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Public Health

Doctor of Public Health

Advanced practical training for transformative health leaders.

The Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) program produces leaders in public health to take on emergent and increasing threats to local, national, and global health. Guided by our experienced faculty and utilizing our unique resources, partnerships, and opportunities, you will receive rigorous practical training, preparing you to take on vital leadership roles in government, nonprofit, and private sectors. Graduates of this program will be equipped to implement population- and evidenced-based public health strategies that are responsive to the dynamic, interdependent nature of human systems and the environment.

The DrPH program equips students with competencies in data analysis, leadership, management, governance, policy development, program implementation, education, and workforce development. You will learn to synthesize, translate, and generate evidence-based practice, all aimed at advancing programs, policies, services, and systems that address population health. Crucially, you will gain knowledge and skills that will enable you to guide the public health field in various contexts toward the successful realization of overarching strategy and transformative change.

Program Highlights

Flexible Format: Experience a professional doctoral program designed to accommodate your busy schedule. Fully online courses (pending WSCUC and CEPH approval) utilize the latest technology to enrich the learning experience and enhance your presentation skills. This includes multimedia lectures and interactive demonstrations.
Real-World: The DrPH program provides opportunities to gain experience in real-world practice through the Applied Practice Experience. The program then culminates with the Integrative Learning Experience, where you will develop and execute a dissertation project to produce transformative change in programs, policies, or systems.
Location: Proximity to local health departments in Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside Counties provides many employment and educational opportunities for students.
Network: The SCGH Student Association provides opportunities for leadership and impact through intellectual, social, and cultural contributions that meet the needs of public health students through community service, dialogue, and special events.

Program at a Glance

(Pending WSCUC and CEPH Approval)

UNITS
49 units (students can transfer up to 13 units)

ESTIMATED COMPLETION TIME
3-5 years

PROGRAM MODALITY
Online curriculum with Applied Practice Experience and Integrative Learning Experience in the field

COURSES BEGIN
Fall | Spring

DEGREE AWARDED
Doctor of Public Health

Learning Outcomes

- Demonstrate knowledge of the Public Health core areas of epidemiology, biostatistics, environmental health, health systems management, and the biological, social, and cultural aspects of health and disease in addressing and solving problems
- Design, conduct, and analyze data from well-designed formative research for the purpose of developing and evaluating appropriate public health interventions in diverse contexts
- Develop and apply professional leadership and management skills to coordinate global health interventions in diverse settings
- Engage in evidence-based policy development, analysis, and translation processes
- Design well-developed funding proposals
- Engage in advanced field experience that allows students to develop competencies in advanced practice skills, including leadership and pedagogy
- Generate a field-based product consistent with advanced practice designed to influence program, policies, or systems addressing population health

Curriculum

The curricular criterion for the DrPH degree is framed in terms of five related components: foundational and concentration-specific skills and content, professional disposition, application and practice, and integrative experience. The DrPH degree has distinct and defined learning objectives and a delineation of associated competencies for coursework, the practice experience, and the integrative learning experience.

Core Courses (35 units)

- Foundations of Global Health: A Transdisciplinary Approach (4 units)
- Seminar in Grant Writing & Proposal Development (4 units)
- Foundations of Program Planning (4 units)
- Designing and Evaluating Health Behavior Interventions (4 units)
- US Health Policy (3 units)
- Advanced Theoretical Foundations in Health Education & Promotion (4 units)
- Advanced Statistical Methods I (4 units)
- Advanced Research Methods (4 units)
- Qualitative Research Methods (4 units)

Concentration Courses (10 units)

- Advanced Topics in Public Health Management (3 units)
- Health Equity in Research and Practice (3 units)
- Positive Organizational Psychology (4 units)

Transdisciplinary Course (4 units)

- Transdisciplinary Changemakers. Justice-Centered Frameworks for Education (4 units)

Advanced Practicum (0 units)

Students can choose:

1) Community Lab Course Series (0 units)

- Community Based Translational Research to Promote Population Health (0 units)
- Health Systems Engineering and Integration (0 units)
- Advanced Practicum in Public Health (0 units)

OR

2) Advanced Practicum in Public Health (0 units)

Who Should Apply

As an ideal candidate for the DrPH program, you hold a Master’s in Public Health (MPH) and have a strong desire to emerge as a leader in the public health sector. You embody a range of attributes, such as the capacity to contribute to and engage with diverse communities, the ability to collaborate across different disciplines, and personal qualities like integrity, honesty, and trustworthiness. You’re not only responsible, dedicated, and persistent, but you also demonstrate a lifelong commitment to personal and professional growth. As the ideal candidate, you have the potential to make significant contributions to the field of public health, the SCGH, and the DrPH program itself. Your educational and professional goals align seamlessly with the DrPH program’s mission, which is to prepare professionals to assume leadership roles in enhancing global public health through improved research, practice, policy-making, and system response.

Applicants that show exceptional potential for success in the DrPH program may be admitted without an MPH if they can clearly demonstrate their ability to contribute to the field and excel in the program. However, they will be required to satisfactorily complete the prerequisite courses (as outlined in the core course requirements for the MPH degree). Completing the five core courses, totaling 20 units, entitles students to a formal certificate in the Foundations of Public Health.

Program Features

Networking Opportunities
With more than 80 chapters throughout the world, the Delta Epsilon chapter of the Delta Omega Honorary Society in Public Health at Claremont Graduate University opens up numerous academic and professional opportunities, including:

Electing students, faculty, alumni, and honorary members based on high academic standards and outstanding performance in scholarship, teaching, research, and community service.
Connecting students to a vast networking pool of 15,000 members from the top echelons of graduate schools, programs of public health, and the public health community.
Opening doors for faculty and students to network and positively impact public health initiatives in the Southern California region.
Boosting students’ transition from academic life to professional life.

Featured Courses

CGH 408

Foundations in Program Planning

Focuses on the core concepts, values, and methods of public health program planning and evaluation and skills for assessing community needs for health promotion.

CGH 310

Foundations of Global Health: A Multidisciplinary Approach

Offers an interdisciplinary approach to understanding key public health challenges that transcend local and national boundaries and require collaborative solutions.

CGH 414

Advanced Topics in Public Health Management

Examines theoretical models and day-to-day responsibilities of public health management, including principles of program management and design thinking. Equips public health managers to lead, plan effectively, anticipate challenges, and marshal resources to address current organizational issues.

CGH 417

Health Systems Engineering & Integration

Covers the principles of systems engineering and integration for application in complex population health settings that include two or more separate and prior-existing systems including public health, community clinic (ambulatory care), hospital, and traditionally non-health organizations such as schools, NGOS, community centers, and churches to bring each into concert with the other(s) for a common population health objective.

Faculty & Research

Jay Orr

Clinical Full Professor
Dean, School of Community & Global Health

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Jamie Felicitas-Perkins

Assistant Professor of Practice of Community and Global Health,
Director of the Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) program

Research Interests

Determinants of health among racially/ethnically diverse, underserved, and underrepresented populations; health disparities among Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders; cancer disparities and contributing factors; cancer prevention; tobacco control and prevention; tobacco-related disparities; and community-based participatory research

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Darleen V. Peterson

Professor of Practice, Community and Global Health
Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
Director of the Certificate and Master of Public Health (MPH) programs

Research Interests

Evaluation of Health Communication Campaigns, Effects of Pro- and Anti-Tobacco and Alcohol Marketing; Public Health Education Accreditation

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Jessica Clague DeHart

Associate Professor of Community and Global Health

Research Interests

Epidemiology, chronic disease, cancer etiology, cancer survivorship, molecular and genetic epidemiology, lifestyle intervention trials, exercise, nutrition, quality of life, community-based interventions

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Stewart I. Donaldson

Distinguished University Professor
Executive Director, Claremont Evaluation Center
Executive Director, The Evaluators' Institute (TEI)

Research Interests

Positive Organizational Psychology, Health/Well-Being & Positive Functioning Across Cultures, Program Design & Re-Design, Culturally Responsive Theory-Driven Measurement & Evaluation

Affiliated with

Claremont Evaluation Center

The Evaluators’ Institute

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C. Anderson Johnson

Professor
Founding Dean, School of Community & Global Health

Research Interests

Transnational prevention of tobacco, alcohol, and drug abuse, HIV-AIDS, and obesity; Community-based substance abuse prevention; Social and environmental influences on health; Community and mass media approaches to health

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Paula Healani Palmer

Associate Professor of Community and Global Health
Director of the PhD in Health Promotion Sciences program

Research Interests

Determinants of health among ethnically diverse populations; Community-based participatory research among under-served, underrepresented populations; Health of Pacific Islanders and South Asians; Technology applications for health behavior interventions; Tobacco control, mental health, disaster management, health of migrants and indigenous peoples; Maternal and child health

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Kim D. Reynolds

Professor

Research Interests

Nutrition and physical activity, Health promotion and disease prevention, Diabetes and obesity

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Alan Stacy

Professor
Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs

Research Interests

Application of theories and methods of human memory; Cognitive neuroscience and social cognition to health behavior: etiology, prevention, and media effects; Translation of basic research to field research, high-risk populations, and prevention; Validation issues in assessment

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Bin Xie

Professor of Community and Global Health
Director of the Applied Biostatistics (MS) program

Research Interests

Obesity prevention; Tobacco control; Diet, physical activity, body image in adolescents; Psychological adjustment to obesity; Diabetes and cancer; Application of statistical analysis in prevention research

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Javad Salehi Fadardi

Research Full Professor of Community and Global Health

Research Interests

Application of theories and methods of human goal-seeking and motivated behavior; cognitive neuroscience and goal-related cognitive processes related to health behavior; translation of basic research to field research, high-risk populations, and e-Health technologies

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Bree Hemingway

Assistant Clinical Professor of Community and Global Health,
Associate Director of the Master of Public Health (MPH) program,
Co-director of the Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO)/MPH dual program

Research Interests

Program evaluation, health disparities, and public health workforce development

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Eric Houston

Research Assistant professor

Research Interests

Application of theories and methods of goal-seeking and motivated behavior; cognitive neuroscience and goal-related cognitive processes related to health behavior; translation of basic research to field research, high-risk populations, e-Health technologies, and prevention

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Rachaline Napier

Clinical Associate Professor of Community and Global Health

Research Interests

Global Health, Epidemiology

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Gary Selnow

Research Professor

Research Interests

Health promotion and disease prevention, translation of basic research to field research, high-risk populations, e-Health technologies

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Yusuke Shono

Assistant Professor of Community and Global Health

Research Interests

Application of theories and models of cognitive processes; Implicit cognition and health behavior; Cognitive screening in clinical settings; Application of latent variable modeling in applied research; Measurement and validation in cognitive, behavioral, and health outcome assessment

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Admissions Representative

Brittany Galvez

Assistant Director of Admissions
T: 909-607-6728
E: brittany.galvez@cgu.edu