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April 1, 2010

GSPH adds one PhD program, revises another

For students interested in the role behavioral and social factors play in illness and health, the Department of Behavioral and Community Health Sciences at the Graduate School of Public Health has established a PhD program and revised its longstanding doctor of public health program.

The new PhD program will train students to develop interventions grounded in the social and behavioral sciences and test them in randomized controlled trials, while the revised DrPH program will focus on the translation, implementation and evaluation of evidence-based interventions for use in community settings through the department’s Institute for Evaluation Science in Community Health.

Jeanette M. Trauth, director of the doctoral programs and faculty member in the Department of Behavioral and Community Health Sciences, said: “This approach to doctoral education encourages PhD students to learn from practitioners in the DrPH program and vice versa. We believe this ongoing exchange between the worlds of theory and practice will result in a new generation of scholars and practitioners who will be trained to work together to address the world’s most pressing public health problems.”

Students in the PhD program will receive instruction in qualitative and quantitative methodological approaches to behavioral and social science research.

The curriculum for the DrPH program will be guided by newly developed competencies for professional education. Half of the coursework in the programs will overlap. A commitment to the elimination of health disparities and working with underserved populations will underlie coursework in both programs.

For more information, contact Natalie Arnold at narnold@pitt.edu.


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