A Message from the Chair

Dear Colleagues and Prospective MPH Students,

I am so pleased that you are interested in our Master of Public Health (MPH) program. The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health is the oldest and largest school of public health in the world. We have been training public health leaders from around the world for almost a century.

Public health professionals today are faced with both old and new public health challenges—Infectious disease such as influenza and the HIV/AIDS pandemic, chronic disease epidemics ranging from heart disease to cancer to obesity, the health of our increasingly elderly populations, high-risk behaviors that endanger our health, such as smoking and substance abuse, the safety of our water and our food, as well as the threats of natural and manmade disaster including bioterrorism.

The Hopkins MPH degree prepares men and women to face these challenges through multidisciplinary approaches that apply the latest scientific knowledge, common sense and teamwork to solve important health problems. Students in the program will obtain a population-based perspective on health, along with rigorous training in a schoolwide curriculum focused on the core disciplines of epidemiology, biostatistics, management sciences and the environmental, biological, behavioral and social factors that influence the health of populations and communities. Hopkins MPH students apply their knowledge and skills to practical problems and integrate their competencies in a culminating capstone project.

Our MPH students in both the full-time and part-time programs come from countries all over the world. This diversity of the student body, together with our world-renowned faculty and exciting and stimulating curriculum of study, provides an unparalleled educational experience in the science and practice of public health. Our graduates take positions in government at international, national and local levels, community organizations, universities and the private sector.

While considering the Hopkins MPH, feel free to view our course content through the OpenCourseWare project. I also encourage you to take some classes online or on-site during our eight-week terms, or in our short-format one- to three-week Summer, Fall and Winter institutes. A maximum of 16 credits may be taken before matriculation which can be applied to the total of 80 credits required for the MPH degree.

I welcome your interest in the Hopkins MPH and hope that you will join the ranks of our alumni who are making a difference—working to protect health around the globe and save lives, millions at a time.

Marie Diener-West, PhD
Chair, Master of Public Health Program and Professor of Biostatistics
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health