MPH in Community Health

For students who began matriculating in Spring 2019 or earlier, please review the previous competencies for the MPH in Community Health Education here.

Core Competencies:

Evidence-based Approaches to Public Health

• Apply epidemiological methods to settings and situations in public health practice
• Select quantitative and qualitative data collection methods appropriate for a given public health context
• Analyze quantitative and qualitative data using biostatistics, informatics, computer-based programming and software, as appropriate
• Interpret results of data analysis for public health research, policy or practice

Public Health & Health Care Systems

• Compare the organization, structure, and function of health care, public health and regulatory systems across national and international settings
• Discuss the means by which structural bias, social inequities and racism undermine health and create challenges to achieving health equity at organizational, community and systemic levels

Planning & Management to Promote Health

• Assess population needs, assets, and capacities that affect communities’ health
• Apply awareness of cultural values and practices to the design, implementation or critique of public health policies or programs
• Design a population-based policy, program, project or intervention
• Explain basic principles and tools of budget and resource management (“Resource management” refers to stewardship (planning, monitoring, etc.) of resources throughout a project, not simply preparing a budget statement that projects what resources will be required.)
• Select methods to evaluate public health programs

Policy in Public Health

• Discuss the policy-making process, including the roles of ethics and evidence (This competency refers to technical aspects of how public policies are created and adopted, including legislative and/or regulatory roles and processes, ethics in public policy making, and the role of evidence in creating policy.)
• Propose strategies to identify stakeholders and build coalitions and partnerships for influencing public health outcomes
• Advocate for political, social, or economic policies and programs that will improve health in diverse populations (This competency refers to the ability to influence policy and/or decision making, such as through stakeholder mobilization, educating policy makers, etc. Ability to argue in support of (or in opposition to) a position, as in a standard debate, is not sufficient. Students must produce a product that would be part of an advocacy campaign or effort (e.g., legislative testimony, fact sheets, advocacy strategy outline, etc.).)
• Evaluate policies for their impact on public health and health equity
  

Leadership

• Apply leadership and/or management principles to address a relevant issue (Such principles may include creating a vision, empowering others, fostering collaboration, and guiding decision making.)
• Apply negotiation and mediation skills to address organizational or community challenges (“Negotiation and mediation,” in this competency, refers to the set of skills needed when a common solution is required among parties with conflicting interests and/or different desired outcomes. Such skills extend beyond the level of negotiation required in a successful intra-group process; effective communication within a work group or team is more closely related to competency)

Communication

• Select communication strategies for different audiences and sectors
• Communicate audience-appropriate (i.e., non-academic, non-peer audience) public health content, both in writing and through oral presentation
• Describe the importance of cultural competence in communicating public health content

Interprofessional and/or Intersectoral Practice

• Integrate perspectives from other sectors and/or professions to promote and advance population health (This competency requires direct engagement (in-person or online) between the student and an individual or individuals in a profession or sector other than public health; students must combine the external sector/profession’s perspective and/or knowledge with their own public health training to complete a task, solve a problem, etc.. Role-playing, in which public health students assume the identity of an individual from another profession or sector to which they do not already belong, is not an acceptable substitute for actual engagement with an individual or individuals from a profession or sector outside of public health.)
• Apply a systems thinking tool to visually represent a public health issue in a format other than standard narrative (Systems thinking tools depict or map complex relationships, demonstrating, for example, how component parts of a system interact with and influence one another. Examples include causal loop diagrams, systems archetypes, network analyses, and concept maps. Logic models and evidence tables are not sufficient to address this competency.)

Systems Thinking

• Apply a systems thinking tool to visually represent a public health issue in a format other than standard narrative (Systems thinking tools depict or map complex relationships, demonstrating, for example, how component parts of a system interact with and influence one another. Examples include causal loop diagrams, systems archetypes, network analyses, and concept maps. Logic models and evidence tables are not sufficient to address this competency.)

Environmental Sciences

• Apply concepts from relevant scientific disciplines, such as toxicology and physiology, to anticipate effects of environmental, occupational and nutritional exposures on both human health and overall planetary health

Concentration Competencies:

1. Discuss socially just and culturally responsive principles and strategies to community organizing, community health assessment, program planning, implementation, or evaluation activities
2. Engage with communities to assess health problems and inequities, and propose actionable solutions
3. Critique and analyze the interdependency of structures and systems that shape health in complex and dynamic ways
4. Develop research or an evaluation plan and analytic approach that will inform solutions to community health issues
5. Evaluate the roles that diverse sectors and interdisciplinary collaborations can play in community health initiatives
6. Analyze how structural bias, social inequities, poverty, and/or racism undermine health and health equity

For students interested in Maternal, child, reproductive and sexual health (MCRSH), CUNY SPH offers specialized coursework and mentorship opportunities designed to provide a theoretical understanding of and foundation for research in these topics.

MCRSH-related coursework:

• PUBH 611: Health Equity, Communication, and Advocacy
• CHSS 622 – Community Organizing to Advance Health and Social Justice
• CHSS 625 – Advanced Seminar on Intersectoral Partnerships
• PUBH 840: Maternal, Child, Reproductive and Sexual Health in Context
• PUBH 841: Maternal, Child, Reproductive and Sexual Health: A Life Course Perspective
• PUBH 643: Adolescent Health
• CHSS 641 – LGBTQ Health
• EPID 627: Reproductive and Perinatal Epidemiology
• PUBH 651: Sexual Health Promotion
• PUBH 644: Global Maternal & Child Health Global Maternal & Child Health
• PUBH 650: Qualitative Research Methods
• CHSS 627: Social Marketing and Health Communication Theory and Practice
• CHSS 640: Communicating Public Health
• EOHS 630: Principles of GISc for Public Health

Many CUNY SPH faculty members have research expertise and mentorship experience in the field of MCRSH. If you’re interested in a mentorship, contact your faculty advisor.

Alumni outcomes data was collected via surveys of CUNY SPH alumni one year after graduation from 2016 to 2022. See more program outcomes here.