, MPH

"The MPH program fundamentally reshaped how I understand public health challenges. Through coursework in epidemiology, biostatistics, and health data analysis, I gained tools to examine disease patterns, health systems, and outcomes at scale. The program also exposed me to the growing role of artificial intelligence and machine learning in research."

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D’Andria Hollins

“Every experience in the MPH program challenges you in some way and helps you determine how you want to utilize your degree. Meeting experts in the medical field, sitting in on conversations that bridge research and practice, and having professors who genuinely care about our development have shaped my approach to my studies. With opportunities offered in virtual, in-person, and hybrid formats, it’s possible to keep exploring different areas of public health even while managing a busy schedule.”

Bisharat Minhas headshot

Bisharat Minhas, MBBS, MPH

"The MPH program fundamentally reshaped how I understand public health challenges. Through coursework in epidemiology, biostatistics, and health data analysis, I gained tools to examine disease patterns, health systems, and outcomes at scale. The program also exposed me to the growing role of artificial intelligence and machine learning in research."

D’Andria Hollins headshot

D’Andria Hollins

“Every experience in the MPH program challenges you in some way and helps you determine how you want to utilize your degree. Meeting experts in the medical field, sitting in on conversations that bridge research and practice, and having professors who genuinely care about our development have shaped my approach to my studies. With opportunities offered in virtual, in-person, and hybrid formats, it’s possible to keep exploring different areas of public health even while managing a busy schedule.”

Yera Sureshbhai Patel

Yera Sureshbhai Patel

“I wanted to be in an environment where public health challenges are not just discussed theoretically but observed and addressed in in real time. Mount Sinai’s MPH program offered a setting where academic learning, research and community impact intersect in meaningful way. The Global Mental Health concentration broadened my understanding of how stigma, access to care, cultural context and society influence mental health outcomes worldwide and challenged me to think about culturally responsive, community-based approaches to care. ”

Public Health Concentration

General Public Health
Global Health
Epidemiology & Biostatistics
Public Health Data Analytics