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Prevention and Community Health

Harnessing the power of community to promote health, well-being, and equity

Welcome to Prevention and Community Health


The Department of Prevention and Community Health’s mission is to assess and address multilevel drivers of health inequities with the goal of catalyzing social transformation and promoting collective health across the lifespan. Our faculty of social and behavioral scientists reflects multiple disciplines including psychologists, sociologists, and anthropologists, as well as experts in community-based health education and communication sciences.

Department Directory

Mission and Approach


We pursue our mission by engaging in innovative and rigorous research, training and practice that is founded in cutting-edge social-structural and behavioral theories and mixed methodologies and driven by diverse community voices and partnerships. In these efforts, we employ a transdisciplinary approach that is reflective of the range of disciplines represented among our faculty. Our research spans the translational science continuum from observational social determinants and methods development work to intervention trials and implementation science. Through our academic training programs, we prepare the next generation of social and behavioral researchers and community health practitioners to respond to pressing public health challenges using a variety of approaches including community mobilization and policy advocacy, and individual behavior change.

Academic Training


Academic degree programs in PCH include: a Social and Behavioral Sciences PHD and 4 MPH programs in; Community Oriented Primary Care; Health Promotion; Maternal and Child Health; Public Health Communication and Marketing.

MPH Program Details

PHD Program Details

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Research

Faculty, staff and students study and intervene on health outcomes in areas such as: HIV, cancer, mental health, substance use, violence, child and adolescent development, and sexual and reproductive health.

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Practice

Drawing on deep connections with community and governmental partners, our faculty, staff and students work in collaboration with these partners to improve the health of multiple underserved populations.

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Centers

PCH is home to 4 centers and its faculty, staff and students are affiliated with many other centers throughout both the Milken Institute School of Public Health as well as the University as a whole.

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PROFILES IN PCH


Interdisciplinary Research Team Awarded Funding to Study Impact of Stress, Adversity on Latino/a Adolescents

PCH Professor Kathleen (Katy) Roche was recently awarded a grant from the National Institute of Health’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The five-year project, “A Longitudinal Study of Adversity, Stress Processes and Latinx Health from Adolescence to Young Adulthood” will engage colleagues and students from throughout GW including Dr. Elizabeth Vaquera, director of GW’s Cisneros Hispanic Leadership Institute and PCH student Mercedes Salazar. The study will examine how chronic and/or severe exposure to adversity, such as the U.S.’s anti-immigrant environment and the COVID-19 pandemic, can influence health risks and social mobility as Latinx youth transition to adulthood. Pease see the full story posted on GW Today, below.

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Department News


Sliding Backward in Obesity Care: Workers See Broad Reductions and Plateauing Coverage in State-Employee Health Plans
08/01/2022

WASHINGTON, DC (August 2, 2022) – New research published in Obesity has found that multiple state employee healthcare plans have reduced obesity treatment services for...

PCH Professor Amita Vyas, Director of the GW Maternal and Child Health Center, Discusses the Consequences of The Supreme Court’s Abortion Ruling
07/07/2022

PCH Professor Amita Vyas discusses the consequences of The Supreme Court’s Abortion Ruling in an article titled “Q & A: How The Supreme Court’s Abortion Ruling...

GW’s Milken School of Public Health Launches New Center for Caribbean and Latin American Health
07/06/2022

WASHINGTON (July 7, 2022)-- The George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health today launched a novel research center dedicated to addressing...

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