Community Health Education, Ph.D.
The Department’s Ph.D. in Community Health Education is designed to engage doctoral students in an active learning environment that prepares them academically and professionally to conduct significant public health research and advanced practice. Graduates of the doctoral program take roles as researchers, academics, and public health leaders and professionals committed to social change and to facilitating the resolution of public health outcomes important to the community and field. The Ph.D. in Community Health Education requires 66 semester hours beyond an appropriate master’s degree (90 semester hours without a qualifying master’s degree). Students who enter with a master’s degree are required to earn a minimum of 51 hours of course credit and 15 hours of dissertation credit. The department’s faculty have a strong base in approaches that embrace the social ecological framework and are committed to community engaged interaction and research.
The educational objectives of the Ph.D. program are to:
- Provide an ecological perspective of health and the related advanced theory important in preparing students for careers in practice-based research.
- Prepare students to function as leaders in community-based prevention research in academic, research, or public health organizations.
- Provide experiences to ground students’ research in the problems and issues facing public health education practitioners and policymakers.
- Provide research experiences designed to develop the technical, conceptual, and communications skills required for independent research.
Assessment of courses or experiences applicable to the degree occurs at the time of admission into the program. The student’s doctoral program committee will work with each candidate to develop a course of study within the framework of the program and informed by the student’s personal interests, past course work, and professional experiences.
In addition to the minimum admission materials required by The Graduate School, applicants should submit a description of work experiences and a written statement of research and professional goals. In this statement, identify at least 2-3 faculty members with whom you would like to work. For best consideration, materials should be provided by December 2nd although strong students will be considered on a rolling basis until the class is filled. Admission is for the Fall only and applicants can be admitted as either full-time or part-time students.
Degree Program Requirements
Required: 66-90 credit hours
Entering doctoral students who have not completed one or more of the public health or health education core courses must complete these courses as part of their program in addition to the minimum 66 credit hours.
Code | Title | Credit Hours |
---|---|---|
Profession Core | 12-36 | |
Public Health Core * | 0-15 | |
Principles of Community Health Education | ||
Epidemiology | ||
Public Health Statistics | ||
Environmental Health | ||
Health Policy | ||
Health Education Core | 3-12 | |
Community Health Analysis ** | ||
Community Health Interventions ** | ||
Community Health Education Program Evaluation ** | ||
Advanced Theoretical Basis for Community Health Education | ||
Professional Development | 9 | |
Professional Development Seminar | ||
Teaching in Community Health Education | ||
Select at least one of the following: | ||
Promoting and Protecting Health through Entrepreneurship | ||
Doctoral Seminar in Grant Writing | ||
Professional Grant Writing for Community Organizations | ||
Research Core | 24 | |
Foundations | 6 | |
Foundations of Research for Public Health Education | ||
Community-Based Health Education Research | ||
Methods | 18 | |
Quantitative Methods in Public Health | ||
HEA 753 | ||
Advanced Program Evaluation in Public Health Education | ||
And select at least three courses from the following: *** | ||
Applied Multiple Regression | ||
Intermediate Statistical Methods in Education | ||
Design and Analysis of Educational Experiments | ||
Multivariate Analysis | ||
Structural Equation Modeling in Education | ||
Hierarchical Linear Modeling | ||
Survey Research Methods in Education | ||
Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analytic Methods for Scale Construction | ||
Statistical Methods for Research I | ||
Statistical Methods for Research II | ||
Nonparametric Statistics | ||
Biostatistical Methods | ||
Categorical Data Analysis | ||
Sample Survey Methods | ||
Statistical Applications for Nursing Research | ||
Statistical Applications for Nursing Research II | ||
Advanced Research Design in Human Development and Family Studies | ||
Advanced Data Analysis | ||
Statistical Methods in Psychology I | ||
Statistical Methods in Psychology II | ||
Survey Methods for Policy Research | ||
Qualitative Methods for Nursing | ||
Mixed Methods Research Design in Curriculum and Instruction | ||
Qualitative Data Collection and Analysis | ||
Introduction to Qualitative Inquiry: A Social Justice Approach | ||
Engaging Communication Scholarship II | ||
Case Study Methods in Educational Research | ||
Electives | 15 | |
Select 15 credits from the following: **** | ||
Management of Community Health Organizations | ||
Conflict Resolution and Coalition Building | ||
Social Epidemiology | ||
Global Health Issues | ||
Gender and Health | ||
Health Communication | ||
Immigrant and Refugee Health | ||
Problems Seminar | ||
Advanced Community Health Projects | ||
Topics in Community Health Research | ||
Foundations of Educational Measurement Theory | ||
Advanced Theory in HDFS | ||
Seminar: Social Psychology and Physical Activity | ||
Nutrition and Aging | ||
Urban and Regional Development Policy | ||
Dissertation | 15 | |
Doctoral Dissertation Research |
* | May be waived with accredited MPH/MS degree; or related degree. |
** | May be waived with accredited MPH/MS in H.E./H.E. related degree. |
*** | Students should work with Advisor and committee to select coursework complementary of expected dissertation method needs. Additional methods courses taken beyond required may count as part of elective requirements. |
**** | The following list provides examples of possible electives. Elective choices should be made under the advisement of the student's doctoral program committee. A minimum of 6 semester hours of HEA courses is required. Additional Methods or Professional Development courses taken above those required may be counted toward elective requirements. |