Curriculum

A photo of a neighborhood in Guatemala City, Guatemala. A photo of a neighborhood in Guatemala City, Guatemala.

Advanced Academic Preparation in Sustainable Global Health

The Master of Arts in Global Health and Society (GHS) provides students with an interdisciplinary social scientific perspective for understanding how global health outcomes relate to society, culture, and the environment. Increasingly, international development professionals and medical practitioners are confronted with emerging health issues that stem from policies and practices that affect groups of at-risk individuals and communities. Drawing upon emerging strengths in the social sciences, this degree prepares students for a career in health policy, analysis, and social and political aspects of health and disease. 

Our degree program boasts two tracks in which currently there are no comparable tracks in South Florida. Graduates from our program will be able to help build partnerships and active participation around critical health issues in communities throughout the world; develop the capacity to address, prevent, and/or mitigate health risks in increasingly dynamic environments associated with global issues. Graduates of this program will be prepared for careers in government organizations, non-government organizations and international institutions.

Our Tracks

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  • General Track in Global Health

    This track is designed for professionals who are already in the health field, or for those who desire to enter health profession, but require substantial social science and epidemiological knowledge and methodologies to complete their education. It provides training in both qualitative and quantitative research methods. Students interested in this track may have a strong interest in working in developing countries or underserved areas.

    Click here to view the curriculum for this track.

  • Track in Policy, Governance, and Advocacy

    This track focuses on the global health policies and governance models that are aimed at addressing the challenges that impact health conditions of various countries and populations throughout the world. This concentration prepares students to understand and critically evaluate global policy frameworks. Students in this track will analyze key issues and controversies in global health policy and delivery (e.g. priority setting, health systems, primary health care, equity considerations).

    Students will acquire the professional skills necessary for working with policy makers in ministries, public health professionals, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and international organizations (IGOs). These skills combined with their understanding of policy and governance prepares students to assist private, non-profit and for profit organizations to reach out to different health systems, helping to formulate new global and community health strategies.

    Click here to view the curriculum for this track.

  • Track in Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR), Monitoring and Evaluation

    Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) is a methodology that has been widely endorsed by major global health players, including the NIH’s Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research. CBPR skills include the structured and open-ended interviewing, as well as the analysis of the resultant data. These skills are particularly prized by prospective employers and are in high demand among companies around the world.

    Our track in CBPR will provide students with the skills previously mentioned as well as the ability to build partnerships and generate active participation in addressing critical health issues in communities throughout the world. Students will learn how to integrate community members, local stakeholders, elected officials, and researchers in the design, implementation, interpretation of community-based participatory studies as well as uses of research and evaluation results to develop integrated policies to improve the wellbeing of community members.

    Those students who complete this track will have the professional degree necessary for placement in community health research projects which address questions of delivering biomedical care to culturally distinctive populations and may or may not address questions of complementary and alternative health care.

    Click here to view the curriculum for this track.