The UW Community-Oriented Public Health Practice Master of Public Health (COPHP MPH) program is designed for students interested in training in applied public health practice. The degree prepares students for a fulfilling career as leaders in the field of community health.
This page is intended as an overview of the program’s curriculum. Courses and requirements listed on this page may be updated periodically to keep our curriculum relevant and beneficial to students.
Degree Requirements
- COPHP MPH requires students to earn a minimum of 63 course credits, including:
Curriculum
COPHP is centered around a small cohort, problem-based-learning (PBL) approach. This is reflected in the vast majority of our core courses. At times, we may occasionally draw on other methods, such as lectures, to best support the material.
Core Courses
All COPHP MPH program students complete the following core courses:
HSERV 531: Population Health and Community Development – Population Health considers social and other factors that determine health. The course challenges dominate views of health. We compare health in the United States with other countries. In Community Development, we learn asset-based community engagement. Students work directly with community members, advocates, and service organizations to address health issues.
HSERV 533: Quantitative Methods – Acquaints students with methods of epidemiology and biostatistics used in conceptualizing, collecting, analyzing, and interpreting quantitative data on health outcomes and risk factors with quantitative methods for evaluating programs or treatments that address health concerns in populations. Expands skills in communicating quantitative aspects of public health, using writing, tables, and graphs.
HSERV 534: Health Behavior, Health Promotion, and Environmental Health – Environmental Health reviews scientific principles utilized in environmental public health and examines the occurrence of diseases resulting from environmental and occupational exposures. Health Behavior and Promotion reviews theory and practice of planning and evaluating public health promotion problems and applying sound judgment when deciding about identification, audience segmentation, and intervention selection.
HSERV 538: Participatory Evaluation and Community Engagement – Covers concepts and approaches for program evaluation in public health. Uses one case, including a final assignment requiring students to work as a team to design an evaluation. Synthesizes accumulated skills and knowledge a public health professional uses to work with communities to advance public health. Integrates a broad array of skills to consolidate perspectives of the many players that interact in dynamic community settings.
HSERV 540: Management and Leadership – Explores the principles of leadership and management within the context of public health organizations. Explores the distinction between management and leadership and examines the management functions of planning, organizing, directing, and controlling the use of human and financial resources to accomplish the goals of the organization.
HSERV 553: Health Policy Development and Advocacy in the United States – Practice-oriented lecture course designed to enhance knowledge and cultivate skills for U.S. health policy development. Students learn effective policy analysis, research, and communications skills.
Core courses teach public health competencies through a problem-based learning (PBL) approach.
Through problem-based learning, students work in small teams to analyze public health cases, developing their own solutions with guidance from faculty instructors.
COPHP is centered on a small cohort PBL approach, but each course will use the instructional methods that are most appropriate for the educational content.
Faculty teams develop cases to meet each course’s learning objectives. By the time they graduate, students will have addressed more than 250 learning objectives through 50 cases.
View our Program Attributes and Learning Objectives page for more information.
Elective Courses
To fulfill the electives requirement, students can choose from a wide variety of courses offered by the UW School of Public Health and across the University of Washington.
Review the HSERV course catalog (levels 500+) to find all available elective/methods credits within the HSPop department.
Students who are also pursuing a graduate certificate in a public health specialty often take elective courses in their particular specialty.
Seminars
Seminars meet weekly throughout the program. They serve as ways to supplement coursework, showcase leaders and role models in the local public health community, and discuss transcending, urgent, and timely public health issues. The COPHP MPH Seminar is a class that all COPHP MPH students take together, offering opportunities for community-building and cohort-wide collaboration.
Practicum and Capstone
The practicum and capstone are experiential fieldwork projects that allow MPH students to apply what they’ve learned in the classroom to significant, hands-on work in a local health organization or agency.
Practicum
Takes place over three quarters during the first year of the program. Students gain transferrable skills while they work with a community partner to addresses a specific public health question or problem.
Capstone
Typically begins in autumn quarter of the second year, or in the summer before. Through this year-long project, students apply their increasingly advanced public health skills in a community-based setting by creating a project from the ground up.
Sample Schedule
This sample schedule is an example of course timing. Current students should reference Canvas and the time schedule for the most up-to-date information on course plans.
Students may make adjustments based on elective courses and/or suggestions from their advisor.