Doctor of Public Health (Dr.P.H.) Competencies - Leadership, Practice, and Research
Each concentration identifies competencies for each degree offered. These competencies reflect the full range of knowledge, skills, and other attributes that a student will acquire as a result of completing the requirements for a particular degree.
Upon graduation, a student completing the Dr.P.H. curriculum in leadership, practice, and research will be able to:
Dr.P.H. Foundational Competencies (as required by the Council on Education for Public Health)
- Explain qualitative, quantitative, mixed methods, and policy analysis research and evaluation methods to address health issues at multiple (individual, group, organization, community, and population) levels;
- Design a qualitative, quantitative, mixed methods, policy analysis, or evaluation project to address a public health issue;
- Explain the use and limitations of surveillance systems and national surveys in assessing, monitoring, and evaluating policies and programs to address a population's health;
- Propose strategies for health improvement and elimination of health inequities by organizing stakeholders, including researchers, practitioners, community leaders, and other partners;
- Communicate public health science to diverse stakeholders, including individuals at all levels of health literacy, for purposes of influencing behavior and policies;
- Integrate knowledge, approaches, methods, values, and potential contributions from multiple professions and systems in addressing public health problems;
- Create a strategic plan;
- Facilitate shared decision-making through negotiation and consensus-building methods;
- Create organizational change strategies;
- Propose strategies to promote inclusion and equity within public health programs, policies, and systems;
- Assess one's own strengths and weaknesses in leadership capacities, including cultural proficiency;
- Propose human, fiscal, and other resources to achieve a strategic goal;
- Cultivate new resources and revenue streams to achieve a strategic goal;
- Design a system-level intervention to address a public health issue;
- Integrate knowledge of cultural values and practices in the design of public health policies and programs;
- Integrate scientific information, legal and regulatory approaches, ethical frameworks, and varied stakeholder interests in policy development and analysis;
- Propose interprofessional team approaches to improving public health;
- Assess an audience's knowledge and learning needs;
- Deliver training or educational experiences that promote learning in academic, organizational, or community settings; and
- Use best practice modalities in pedagogical practices.
Dr.P.H. in Leadership, Practice, and Research Competencies
- Analyze principles for effective communication in traditional and social media and develop skills for effectively representing organizations in the media;
- Use statistical computing packages to organize, analyze, and report data;
- Generate appropriate methods of formative and summative evaluation in training or educational experiences;
- Design reliable and valid measurement instruments; and
- Create a measurable, equitable, community-centered advocacy campaign plan to advance a public health issue.
Doctor of Public Health (Dr.P.H.) Program 
