This certificate is designed for working health or human service professionals, and includes the core content from our MPH degree programs. Students are able to register, receive materials, interact with faculty and fellow students, and complete this program without traveling to campus.

As part of the Public Health Practice major, the certificate program provides training that prepares public health workers and others to respond to emerging public health issues. Many students use what they learn to enhance opportunities in their current work or career path.  Others are benefited from learning about public health to confirm their interest in public health and then use the Public Health Core Concept Certificate as a spring-board into a MPH of their choice.

After completing the PubH Core Concept Certificate, you are eligible to apply to a MPH and apply the PubH Core Concept Certificate credits to the MPH, if appropriate.  One thing to note is that if you completed the PubH Core Concept with a CUM GPA of 3.25 or higher you may apply to MPH.  When applying to a MPH program, Public Health Core Concept alumni are required to complete a SOPHAS application.

Also, you may be eligible to take the Public Health Certificate Exam (CPH Exam) after you have completed the Public Health Core Concept Certificate and if you meet either of two additional eligibility criteria:

• Minimum of three years of public health experience OR
• Possession of a relevant graduate degree

Benefits of the CPH Credential:

• Demonstrate commitment to public health beyond your academic training
• Show public health expertise by evidencing mastery of the core sciences of public health
• Protect the public by staying current in public health
• Meeting the standard of the profession by maintaining the credential
• Distinguish yourself from others
• Advance cohesiveness and collaboration with your peers by a professionally approved common body of knowledge
• Elevate the profession of public health
• Ensure high standards that better serve the health of the public

If you continue with a MPH degree, you are eligible to take the exam after completion or concurrent enrollment in the graduate-level core content (biostatistics, epidemiology, health services/policy management, environmental health, social behavioral sciences).