First Online MPH Cohort Graduates
This spring, the first cohort graduated from the School of Public Health’s online MPH program in Population and Health Sciences. The program, which launched in Fall 2019, equips students with foundational knowledge from the six disciplines of public health. Students can further develop expertise in emerging subjects such as precision health, health data, and sustainability through a series of tailored elective courses.
Employers are looking for well-trained students with a breadth and depth of knowledge that will allow them to respond to a wide-range of public health challenges. This degree program provides just that.
–Sharon Kardia, Associate Dean for Education
“Employers are looking for well-trained students with a breadth and depth of knowledge that will allow them to respond to a wide-range of public health challenges. This degree program provides just that,” said Sharon Kardia, associate dean for Education at the School of Public Health and director of the online program. “Importantly, it also breaks down geographic and other barriers to earning a degree. We want to ensure anyone who is qualified can pursue and be supported in completing a degree from Michigan.”
The graduates came into the program with a variety of backgrounds, but all expressed a desire to further their knowledge of population health in order to support their careers and increase the positive impacts they could have on the public’s well-being. Many students balanced full-time jobs with their course load, and several are frontline health care workers who played a significant role in COVID-19 response efforts during the course of their program.
Kwame McGlory joined the program as a nurse but recently traded in his scrubs. Following a stint as a COVID-19 contact tracer, he’s now working for the Harris County Public Health Department’s Tuberculosis Elimination Program. “What brings me now into the public health domain is that I came to understand the limits of what a bedside nurse can do,” said McGlory. “Although I love having that personal interaction with patients, I’m only helping one person at a time. With public health, you can help so many more people than you can moving from bedside to bedside.”
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