Welcome

Public health is difficult to define and yet all around us. What operated in the background of our lives suddenly became our national focus when the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic arrived. Yet there’s so much more to public health than viruses and infectious diseases. The U.S. and people across the globe are impacted by unhealthy diets, substance abuse, diabetes, and depression, to name just a few important current health issues. Whereas clinical medicine focuses on diagnosing and treating health issues, the focus of public health is upstream: how can these issues be prevented?

The Department of Public Health Sciences has a strong group of faculty, staff, and students who are passionate about the health of populations, here and around the world. We have renowned and up-and-coming experts in many areas of population health. For example, faculty in cancer prevention and control are designing interventions to reduce tobacco use and lose weight and are using novel data science methods to better understand optimal screening and treatment decisions for patients with chronic diseases in general. They are studying innovative clinical trial designs that can identify effective treatments early, as well as include thousands of individuals at a time. They are also learning optimal ways for providers to communicate with patients to improve health outcomes.

We have strong education programs, including an established Master of Public Health (MPH) program whose over 600 graduates work for a variety of health agencies around the Commonwealth and the country, and a long-standing MS Program in Clinical Research that provides a solid foundation of research knowledge and skills to those with clinical backgrounds. Our Global Public Health (GPH) undergraduate program is the largest track in UVA’s Global Studies program, providing students with opportunities to learn about critical global health issues and effective programs to address them. Finally, our new Certificate Program in Public Health will be offered in Charlottesville and Northern Virginia, to allow individuals to gain a strong foundation in public health research concepts.

We are a growing, dynamic, multidisciplinary department whose independent and collaborative research is having real world impact on important health issues. We encourage you to explore our website, including our educational programs, our faculty/staff profiles, and our current employment opportunities, and consider joining us!

— Public Health Sciences Leadership: Chair, Vice-Chairs, and Division Directors