Graduate Advising
Each graduate student is assigned an academic advisor, who will help you develop a personalized plan for completing your program of study. Your advisor will be a faculty member and/or staff member at the Milken Institute School of Public Health (Milken Institute SPH) and is assigned based on your department and degree program, as listed below.
If you have questions about which courses or electives to take, talk to your advisor before registering for classes. You may want to consider topics including:
- Will you follow the common course progression? Check the guide for your degree to see the progression generally taken by students in your program. The common progression is a guide -- discuss with your advisor how your plan may differ due to course offerings or work or family commitments.
- How many credit hours should you take per semester? The right number of credits depends on whether you plan to work while completing your studies and whether you have other obligations outside of school or work. For each 3-credit course, expect to spend 3 hours in class per week, and an additional 6-9 hours per week preparing for class.
- Will you be working while pursuing your graduate degree? Graduate classes are regularly scheduled in the late afternoon and in the evening to accommodate working students. If you have a job, you may sometimes need to arrange with your employer to take a class in the afternoon.
- Which courses are offered in the semester for which you are registering? Have you completed the prerequisites?
- Pathways to Public Health: If you have not previously graduated from a CEPH-accredited school or program of public health, you may be required to enroll in the zero credit, free, online course, Pathways to Public Health (PUBH 6080). Confirm with your Program Director and find FAQs here.
Advisors by Department and Program
Jump to: Biostatistics and Bioinformatics | Environmental and Occupational Health | Epidemiology | Exercise and Nutrition Sciences | Global Health | Health Policy and Management | Prevention and Community Health | Online and Schoolwide Programs
Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics
MPH - Biostatistics
All students: Heather J. Hoffman
MS
Health Data Science: Marcos Pérez Losada
Biostatistics: Angelo Elmi
PhD - Health Data Science
Biostatistics Concentration (Co-Directors): Guoqing Diao; Toshimitsu Hamasaki
Bioinformatics Concentration: Keith Crandall
Want to learn more about career paths in Bioinformatics? Check out this site.
Department of Environmental and Occupational Health
MPH - Environmental Health Science and Policy
All students are initially assigned to: Kate Applebaum Students will later be matched with a permanent advisor in the EOH Department.
MPH - Global Environmental Health
All students: Kate Applebaum
DrPH - Environmental and Occupational Health
All students: George Gray.
PhD - Environmental Health
All students: Jordan Kuiper and Kelvin Fong
Department of Epidemiology
MPH - Epidemiology
Students with last names A-L: Scott Quinlan
Students with last names M-Z: Heather Young
MS - Public Health Microbiology & Emerging Infectious Diseases
All students: Mimi Ghosh and Irene Kuo
PhD - Epidemiology
All students: Heather Young
Department of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences
Advising for EXNS MPH programs: Michelle Stevens
MPH - Chronic Disease Prevention
All students: Loretta DiPietro and Karina Lora
MPH - Physical Activity in Public Health
All students: Loretta DiPietro
MPH - Public Health Nutrition
All students: Karina Lora
MS - Exercise Science
All students: Michelle Stevens
MS - Strength and Conditioning
This program is no longer accepting applications.
All students: Michelle Stevens
PhD, Exercise Physiology and Applied Nutrition
All students are matched with an EXNS faculty member or another faculty member of their choice who agrees to work with them. EXNS faculty include: Matthew Barberio, Loretta DiPietro, Barbara Kowalcyk, Karina Lora, Carmen Ortega-Santos, Kimberly Robien, Emily Smith, Sameera Talegawkar, Rob van Dam, and Amanda Visek.
Department of Global Health
MPH - Global Environmental Health
See Department of Environmental & Occupational Health
MPH - Global Health
All students are initially assigned to: Sarah Baird
MPH - Global Health Epidemiology and Disease Control
All students are initially assigned to: Sarah Baird. Other advisors in the program include: Catherine Arsenault, Jack Sandberg, and James Tielsch.
MPH - Global Health Policy and Systems
All students are initially assigned to: Wolfgang Munar. Other advisors in this program include: Catherine Arsenault, Nino Paichadze, Seble Freyhwot, and Carlos Santos-Burgoa.
MPH - Global Health Program Design, Monitoring, and Evaluation
All students: Jennifer Seager.
MPH - Humanitarian Health and Disaster Response
All students: Ramin Asgary
PhD - Global Public Health Sciences
All students: Catherine Arsenault Students are matched with Global Health faculty upon matriculation based on their interest area.
Department of Health Policy and Management
MHA - Health Administration
All students: Robert Bonar
MPH-Health Policy
Certificate-Health Policy
Students w/ last name L-N: Leighton Ku
Students w/ last name O-R: Anne Markus
Students w/ last name U-Z and all PA/MPH: Lara Cartwright-Smith
Department of Prevention and Community Health
MPH – Community Health and Prevention Science
After accepting enrollment, all students are initially assigned to: Ana María del Río-González.
For Culminating Experience (CE) projects, students are matched with a CHPS faculty member or another faculty member of their choice who agrees to work with them. CHPS faculty include: Elizabeth Andrade; Olga Acosta Price; Bart Bingenheimer; Karen Collins; Donaldson Conserve; Ana María del Río-González; Mark Edberg; Christina Heminger; David Huebner; Wanda Nicholson; Kathleen Roche; and Yan Wang.
MPH – Community Oriented Primary Care
This program is no longer accepting applications.
Please visit our newest program, Community Health and Prevention Science.
All current students are assigned to: Ana María del Río-González. For Culminating Experience (CE) projects, students are matched with a COPC faculty member or another faculty member of their choice who agrees to work with them.
MPH – Health Promotion
This program is no longer accepting applications.
Please visit our newest program, Community Health and Prevention Science.
All current students are assigned to: Elizabeth Andrade, Program Director.
For Culminating Experience (CE) projects, students are matched with a HPro faculty member or another faculty member of their choice who agrees to work with them.
MPH – Maternal and Child Health
After a student officially commits and joins the MCH program, they will receive a letter instructing them of their MCH advisor assignment. MCH academic advisors include Amita N. Vyas; Karen McDonnell; Monica S. Ruiz; Nitasha Nagaraj; Michael Long; and Tamara Henry.
MPH – Health Communication and Digital Media
All students are assigned to: Khadidiatou Ndiaye, Program Director. Students stay with Dr. Ndiaye as their academic advisor until they graduate.
For Culminating Experience (CE) projects, students are matched with a PHCM faculty member or another faculty member of their choice who agrees to work with them. PHCM faculty include: Lorien Abroms; W. Douglas Evans; Elizabeth Andrade; and Khadidiatou Ndiaye.
MPH – Public Health Communication and Marketing
This program is no longer accepting applications. Please visit our newest program, Health Communication and Digital Media. All current students are assigned to: Khadidiatou Ndiaye, Program Director. Students stay with Dr. Ndiaye as their academic advisor until they graduate.
For Culminating Experience (CE) projects, students are matched with a PHCM faculty member or another faculty member of their choice who agrees to work with them. PHCM faculty include: Lorien Abroms; W. Douglas Evans; Elizabeth Andrade; and Khadidiatou Ndiaye.
PhD – Social and Behavioral Sciences
Students are assigned a PCH faculty advisor upon admission. Advisors support professional development, coursework planning, research opportunities, and dissertation planning. Students select a dissertation chair at the end of Year 2 or beginning of Year 3 and are encouraged to work with a range of PCH faculty during their first two years. Program Director Bart Bingenheimer provides onboarding and ongoing secondary support.
Online and Schoolwide Programs
MHA@GW
All students: Kelley Vargo, please email mhaatgwprogram
gwu [dot] edu (mhaatgwprogram[at]gwu[dot]edu)
MPH@GW
All students: Kelley Vargo, Christiana Ebiasah, Malika Hook Muhammad, Ann Rich, and Laura Vasisko
For general advising inquiries, please email mphadvisinggwu [dot] edu (mphadvising[at]gwu[dot]edu).
MPH, Generalist (Residential)
All students: George Gray or email mphadvisinggwu [dot] edu (mphadvising[at]gwu[dot]edu)
DrPH, DrPH@GW
All students: Email drphadmingwu [dot] edu (drphadmin[at]gwu[dot]edu)
Public Health Certificate (may enroll online or residential)
All students: George Gray or email mphadvisinggwu [dot] edu (mphadvising[at]gwu[dot]edu)