MPH Values, Mission and Goals
Our Vision
A future where communities are empowered to promote health, to foster respect, and to advance equity in Virginia and beyond.
Mission Statement
UVA PHS students volunteer in the community garden. (Photo taken by Abby Sacks.)
The mission of the University of Virginia’s Master of Public Health Program is to advance the field of public health by providing an interdisciplinary, interprofessional environment that fosters the success of each student as they develop comprehensive public health knowledge, competencies, and professional values; identify and pursue individualized educational and professional goals in the breadth of public health settings and sectors; and collaborate with faculty and community partners to improve health equity and overall population health and well-being.
Program Goals
- To create an interdisciplinary, interprofessional environment with students and faculty members of diverse backgrounds, interests, and expertise.
- To create an environment in which students are supported as they attain the knowledge, competencies, and values of public health.
- To foster the identification and realization of individual student’s unique personal and professional goals.
- To offer a variety of public health opportunities to students through applied and integrated learning that will prepare them for roles in the public health workforce.
- To work continually to improve the health of populations by providing service and consultation to public health agencies and organizations at the local, state, national and international level.
- To provide an academic environment in which faculty and students advance the fields of public health research and practice.
- To establish and maintain thorough systematic program evaluation and development.
- To engage students in developing an understanding of public health professionalism (as outlined in the department’s concept statement).
Program Values
Develop and realize a public health education program that offers instruction of the highest quality, emphasizing learning, research, and practical application of knowledge. Offer a program that directly benefits students, the University, and the local community, and promotes national and international public health.
Promote the highest level of health for all people and the belief in health as a public good and fundamental right. Focus on community-centered collaborations targeting avoidable inequalities and disparities, especially for those who have experienced injustices. Generate and disseminate information to increase awareness and empower communities.
Promote and celebrate diversity as a strength and an enrichment of the learning environment, and as a central tenet which informs community and professional engagement by students, faculty, and staff of the Program. Empower students and faculty with the necessary skill sets designed to explore the existence of differences. Appreciate the influence of bias, assumptions, and expectations in public health research and service.
Emphasize the importance of integrity and stewardship exemplified by responsible resource management. Aid professionals in making decisions based on ethical and respectful promotion of public health. Promote the highest standards of accountability, transparency and respectful practices in the tradition of the institutional setting of UVa to foster an environment of trust and integrity. Please click here for information regarding the UVa honor system.
Encourage the tenets of collaborative work ethics found within the public health fields. Stress the value of mutual support, networking, and consensus building, and the importance of active, meaningful and sustained participatory approaches to enhance instruction, research, and service.
Ensure that Program objectives are meaningful to the practice of public health and capable of being evaluated by qualitative or quantitative measurement to facilitate continuous Program analyses and improvement.
Commitment to Professionalism
As a Program committed to Leadership and Collaboration in Education and Research, we strive to foster and model behavior among faculty, staff and students that demonstrates Respect, Responsibility, Self-Regulation, Self-Awareness, Humility, Integrity and Appropriateness. Professionalism should be individualized, applicable to the practice setting, and based on a critical examination of professionalism in Public Health Practice.