PUBLIC HEALTH (PUBH)

Additional Resources 

Courses

PUBH 420.  HIV/AIDS Course.  1 Credits.  

This course offers participants a multidisciplinary perspective on HIV/AIDS -- its etiology, immunology, epidemiology and impact on individuals and society. The course will ask what lessons about pandemics can be learned from studying HIV/AIDS, with a specific focus on parallels with COVID-19. Open to undergraduate, graduate, and professional students.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Pass/Fail.  
PUBH 610.  Introductory Spanish for Health Professionals.  3 Credits.  

This course is intended for students who know no Spanish or so little that they feel the need to start over. Students with more than two semesters of college Spanish are not eligible. The course covers the curriculum of first-semester Spanish taught within a health context, with a focus on speaking.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: NURS 610.  
PUBH 613.  Intermediate Spanish for Health Care I.  3 Credits.  

This intermediate course is the equivalent of the third semester of college Spanish. Students will hone their listening and speaking skills in class primarily through role-playing activities and class discussion. Activities center on an original film set in a health clinic in rural North Carolina.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
PUBH 615.  Advanced Spanish for Health Care I.  3 Credits.  

Required preparation, third semester Spanish or equivalent. This advanced course reviews the grammar of the third and fourth semester of college Spanish. Students hone their listening and speaking skills through role-playing activities and class discussion. Activities center on an original film set in a Latino-run health clinic.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
PUBH 690.  Special Topics in Public Health Leadership.  1-3 Credits.  

Permission of the instructor. Sections will focus on specific topics of current interest to health workers. Fliers describing the section offering will be distributed prior to registration each semester. Lecture hours per week dependent upon credit.

Rules & Requirements  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit; may be repeated in the same term for different topics; 12 total credits. 4 total completions.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
PUBH 696.  Independent Study.  1-3 Credits.  

Independent Study to address goals and objects of student. Prior faculty agreement is required. Registration for an independent study course must be completed after the learning contract has been approved and no later than the last day of "late registration" (the end of the first week of classes in F/S).

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
PUBH 701.  Cost-Effectiveness in Health and Medicine.  2 Credits.  

Overview of economic evaluations of public health and health care interventions, understanding basic methods of cost-effectiveness analyses (CEA) and use of CEA to inform resource allocation decisions. Critically appraise CEA for internal validity and applicability. Explore controversial CEA issues, including methodological controversies and ethical issues for the prioritization of resources.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
PUBH 702.  Systematic Review.  2 Credits.  

Course gives students background in assessing and conducting systematic reviews. Focuses on 1) reading, discussing, and critiquing systematic reviews on various topics; 2) reading background and methods articles on systematic reviews; 3) developing a focused question for systematic review; and 4) developing a protocol for a systematic review over the semester.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: EPID 702.  
PUBH 705.  One Health: Philosophy to Practical Integration.  1-3 Credits.  

This course explores the intersection of human, animal, and environmental health and facilitates the understanding of health as an inexorably linked system requiring multidisciplinary collaborative efforts. The One Health concept demonstrates the importance of a holistic approach to disease prevention and the maintenance of human, animal, and environmental health.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: ENVR 705.  
PUBH 706.  Health Policy for Clinicians.  3 Credits.  

This course provides a foundational understanding of the policy process and how evidence-based policy can be used to address major US health system problems, particularly at the nexus of public health and clinical care. There is additional focus on the role of law, politics and public health ethics in addressing public health issues, and the role of clinical professionals in advocating to advance public health policy priorities including equity.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
PUBH 708.  Place-Informed Health Communications.  3 Credits.  

In-depth examination and practice of methods for communicating health messages to and with groups and populations. Public health communication theory, sociocultural issues, and communications contexts including place, are explored while developing communication skills and strategies. Topics include health communication research, data visualization, media advocacy, communication with policy makers, social media, public health presentations, use of technology, health promotion materials development, and health and media literacy. Emphasis on written and oral communication to promote health.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisites, SPHG 713 and PUBH 734.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
PUBH 710.  Introduction to Global Health Ethics.  1 Credits.  

This course is designed to give students the skills to identify and effectively address ethical issues that arise in global health research and practice.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
PUBH 711.  Critical Issues in Global Health.  3 Credits.  

Explores contemporary issues/controversies in global health through an interdisciplinary perspective; examines complexity of social, economic, political, and environmental factors affecting global health; analyzes global health disparities through a social justice lens; and exposes students to opportunities in global health work and research.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
PUBH 712.  Global Health Ethics.  3 Credits.  

This course will introduce students to the theoretical and practical aspects of public health ethics. Develop student's analytical skills to evaluate ethical issues related to public health policy, prevention, treatment, and research. Topics include: ethical reasoning; concepts of justice; principles of interacting with communities; professional conduct and research. Online course.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
PUBH 714.  Introduction to Monitoring and Evaluation of Global Health Programs.  3 Credits.  

Fundamental concepts/tools for monitoring/evaluating public health programs including HIV/AIDS/STDs, maternal/child health, environment, and nutrition. Concepts and practices in M&E will be covered: logic models, theory of change, indicators, data collection methods, process evaluation, research design, and mixed methods. Small group work to create M&E plan for global health case-study. Online.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
PUBH 718.  Systems and Design Thinking for Public Health Leaders.  3 Credits.  

Using powerful tools from engineering and management, this course equips students to conceptualize, design, and analyze public health and healthcare delivery systems for successful implementation.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisite, PUBH 791; Only MPH LIP students pre-req.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
PUBH 720.  HIV/AIDS Course.  1 Credits.  

This course offers participants a multidisciplinary perspective on HIV/AIDS and COVID -- their etiology, immunology, epidemiology, and impact on individuals and society. How pandemics are framed by a society determines not only how affected persons are treated but also the degree to which the rights of the individual are upheld.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
PUBH 723.  The Political Determinants of Health.  3 Credits.  

The course uses Daniel Dawes' "The Political Determinants of Health" as its foundational text, with additional readings and resources to further supplement the students' understanding of how the political determinants - voting, government and public policy - operate to structure decisions and systems that allocate opportunities for people and communities to be healthy, to succeed and to thrive...or not.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisite, SPHG 721 or instructor permission.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
PUBH 724.  Public Health and Migration.  2 Credits.  

This course examines migration from a global public health perspective. We take a broad understanding of migration, as the process of moving from one's place of origin to another compelled by different factors (i.e., economic, political, environmental). We discuss social determinants of migration and its health effects, and public health interventions. This class teaches students basic qualitative research skills, including drafting qualitative research questions, interview guides, and conducting and analyzing in-depth interviews.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
PUBH 725.  The HIV/AIDS Course Online.  1 Credits.  

This online course offers a multidisciplinary perspective on HIV/AIDS -- its etiology, immunology, epidemiology, and impact on individuals and society. How HIV/AIDS is framed by a society determines not only how affected persons are treated but also the degree to which the rights of the individual are upheld.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
PUBH 729.  Migration and Health.  3 Credits.  

This course explores the linkage between migration and health by taking into account existing models and frameworks that assess the dynamics of an increasingly mobile society. The course evaluates trends in health outcomes among migrants, social determinants of health that affect new migrants and migrant health across the life course. Other elements: labor migration and occupational health; place-based health; access to health coverage; health service provision to migrants.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
PUBH 730.  Leading Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) in Public Health Locally And Globally.  3 Credits.  

Overview of continuous quality improvement (CQI) applications in public health in local and global settings including its important relationship to leadership and equity. Focus on practical skills and tools with sufficient theory to understand the origins of the philosophy and describe/analyze processes encompassed by CQI. For working public health practitioners with current or future management/leadership responsibilities driven by equity within their organizations and for individuals interested in applied CQI in their personal lives worldwide.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisite, PUBH 791; applies only to Leadership in Practice concentration MPH students.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
PUBH 731.  Public Health Social Marketing.  3 Credits.  

Course will orient students to market-based strategies, models, and tactics for improving individual and community health status within the framework of marketing, strategic communication, and advocacy. Online course.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
PUBH 734.  Place-based Theory in Public Health.  2 Credits.  

This course addresses concepts of place-based public health including the histories of people, landscapes, landmarks, culture, structures, and/or other aspects of place and how they provide assets and barriers for a community's health. Students compare public health concepts of a place-based approach with multiple disciplines' perspectives on place. Students integrate concepts with visits to, and experiences with, people and health institutions in Western North Carolina. Fall.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
PUBH 736.  Individual Transformation Applied to Public Health and Place.  2 Credits.  

In this course, students assess personality preferences and leadership styles to better understand themselves, their values, and their relationship to the identities and values of others and effectively engage groups and communities. They examine social location and structures and their effects on preferences, personality, and styles; personal health; and public and community health. They deepen their knowledge and awareness to facilitate transformation of self and public health teams to implement multi-level change efforts.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
PUBH 737.  Place-based Research & Evaluation Methods.  2 Credits.  

This course is an applied research workshop that engages students in foundational skill-building, from interrogating history and foundations of public health research, to developing a research question, describing methods and approaches, and sharing research findings, informed by place and practice. The course focuses on a range of research methods and how to appropriately apply them to study and improve health. Students develop a research study proposal in this course.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisites, SPHG 711, SPHG 712, SPHG 713, PUBH 734, and PUBH 736; permission from the instructor for students lacking the prerequisites.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
PUBH 738.  Place-based Community Transformation.  3 Credits.  

This course explores the who, what, where, when, why, and how of community health transformation. We learn about cultural context, purpose, and approaches supporting and enacting health justice from community co-educators; engage with models (Participatory Action Research and Community-Based Participatory Research/Action) and resources; explore the roles of history, perspective, relationships, and trust in community work; visit to/with community co-educators, engage in community-collaborative activities, and analyze a community health transformation.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisite, PUBH 737.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
PUBH 739.  Place-Based Systems Transformation.  3 Credits.  

This course provides opportunities to understand, investigate, interrogate, and reimagine complex systems as they relate to health care, public health, and social drivers of health. Students evaluate a wide variety of factors impacting health outcomes using a case-based and problem-based approach in multiple systems, with place as a core construct.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisite, SPHG 713.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
PUBH 740.  Implementation of Place-based Theory and Design in Public Health.  3 Credits.  

In response to Western North Carolina organizations' requests, students use place-based principles to understand public health issues and design community-based, multi-level interventions. Student teams and interested parties explore community priorities and perceptions, and then student teams develop sustainable plans for host organizations to implement.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisites, PUBH 734, PUBH 736, PUBH 737, PUBH 738, and PUBH 739.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
PUBH 743.  Climate Change and Human Health.  3 Credits.  

This course will produce foundational knowledge for public health professionals to understand and help mitigate the global and regional human health impacts of climate change. This course leverages the expertise of experts in Asheville at the National Centers for Environmental Information and the Climate Program Office within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisites, SPHG 711, 712, and 713.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
PUBH 746.  Planning, Implementing, and Evaluating Public Health Interventions.  3 Credits.  

This course provides you with the knowledge and skills needed to plan, implement, and evaluate public health interventions. You will refine and enhance your understanding of specific public health problems; identify and prioritize potential solutions; consider community assets, needs, culture and context; adapt evidence-based interventions for a particular context; and develop proposed solutions with an eye on equity. Final deliverables: written project plan and oral pitch in support of your solution. PHC Concentration Students only.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
PUBH 747.  Project Management Principles and Practices.  3 Credits.  

Graduate students only. Provides an overview of knowledge and skills required for effective project/team leadership and management. Includes modules on leadership, management techniques, application of continuous quality improvement, and project management as well as organizational designs that complement team-based organizations. Online course.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
PUBH 748.  Leadership in Health Policy for Social Justice.  3 Credits.  

This course will provide students with the knowledge and skills to develop policies that address public health challenges, with an emphasis on improving health equity, promoting social justice, and creating systems in which the human right to health is given full effect.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisites, PUBH 791; MPH LIP students pre-req only.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
PUBH 749.  LEADERSHIP & PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR CLINICIANS.  2 Credits.  

Designed for students in the Population Health for Clinicians concentration in the MPH program who are preparing to work on their practicum and master's paper. This course focuses on developing Leadership skills at the intersection of healthcare and public health, and preparing students to engage in public health practice. Taken in Fall and Spring semesters.

Rules & Requirements  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit. 4 total credits. 2 total completions.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
PUBH 750.  Strategies of Prevention for Clinicians.  3 Credits.  

This course for students in the PHC concentration establishes a framework for examining prevention strategies delivered in healthcare and public health settings and considers several important health problems and the evidence for applying prevention strategies to these health problems. Students learn and apply skills related to identifying public health problems and appropriate prevention strategies, and communicating about risk to diverse audiences. Encourages active student participation and involves a multidisciplinary faculty.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
PUBH 751.  Critical Appraisal of Health Literature I.  2 Credits.  

Emphasizes the process of critical appraisal of existing medical research literature, with examples from a variety of subject areas. Students must be enrolled in the Population Health for Clinicians Concentration or have permission of the instructor to enroll.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
PUBH 752.  Critical Appraisal of Health Literature II.  1 Credits.  

Emphasizes the process of critical appraisal of existing medical research literature, with examples from a variety of subject areas. Student presentations of structured critical appraisals constitute about 50 percent of sessions. Students must be enrolled in the Population Health for Clinicians Concentration or have permission of the instructor to enroll.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
PUBH 754.  Research Frameworks and Methods for Assessing and Improving Population Health.  3 Credits.  

This course is designed to provide students with the fundamental research and analytic methods needed by public health leaders to assess the effectiveness, efficiency, and equity of healthcare in order to improve population health. The focus will be on research skills needed by practitioners with the objective of improving health outcomes.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
PUBH 755.  Translating Evidence into Practice for Population Health.  2 Credits.  

The course provides an engaging, intellectual environment for students to discuss conceptual frameworks, study designs, and population outcome measures for closing the gap between evidence and daily practice across important population subgroups and in diverse clinical settings. Students complete a series of assignments, including a final paper and presentation.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
PUBH 760.  Clinical Measurement and Evaluation.  3 Credits.  

Provide a broad-based introduction to the concepts and methods of epidemiology with particular emphasis on their application in clinical research, clinical practice and health care policy.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: EPID 711.  
PUBH 763.  The Politics of Health Reform, Quality, Outcomes, and Effectiveness.  3 Credits.  

Systematic analysis of recent reforms to the U.S. health care system, including passage and initial implementation of the Affordable Care Act, with particular attention to how reform is intended to improve access, quality, equity, and effectiveness and whether reform can accomplish this while controlling cost.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
PUBH 767.  Team Leadership in Research Navigation.  3 Credits.  

Team leadership and management practices with an emphasis on successful team leadership in clinical research. Team effectiveness strategies provide framework for development of successful leadership of teams undertaking clinical research.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
PUBH 769.  Public Health Leadership Lessons.  0.5-3 Credits.  

PUBH 769 is a public health leadership topics course to explore leadership lessons. This section will focus on leadership during crisis using the experiences with the COVID 19 pandemic as examples. By permission of instructor

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisite, PUBH 791.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
PUBH 781.  Community Engagement and Leadership in Health.  3 Credits.  

PUBH 791 could be a co-requisite with another required concentration course, only with instructor permission. Students will gain a basic understanding of how to be leaders in applying principles of community engagement in public health programs and organizational settings by engaging different stakeholder sectors, promoting multi-level cohesion among different audiences, communicating strategies, and collaboratively designing community engagement and implementation plans.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisite, PUBH 791, Leadership in Practice students only.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
PUBH 782.  The Public Health Impact of Criminalizing the Marginalized.  2 Credits.  

This course will define criminalization and describe how this phenomenon disproportionately impacts the health of marginalized populations. Students will analyze the social construction of illicit behavior and subsequent criminal involvement and use the principles of life course theory and social ecological framework to explore associations between what is criminalized and health outcomes. The course will also describe the impact of criminalization on emerging health policy and introduce public health tools needed to address these challenges.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Pre- or corequisite, SPHG 711, SPHG 712, and SPHG 713; permission from instructor for students lacking the prerequisite.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
PUBH 783.  Mass Criminalization, Mass Incarceration & Public Health.  3 Credits.  

This course examines the public health impact of mass criminalization and mass incarceration in the US. Using a public health prevention framework, students will investigate the intersection of the criminal legal system with health outcomes. Students will identify alternative strategies grounded in public health, social justice and human rights principles to create healthier communities.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisite, SPHG 711, 712, 713 preferred but not required; contact instructor for permission if SPHG 711, 712, 713 have not been undertaken.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
PUBH 784.  Project Management Strategy and Application.  3 Credits.  

This course presents classic project management concepts and methods, applicable to research, public health, healthcare, information science and other team projects, with an aim to develop a toolbox of strategies to effectively manage projects using globally accepted theoretical frameworks; practice is gained via assignments, cases, lectures, and course project.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
PUBH 785.  Community Engagement for Governance.  3 Credits.  

This is an applied service-based course in public health leadership. Students will engage with community-based partners to co-design and develop evidence-driven interventions that will strengthen collaborative infrastructure needed to address Social Determinants of Health.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisite, PUBH 791; Pre- or corequisites, SPHG 711, 712 and 713.  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit. 6 total credits. 2 total completions.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
PUBH 790.  Fundamentals of Public Health Leadership.  3 Credits.  

This course is designed to gain a deeper insight into their own and others' leadership styles, behaviors, and emotional intelligence. Students will engage in a day-long active-learning workshop every other week and access videos, readings and assignments online. Students will engage with the instructor and peers in person via reflection journals, large and small group activities, leadership assessments. Students will produce a leadership development plan and generate a set of professional goals.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
PUBH 791.  Core Principles in Public Health Leadership.  3 Credits.  

Course will introduce students to leadership theories and research, provide a context for leadership in public health, and help students learn core leadership skills.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
PUBH 805.  Addressing Health Inequities and Social Determinants of Health through Service Learning.  1 Credits.  

This course bridges coursework and knowledge gained in health inequities with applied practice. Each semester, a specific health inequity and/or social determinant of health will be chosen based on current events. Students will hear from practitioners about how this issue affects public health on-the-ground as well as: participate in related service-learning projects with community/practitioner partners during Spring Break, incorporate reflection-in-action into activities and reflection-on-action to identify how they will incorporate lessons learned into future work.

Rules & Requirements  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit. 2 total credits. 2 total completions.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
PUBH 810.  Population Health: Interprofessional Management in a Changing Healthcare System.  3 Credits.  

Admission to SPH graduate program required for course enrollment. Course experience will involve medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and social work students engaging together to learn skills and knowledge to apply population health principles. Key themes include inter-professional collaboration and teamwork, identification and stratification of populations-at-risk, and discussion of evidence-based care planning/coordination.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
PUBH 811.  Population Health in Health Care: Field Experience.  3 Credits.  

This inter-professional field-based course offers opportunities to engage with students from medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and social work to learn skills and knowledge to apply population health principles in a primary healthcare setting. Students will work on team-based projects in primary care settings.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisite, PUBH 810; permission of instructor for students lacking the prerequisite.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
PUBH 886.  Field Practicum in Public Health.  1-6 Credits.  

The practicum provides the student an opportunity to integrate coursework in a public health-related setting. This course site will house the Practicum Learning Agreement and Work Products. Students are required to take this course in the semester during which they complete their practicum. Restricted to Population Health for Clinicians students only.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
PUBH 890.  Special Topics in Public Health Leadership.  1-3 Credits.  
Rules & Requirements  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit; may be repeated in the same term for different topics; 12 total credits. 4 total completions.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
PUBH 891.  Public Health Leadership Topics for Leaders.  0.5-3 Credits.  

PUBH 769 is a public health leadership topics course where the leadership topics can vary by semester and by section number. Permission by instructor to enroll is required.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
PUBH 992.  Master's (Non-Thesis).  3 Credits.  

Permission of the instructor. A major paper on a problem relevant to public health practice. This study may extend over more than one semester. Credit is assigned accordingly.

Rules & Requirements  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit.