Global Health Courses

Critical Issues in Global Health (Fall/Spring)

FALL/SPRING. Pre-requisites: GEH, GH, and GLEPI students may not enroll unless with departmental permission. The overarching objective of GH 500 is to equip students with critical perspectives and resources that they will need as public health professionals and global citizens in our increasingly inter-connected and interdependent world. The course introduces students to: (1) fundamental cross-cutting themes that contextualize contemporary global health issues; and (2) selected health topical areas such as maternal and child health, pandemics, and non-communicable diseases. The course provides an overview of the past, present, and expected future directions of global health.

Health Systems, Social Justice, and Equity (Fall)

FALL.  Prerequisites:  GEH, GH, and GLEPI students only.  This course aims to provide students with an understanding of key aspects of the design, administration and function of health systems and their implications for social justice and equity. Health systems are the primary vehicles through which countries deliver health services to their populations. The course aims to equip students with an understanding of how responsibility, authority and accountability for health systems is created and managed, and how health systems are financed and administered, including the roles and implications of private sector involvement and profit in health systems. And the course examines the complex challenges of measuring the performance of health systems, with special attention to the distinction between equality and equity as organizing concepts for improving the fairness and effectiveness of health systems.

Evidence-Based Global Health Policy, Programs, and Research (Spring)

SPRING.  Prerequisites: GEH, GH, and GLEPI students only. The goal of the course is to equip students with critical perspectives to address current and future global health challenges and opportunities as public health professionals and global citizens in this increasingly interdependent world. The course explores historical milestones, actors, assumptions, context and theories driving selected global health priorities in policy, programs and research. To do this, the course will enhance the skills of critical thinking, assessment of evidence from multiple perspectives and application of evidence in formulation of policies, programs and research priorities. A recurring theme throughout the course is that there are common global drivers influencing the health of populations and that cross-cutting issues of equity and systems transcend settings.

Effective Oral Communication (Fall)

FALL. Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory grading. This course is designed to convey the principles and practice of dynamic and persuasive oral communication of scientific information. Its goal is to develop competencies in effective oral communication of scientific research using various techniques to diverse audiences. Course topics include (1) communication as an interactive process; (2) persuasive vis-à-vis informative presentations; (3) distinguishing data, information, and messages; (4) analyzing a target audience; (5) condensing complex messages into soundbite size; (6) effective approaches for visual aids including PowerPoint, YouTube, Prezi, tables, graphs, charts, and photographs; (7) understanding the messages presenters give by their personal image; and (8) strategies for dealing with the media. Students give oral presentations as part of their final grade.

FALL. Prerequisite: Second-year Global Health students or permission of instructor. GH 505 provides an introduction to the relatively new, but fast-growing use a business approaches to address social problems; micro financing, made famous by Muhammed Yunus, is an example of social entrepreneurship. The course will examine how social entrepreneurs who produce mission-driven products or services can reduce their dependence on government funds and charitable donations. Students will be exposed to case studies from experienced social entrepreneurs, including the lead instructor, and will also develop their own social enterprise plan. Knowledge and skills acquired through the course include: organizational leadership, market opportunity assessment, product/service development, and budgeting.

SPRING. Examines a spectrum of issues related to health and human rights including three main topics: health as a human right, the impact of human rights abuses on health, and strategies for the adoption of a human rights framework to public health program planning and practice. A flipped classroom approach and case based learning is used across topics is used to support critical inquiry into the field of health and human rights.

SPRING. This course aims to introduce students to translation of scientific knowledge into real-world implementation (policy, practice, behavior change). The course covers: determining burdens; identifying proven interventions and barriers that impede implementation; designing innovative and creative solutions, and the studies to test these; and informed decision-making as well as implementation and sustainability. Students will be exposed to case studies of health interventions globally which illustrate theoretical concepts while providing inspiration and motivation.

SPRING.  This course will provide students with theoretical principles and practical skills for designing and managing global health programs and projects. Sessions will focus on core activities following the project life cycle, including community engagement, formative research, situational analysis, theory of change, project design, principles of project and financial management, and ethical considerations and challenges. This course uses a variety of approaches to foster the development of practical skills in program design and management including lectures, interactive group sessions, discussions with experts, and task-based assignments. This course is a prerequisite for GH512 Program Cycle 2: Monitoring and Evaluation of Global Health Programs.

Program Cycle 2:  Monitoring & Evaluation of Global Health Programs (Fall/Spring)

FALL/SPRING. Provides students with the technical skills to conceptualize and design process and impact evaluations of international public health programs or projects. Helps students understand the role of monitoring and evaluation in policy analysis, planning, program design and management. Course not offered 2023-2024 academic year.

FALL. Prerequisite: EPI 530 (may be taken concurrently). Focuses on prevalent parasitic infections seen in this country as well as those seen primarily abroad. Topics include parasite lifecycles, immunology, diagnostic methods, clinical manifestations, treatment and follow up, complications, epidemiology, prevention and control, methods of transmission, and future research priorities.

FALL. Prerequisites/concurrent: EPI 504 or EPI 530 and BIOS 500 or permission of instructor. Provides training in the investigation, control, and prevention of infectious diseases by both descriptive and analytic epidemiological techniques. Students work with infectious diseases of national and international interest. Cross-listed with EPI 517.

SPRING. Prerequisite/concurrent: EPI 530 or permission of instructor. This course examines factors that contribute to the emergence and re-emergence of infectious diseases, and provides a framework for assessing the public health threat changes in these factors on infectious disease epidemiology. Fundamental principles of infectious disease pathogenesis, epidemiology as well as prevention will be addressed using key syndromes or pathogens as examples. Previous course work in microbiology strongly preferred. Cross- listed with EPI 562.

SPRING. This course will provide students with the principles and skills for conducting and evaluating qualitative research. Topics include: principles of qualitative research, study design, participant recruitment, ethical considerations, instrument design, data collection methods (interviewing, group discussions and observation), transcription and writing. Students will design and conduct a mini qualitative study to apply skills learned to real world situations. The course outlines challenges of using qualitative methods in international settings and provides guidance on fieldwork planning and implementation to prepare students for their Applied Practice Experience.

FALL. Prerequisites: GH 521 or instructor permission. This course provides students with the principles and skills for analyzing qualitative data. Students will learn how to assess data quality, prepare data for analysis, use different analytic techniques, and write and present data. Students will learn analytic techniques through guided classroom activities, lab sessions using MAXQDA software and structured assignments. No data are required, we provide class data sets, but students can use qualitative data collected during their summer applied practice experience if suitable. Each student will work with an individual data set in course assignments.

SPRING. Prerequisites: GH 501, GH 502, or HPM 501. Introduces the major policy issues in health care financing for developing countries and transition economies. Topics include models of health care financing used by countries; performance of the systems with respect to equity, efficiency, and effectiveness; evaluation of current financing and health sector reform proposals; and redefinition of the roles of government and the private sector. Investigates health care financing in the economic, political, and social contexts of the country-specific health system reform efforts and broader themes in international development.

FALL. Open to students from all of the graduate and professional schools pursuing the graduate certificate in human rights. Examines the theory and practice of global and human rights from an interdisciplinary perspective. Examines issues of history, origins, and legitimacy of universal human rights, and discusses standards, institutions, and processes of implementation. Considers human rights across a variety of substantive areas, including: conflict, development, globalization, social welfare, public health, and rights of women and other vulnerable groups.

FALL. The course provides students with techniques needed to develop, evaluate, and sustain successful drinking water and sanitation interventions for developing countries. The course focuses on practical field and laboratory methods needed for different stages of projects, including: assessment of perceived and actual need, alternative strategies for different environmental settings, assessing cost and financial sustainability of projects, laboratory and field techniques for assessing exposure to microbial and chemical agents, and measuring health outcomes (for baseline or effectiveness assessment). This course includes synchronous/asynchronous lectures, in-class activities, live/online discussions, group projects, case studies, a laboratory exercise, and a final project that integrates learning objectives.

FALL. Prerequisites: EPI 530 and BIOS 500, EPI 540, BIOS 501, and GH 531 strongly recommended. This course provides a conceptual and experiential foundation to address research questions using quantitative data. The course emphasizes the technical skills required to transform a quantitative data set (exemplars: NHANES and Demographic and Health Surveys) into a reproducible analysis for global health applications. Students will receive guided, structured experience with quantitatively operationalizing research questions, data acquisition and management, data exploration, formal data description, conceptualization and construction of composite variables, analysis of statistical associations, and addressing common threats to valid inference. Exercises will be completed using SAS software with an emphasis on programming specific to complex survey designs. Students must register for both lecture and lab components.

FALL. Malnutrition during humanitarian emergencies, including acute malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies, is very common. This course will discuss how organizations decide when, what type, and how much food to distribute during a crisis. It also will address other programs that are used to prevent malnutrition, how organizations concerned with nutrition evaluate nutritional status in individuals and populations, and the various types of feeding programs that are implemented in emergency situations. The course will include practical field exercises on nutrition as well as visits by guest practitioners from the field.

FALL. This course introduces program management principles and the history, ethical dimensions, and scope of reproductive health problems, programs, and policies. Lectures and in-class case studies will examine managing and implementing programs in socially diverse settings. Students will learn contextually appropriate management skills in program development, implementation and logistics, budgeting, monitoring, evaluation and using logic models, as well as team dynamics and leadership. Students will apply learned skills in ethical reflections, case studies, and a final project.

FALL. Covers the effectiveness, benefits and WHO/CDC/ACOG guidelines for contraceptive methods—and recent efforts to improve use of effective contraception in the United States. Includes historical and ethical perspectives on contraception policies, laws, and accessibility throughout the world—and their impact on fertility. Includes information on Norplant implants, morning-after approaches to birth control, the reversal of sterilization procedures, abortion, withdrawal, and male and female condoms. Will include a case study including program planning and budgeting for providing improved contraception in response to the Zika epidemic in Puerto Rico.

FALL. This course will develop understanding of design, conduct, and analysis of field trials and intervention studies. The course will focus on methods relevant to community and facility based trials in resource poor settings. However, several skills covered in this course will also be applicable to field and clinical trials in developed countries.

SPRING. Provides an overview of methods for assessing the nutritional status of both individuals and populations for purposes of etiologic research and disease prevention and control. Teaches the use of biochemical, anthropometric, and questionnaire methods for assessment of diet, body composition, physical activity, and biochemical characteristics. Research methods appropriate for measurement of any exposure in epidemiological or population studies are given special emphasis, including standardized data collection procedures, quality control, assessment of validity and reliability, and analytic methods to assess the effect of measurement error and to adjust for its effects when examining relations among variables. Covers methods for both acute and chronic disease.

FALL. Prerequisites: one year of biology and organic chemistry and permission of instructor. The goal of the course is for students to learn the fundamental principles that underlie nutrient regulation and function and their integrative role in metabolic pathways. This course will address macronutrient requirements and how nutrient biochemical and metabolic processes are implicated in health and disease pathology as well as the potential for disease prevention or management through nutrient-dependent processes. These objectives will be accomplished by lectures and discussion sessions that focus on the basic principles of nutrient requirements, cell biology, physiology and biochemistry relevant to nutrition, followed by the role of macronutrients in health and disease. Cross-listed with IBS 580.

SPRING. Prerequisites: chemistry, undergraduate biology, and permission of instructor. Provides a graduate-level introduction to human nutrition and disease, at both the clinical and research levels, and an understanding of the experimental bases for current clinical nutritional practice. Cross-listed with IBS 581.

Fall. Explores the social, biologic, and public health issues of sexually transmitted diseases and their overall importance in public health. Topics include the basic biology and epidemiology of the major STDs, the implication of transmission models for prevention, and psychosocial, behavioral, and economic aspects of STD/HIV. Cross-listed with EPI 532.

SPRING. The purpose of the course is to provide basic knowledge of the epidemiology of the major causes of vision loss globally as well as knowledge of what can and is being done to prevent vision loss from these causes. The need for a multidisciplinary approach will be emphasized and vision loss makes a good model for other public health problems, especially non-communicable diseases. Reading from literature (available online to Emory students) will be assigned daily. Teaching methods will be a mix of didactic lectures by faculty, cases studies for discussion, and student presentations. All students will be expected to use suggested reading materials to prepare short presentations on specific topics for the class.

SPRING. Over the course of the seven-week class, students will develop a grant proposal modelled after that used by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Working in small groups of peers, students iteratively prepare sections of the proposal. Enrollees in the class will learn the following skills: identifying appropriate literature; formulating aims and objectives; selecting and describing appropriate methodologies; planning field work, timelines and simple budgets; clear and concise writing; and peer review. Individual class projects can be used as the basis for seeking funding for summer practica

FALL. The course aims to introduce students to the pervasiveness and complexity of ethical challenges in global health. The goal of this course is to provide students with knowledge, skills and opportunities to critically examine and address ethical challenges associated with key aspects of global health. The course aims to complement other global health and public health courses by emphasizing critical analysis of the ethical and practical implications of global health and the assumptions, conventions, and practices that dominate the field. Given the unique impact and global challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, the course will draw on cases and current ethical controversies associated with COVID-19 to examine some of the key ideas and concepts in global health ethics. Through the assigned readings, course assignments and interactions with guest speakers, students will be challenged to develop conceptual thinking and problem-solving skills relevant to four of the main professional activities associated with practice of global health ethics: (1) providing global health organizations with diagnoses of ethical challenges that arise within their portfolios, i.e., what is the nature of the ethical challenge; what is the best way to conceptualize and understood the challenge; (2) provide advice and guidance on how to address ethical challenges in creative and practical ways; (3) expert committee and panel reviews of policies or proposals; and (4) thought partnership and deliberation with global health organizations to help them design, manage and evaluate global health projects, programs, policies and management practices to ensure they meet the highest ethical standards. Cross-listed with BIOETH 505.

SPRING. Prerequisites: BIOS 500, EPI 530, and GH 565. This course covers epidemiologic methods used in humanitarian emergencies such as rapid assessment, surveillance, survey design (with a focus on cluster surveys) and analysis. In addition, the class includes other topics such as outbreaks in emergencies as well as practical sessions on anthropometry and field laboratory methods. Teaching methods combine lectures and case studies of recent humanitarian emergencies. 

SPRING. Develops tools to understand the microbiological, behavioral, and economic factors that contribute to the expanding epidemic of infectious diseases which may become untreatable due to the emergence of resistance. Provides a framework for intervention studies. Cross-listed with EPI 558.

SPRING. This course provides an overview of theories, case studies, and social interventions related to gender and global health, with a focus on poor settings. Students are exposed to major theories in the social sciences and public health that have advanced an understanding of the institutional and ideological bases of gender inequities and of the power dynamics within couples and families that influence women’s and men’s health and wellbeing in these settings. The theoretical and empirical underpinnings of existing social policies and interventions intended to empower women in resource poor countries are stressed, and case studies of the health-related consequences of these policies and interventions are discussed. By the end of the course, students will have developed the ability to evaluate critically and to identify the relationships between theory, evidence, and social interventions related to gender and health in poor settings. This course is offered on alternate spring semesters.

FALL. Prerequisites: GH 501 or GH 502. This course is an applied course that uses economic theory and concepts to focus on critical public health issues in low and moderate income countries, particularly focusing on public goods, their use and provision. We will also apply evolving theories of behavioral economics to decisions faced by individuals and households in very resource constrained environments using examples and cases from sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, south and central Asia where the greatest proportion of those living in absolute poverty reside.

SPRING. Prerequisite: EPI 530 or EPI 504. Provides training in domestic and international public health aspects of tuberculosis, its epidemiology and diagnosis, theory and practice of treatment and means of prevention in developed and developing countries, and the interaction between HIV and tuberculosis. Cross listed with EPI 542.

FALL. GH 563 is a participatory, seminar-style course designed to help learners at all levels gain familiarity with ongoing developments and debates in HIV treatment, prevention, policy and science. Topics covered in GH 563 include the history of AIDS, changing trends in global epidemiology, recent advances in HIV clinical, basic, and social sciences, and the challenges to and multidisciplinary strategies for addressing the global HIV epidemic in the next 20 years. The course examines the HIV/AIDS epidemic from both global and domestic perspectives and features guest lectures, small group discussions, written work and oral presentations. This elective course may be taken at any point in a student’s program.

International Infectious Diseases (Spring)

SPRING. Prerequisite: EPI 530. Offers an epidemiological, clinical and public health perspective of selected acute infectious diseases of current national and international interest. Emphasizes the agent, methods of transmission, the host, role of surveillance, and methods of control and prevention.

SPRING. Prerequisites: BIOS 500 and EPI 530. The course covers the technical and management principles that are the basis of planning, implementing, and evaluating health programs for acutely displaced populations in developing countries. Emphasis is placed on refugees in camp situations. The course also includes modules on assessment, nutrition, epidemiology of major health problems, surveillance, and program management in the context of an international relief operation.

SPRING. Provides an introduction to the basic scientific epidemiologic, economic, programmatic, and political aspects of vaccines and immunization. Emphases immunizations in the developing world, with examples also drawn from US experience. Cross-listed with EPI 566.

SPRING. Determinants of food consumption are complex but heavily influenced by policy. This course will explore the policies that influence health through their shaping of local and global food systems, including state/local, national, international, and institutional policies. Students will evaluate strategies to improve the policy landscape for nutrition and health and through case studies will gain skills in policy analysis and various styles of policy-writing. This course is offered on alternate spring semesters.

SPRING. Determinants of food choices are complex but a primary determinant is access. Limited access to healthy foods at individual, household, and community level is associated with a range of health outcomes including malnutrition, depression, exposure to infectious diseases and chronic disease. This course will explore the determinants and outcomes of access to healthy foods, evaluate the effectiveness and sustainability of existing food security strategies, and conduct community-engaged research in local communities on food access issues. State, national, and international policies and their influence on food access will be explored. Community-based strategies to ameliorate food access issues will be explored. This course is offered on alternate spring semesters.

FALL. This course provides an introduction to population dynamics and international development as important contexts of public health. Participants will learn about how issues such as economic growth, environmental change, international politics, and culture interact with population forces such as fertility, aging, mortality, and migration, in ways that affect health and public health practice. The course provides an introduction to demographic methods and to basic data analysis using Stata. Training will include lectures and structured debates, reading and discussion of published research and policies, and critical research and writing.

FALL/SPRING. An introduction to Community-based Participatory Action Research (CBPAR), and similar research approaches ones that are community-based and community-centered, participatory in their inclusion of community members as protagonists, and action-oriented in the sense that they explicitly seek to promote change. Students will develop familiarity with a range of classical and innovative research approaches, including assets-based approaches such as appreciative inquiry and critical approaches such as autoethnography. The course will be divided roughly in half, with the first half being more instructor-guided and the second half, student-generated and led.

FALL. This course will develop in-depth understanding of epidemiological, biological, and applied aspects of commonly used vaccines and vaccine preventable diseases (VPDs) of public health importance. The course content will be structured to review specific vaccines and VPDs (rather than overarching aspects of immunization programs covered in GH 566/EPI 566). Where relevant, the course lecturers will use examples from both developed and developing countries.

FALL.  Prerequisites: A pre-assignment is required. Through participatory learning, this course introduces a process that can be used to help communities identify and reflect on their key issues and take action. Additionally, it expands the understanding of methods for community empowerment and facilitates, through group exercise and reflection, approaches to the community empowerment process.

SPRING. This course offers a practical introduction to the prevention, control, and treatment of malaria. Participants will understand the biology of both the malaria parasite and the mosquito vector, and how their interactions with the human host result in the epidemiology of malaria. In addition, this class will review the history of malaria control and current prevention and control activities in endemic countries, including vector control, case management, and reducing the burden of malaria in pregnancy. In addition to lectures from a number of experts from CDC there will be practical, hands-on sessions related to vector control and malaria diagnostics

SPRING. Students will develop skills in abortion and maternal mortality measurement using WHO and CDC criteria in populations with safe or unsafe abortions. Students will also use case studies to evaluate the influence of political and legal decisions, ethics, human rights conventions, social justice and religious approaches on abortion practice, contraception, post-abortion care, and abortion-related mortality. They will use Values Clarification and Attitudes Transformation (VCAT) techniques to clarify and inform their own values on abortion. They will learn to describe the impact of terminology and values on national and international abortion debates, describe/learn about clinical abortion services and treatment for unsafe abortion, develop grant proposals to support program activities that prevent abortion mortality, and develop well-articulated arguments to advocate for the global elimination of maternal mortality from abortion.

SPRING. Prerequisites:  GH 557 and 565. This course covers essential principles necessary to understand and address mental health issues in humanitarian emergencies. Using epidemiological and ethnographic approaches, the course will highlight mental health surveys; outcome evaluation methods; best practices and evidence-based interventions for beneficiary populations; and preparation and training for emergency responders and aid workers. Two-day intensive course.

Spring. This course introduces students to global and local issues in chronic non-communicable disease (NCDs) prevention and control. NCDs are the leading cause of death and disability worldwide. In addition to their considerable health impact, NCDs pose a critical threat to development. Their complex etiology requires interdisciplinary and multi-sectoral approaches to prevention and control. The course addresses the burden and etiology of major NCDs and lays out a comprehensive framework for prevention and control. The framework covers primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention; population-level and individual-level approaches to delivering interventions; and major principles and strategies necessary for effective prevention including evidence-based public health, life-course approach, whole-of-government, and multi-sectoral action, among others.

SPRING. Introduces the major disease-causing microorganisms in the environment and their transmission through water, food, and air. Describes the organisms, pathogenesis, clinical diseases, reservoirs, modes of transmission, and epidemiology and surveillance systems. Discusses the transport, survival, and fate of pathogens in the environment, the concept of indicator organisms as surrogates for pathogens, and the removal and inactivation of pathogens and indicators by water and wastewater treatment processes. Presents examples of the public health impact of foodborne and waterborne diseases in developing countries.

FALL. The objective of the course is to encourage and facilitate improved risk communication and community engagement (RCCE) during public health emergencies among public health authorities and partner organizations through the building of RCCE core capacities.

FALL. This course will explore the public health impacts of global climate change, the responses undertaken by the health sector to become more resilient to those impacts, and potential mitigation efforts and activities. Public health responses will cover examples from around the world, and include issues around risk communication and implementation of the adaptation strategies. The course will provide a practical approach to conducting vulnerability and risk assessments, and students will be introduced to a range of skills to assess and respond to climate-related health impacts. Cross-listed with EH 582.

FALL. This course focuses on the history and current state of global mental health. The goal of this course will be to explore global influences and cultural variances of mental health. We will explore these effects on incidence and prevalence, early identification and intervention, access to care, and measurement and evaluation. Social determinants of mental health and mental illness will be reviewed with emphasis on low and middle-income countries (LMICs). This course will also focus on closing gaps to mental health care globally, with specific focus on promising practices for mental health promotion and illness prevention, and the adaptation and application of psychological treatments in LMICs.

SPRING. This course is designed to provide an overview of these processes and related deliberative bodies to help future public health professionals understand how their research and practice are used in evidence-based decision making.

SPRING. This course provides an overview of theories, case studies, and interventions related to gender-based violence, with a focus on lower-income settings and populations. Students are exposed to major theories that have advanced an understanding of the multilevel, social-ecological determinants of GBV, and the implications of GBV for adverse health outcomes across the life course, with a focus on sexual and reproductive health. Issues regarding GBV in highly vulnerable populations (including for example conflict-affected, adolescent, LGBTQ populations) are discussed to gain an understanding of GBV as gender justice and social justice issue, more broadly. Promising interventions for the primary and secondary prevention of GBV victimization and perpetration are emphasized with a focus on evidence based on rigorous impact evaluations. Ethical issues in conducting research on GBV are thoroughly addressed, enabling students to conduct their own research following international ethical guidelines. Legal frameworks and grass-roots social movements also are discussed. By the end of the course, students will have developed the ability to evaluate critically and to identify the relationships between theory, evidence, and practice related to gender-based violence in lower-income settings. This course is offered on alternate spring semesters.

FALL. Pre-requisites: GH521 or equivalent. Also open to learners with prior qualitative research experience at instructor’s discretion. The purpose of this methodology course is to provide learners with theoretical background, technical and critical thinking skills, and practical experience to conduct a health-related community assessment in a “Glocal” context and through a community engaged and asset-based process. The Community Health Assessment (CHA) is a vital planning tool to identify priority health assets, capacities and needs, target resources to address health inequalities and meaningfully involve stakeholders at the level of families, communities and/or populations in the assessment process. During the course of the semester learners will work intensively in small groups to produce a CHA using a rapid methodology. Class time is divided between lecture and lab time.

FALL. This course covers the essential principles of emergency preparedness and planning in the international context. Students will become familiar with concepts of the Sphere standards, cluster system, Incident Command System (ICS), emergency operation plan development, and tabletop exercises. The common pitfalls and challenges of emergency preparedness and planning will be discussed. Students will have the opportunity to review an existing plan and tabletop exercise and provide input for their improvement. Two-day intensive course.

FALL. This course will offer a sustained critical analysis of the complicated relationship between religion and sexuality, particularly in relation to issues of central concern to sexual and reproductive health. In the course, students will examine the teachings of various religious traditions (with a focus on Christianity and Islam) on sexuality from global perspectives, place those teachings in historical contexts, critically assess the impact of those teachings in the context of sexual and reproductive health initiatives in both national and international contexts, and work to align religion and sexual and reproductive health initiatives through group projects, debates, and case studies.

FALL. Prerequisites: Second year global health students only. This course is specifically designed for those who will be working in developing countries and/or countries in economic and political transition-working in the public sector, the non-governmental sector, the community or international organizations. In this course, we focus on two primary resources in any organization or program people and money-and the processes leading to high performance and quality. While derived from management theory and practice, the focus of this course is less on theory and more on application. This course focused on increasing your ability to analyze, explain and diagnose managerial and organizational dilemmas and generate solutions that are feasible. This will be done primarily through cases, group discussions and exercises. Lectures will provide background and theory. Course will not be offered after Fall 2023.

FALL/SPRING/SUMMER. An Applied Practice Experience (APE) is a unique opportunity that enables students to apply practical skills and knowledge learned through coursework to a professional public health setting that complements the student’s interests and career goals. The APE must be supervised by a Field Supervisor and requires approval from an APE Advisor designated by the student’s academic department at RSPH.

FALL/SPRING. The Humphrey Seminar is a major component of the Humphrey program on campus and serves as an introduction to many aspects of the U.S. culture and professional environment. The Seminar will include topics related to the program’s goals and the Fellows’ professional fields, allowing Fellows the opportunity to present and share information regarding their plans, work in their home country, and their professional activities.

SPRING. This is the foundational course for the Maternal and Child Health Certificate. It covers historical and theoretical underpinnings of maternal and child health problems and programs aimed to reduce morbidity, mortality, and health disparities. Skills in program planning and evaluation are taught through multidisciplinary teams working with academic and field-based faculty in local, state, federal, and nongovernmental agencies. Maternal and child health is defined as a field of public health that addresses underlying forces for these problems, the historical framework for ameliorating those problems, and current programs and policies that have evolved from that historical context. Maternal and child health programs are unique to reproduction and life course development; more common in women, infants, children, or adolescents; more serious in women, infants, children, or adolescents; or have manifestations, risk factors, or interventions that are different in women or during life course development.

FALL/SPRING/SUMMER. A completed and RSPH department approved directed study form is required prior to enrollment. Provides the opportunity to pursue a specialized course of study in an area of special interest. Complements rather than replaces or substitutes for course work.

SPRING.  Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory grading.  Prerequisites: GH501, GH502, GH511, GH512, GH521, GH531 and GH522 or GH 532 (some may be taken concurrently). The Capstone provides an opportunity for students to demonstrate skills acquired in prior coursework. Each capstone section will differ in content, based on instructor expertise, but all will require integration of deliverables from the HDGH Foundational, Program Cycle, and Quantitative and Qualitative sequences. At the end of the capstone course, each student will submit an individual deliverable in response to a global health challenge or opportunity. The deliverable may describe a program implementation plan or a formative research plan that will inform a future project, program or policy. All Capstone sections share the same underlying structure, of 10-15 students working closely with the instructor.  This option is not available for 3 semester accelerated students this 2023-2024 academic year.

FALL/SPRING/SUMMER. Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory grading.  All traditional students in the HDGH have the option to complete a thesis project in order to fulfill the requirements of the MPH degree. Currently, all Accelerated students must complete a thesis project.  This project is a rigorous academic requirement; as the culmination of the MPH experience, it is an independent, theory-based inquiry in which the student applies knowledge and skills acquired during the MPH program to the scholarly study of a public health problem. In HDGH, the thesis project may take the form of either a Special Studies Project (e.g. a deliverable for an organization) or a Research Project (e.g. systematic review, analysis of primary or secondary data) using quantitative, qualitative or other methodologies and presented in a traditional style or manuscript style.