Welcome

dEPARTMENT OF PUblic Health Sciences Reorganization

Dear Friends and Colleagues:

On July 1, 2024, the Department of Public Health Sciences was reorganized into two new thriving departments: 

·        Epidemiology and Community Health

·        Health Management and Policy

This move comes as the College of Health and Human Services transitions itself to become North Carolina’s second accredited School of Public Health.  Consequently, the CEPH-accreditation activities that were focused within the Department of Public Health Science will shift to the college.

You can learn more about the College’s plans for becoming a School of Public Health HERE, but expect our interdisciplinary efforts to protect, promote, prevent, and heal to become deeper and more visible as we Shape What’s Next! The first step in these efforts is to increase the breadth of the Master of Public Health (MPH) program by offering concentrations across multiple academic departments – as outlined below.

ECH
HMP

Public Health @ UNC Charlotte

As a candidate for CEPH-Accredited School of Public Health status, the entire College of Health and Human Services, and not just the public health degree programs, become part of our unit of accreditation.  This transition from an accredited Program to an accredited School of Public Health means we characterize all of our college’s offerings into one of three categories, with each category having different criteria and expectations for the breadth and depth of public health content required for the degree:

  • Professional Public Health programs
    • MPH
    • BSPH
  • Academic Public Health programs
    • PhD, Epidemiology
    • PhD, Public Health Sciences
  • All Other Academic and Professional programs

For the previously CEPH-accredited degree programs in the Department of Public Health Sciences, little is changing except the departmental homes described above. The college is leveraging this opportunity to enrich knowledge and understanding of all the college’s disciplines and to build a better foundation for interprofessional education and practice. 

An interdepartmental MPH

One major change, however, is in the organization of the MPH program. The Department of Epidemiology and Community Health will administer the MPH core and two of its concentrations.  Additional concentrations will be administered by other academic units in the college. The Department of Epidemiology and Community Health will oversee the MPH program’s overall delivery, in coordination with participating units. MPH program governance will be through an interdepartmental faculty committee, with a subcommittee for each concentration within its home academic unit. 

MPH Concentrations and their academic homes

Applied Physiology, Health and Clinical Sciences

  • Concentration in Physical Activity and Nutrition (PANU)

Epidemiology and Community Health

  • MPH core (interdepartmental governance)
  • Concentration in Epidemiology (EPID)
  • Concentration in Community Health Practice (CHPR)

Health Management and Policy

  • Concentration in Health Policy (HPOL)