VCU news

This fall, students will have the chance to choose a new master’s concentration in Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Public Health. 

The health policy concentration will prepare Master of Public Health students to advance population health through policy and advocacy, as they study next door to the Virginia State Capitol. 

It will become the fourth concentration in the School of Public Health’s M.P.H. program, which already includes concentrations in applied public health, epidemiology, and cancer health equity science. 

“We’re becoming even stronger in our educational mission and going beyond our Ph.D. program to be more involved in the M.P.H. program,” said Peter Cunningham, Ph.D., interim chair of the Department of Health Policy. “I’m very excited about it because it’s going to draw in more students to the M.P.H. program who have an interest in health policy, and then some of them will graduate and maybe serve in state government or potentially even the federal government. Some of them might decide to continue their education and enroll in our Ph.D. program.”

The inaugural class will join the Department of Health Policy, which currently includes a Healthcare Policy and Research Ph.D. program and M.D./Ph.D. program. 

Program details

The M.P.H. in health policy is a 45-credit, two-year program for full-time students or three to five years part-time.

Concentration courses include:

• Data Management and Visualization.

• Healthcare Policy and Politics.

• Health Economics: Theory and Principles.

This article was originally published on the School of Public Health’s website.