“The online program allows professional students, who can’t necessarily move to Providence, to join the online MPH from different parts of the world,” said Jennifer Nazareno Ph.D. interim associate dean for academic affairs and innovation, Brown University School of Professional Studies. “It’s wonderful to have healthcare professionals like nurses, physicians, CNAs, dieticians, and community healthcare workers talking to folks with backgrounds in urban planning, law, tech, the military, and various industries in the private sector, so that we can further embrace our interdisciplinary field and venture beyond the walls of public health.”
Of the program’s first cohort of 61, there are students from the U.S., South Africa, Ghana, France, India, and Canada. “I think a huge strength of the program is that we are able to knock down geographic and disciplinary silos and have these really important conversations about public health challenges that affect us all,” Nazareno said.
The program’s case-based curriculum of 12 courses allows students to debate and help tackle real-world, present-day issues such as health care inequities and the COVID-19 pandemic. Its emphasis on using qualitative and quantitative data to make public health decisions hones students’ skills in data analysis.
