Program Contacts

DrPH Lead - Epidemiology

Marci Sontag, PhD

DrPH-Epidemiology

The DrPH Program in Epidemiology is designed to develop public health leaders who are skilled in identifying factors that affect the health of a population and developing the framework to guide interventions to improve public health. Epidemiologic principles incorporate disease surveillance, outbreak investigation, and study design and analysis, with underlying biologic principles that cause disease in human populations. Epidemiologists may study communicable diseases as well chronic diseases, their causes and outcomes. Graduates will be prepared to describe the scientific principals underlying a disease process and apply appropriate analytic skills to assess associations and proposed appropriate interventions.

Admissions requirement

In addition to the general admissions requirements for the DrPH program, the Focus Area in Epidemiology requires the following:

MPH or MSPH in epidemiology or equivalent. Courses to be taken as co-requisites if student does not meet these requirements are EPID 6631 and BIOS 6601 and 6602 and at least an additional 6 credits of graduate level work in Epidemiology or Biostatistics.

The online application will be available soon. Please complete the Request More Information Form to be notified when the application is available.

DrPH Epidemiology Coursework

DrPH students in the Epidemiology Focus Area will follow the structure outlined for all DrPH students. The 12 hrs of credit in the Focus Area will include the following:

3 hrs of advanced epidemiology methods (EPID 6632): This is an advanced course on epidemiologic methods designed to improve the student’s ability to conduct and interpret observational epidemiologic studies.

3 hrs of advanced epidemiology or biostatistics courses selected to meet the individual student’s needs. Coursework will enhance the student’s analytic skill set, and will be chosen from courses in advanced logistic regression, advanced statistical modeling, outbreak investigation, pharmacoepidemiology, surveillance methods, or medical informatics.

3 hrs of applied public health field methods (EPID 7912) – DrPH students have the opportunity to work with faculty on current epidemiologic projects to develop skills in field research, proposal writing, budget development, staff hiring and training, protocol and instrument development and implementation, and specific public health methods topics.

3 hrs of applied public health analytic methods (EPID 7916) - Advanced treatment of techniques in the analysis of epidemiological public health problems, including surveillance, disease outbreak, time-dependent, survival data, causality, missing data, etc. Students will analyze data sets currently on file using contemporary epidemiological methods.

It is recommended that all Epidemiology students fulfill the Minor requirement with 6 hours of advanced biostatistical methods (BIOS 6611 and BIOS 6612) – two courses in applied statistics covering elementary probability, descriptive, parametric and non-parametric methods for one and two sample estimation/testing univariate linear modeling and emphasizing multiple regression and analysis of variance. Logistic regression and methods for correlated data are also covered. Matrix algebra and the statistical package SAS will be used.

Selective credit hours (9) will build the student’s specific area of expertise, leading to the qualifying exams and dissertation. Examples of areas of specialization for Epidemiology include (but are not limited to) the following: infectious disease, cardiovascular disease, chronic diseases, pharmacology, nutrition, physical activity, and cancer prevention and control. Coursework to fulfill the selectives requirement may be taken in the School of Public Health or another relevant school or department. Courses must be selected in consultation with the student’s advisor.