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 are a non-MPH, graduate student, 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 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: Jordan Kuiper

DrPH - Environmental and Occupational Health
All students: George Gray.

PhD - Environmental Health
All students: Kate Applebaum 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 - Physical Activity in Public Health
All students: Loretta DiPietro

MPH - Public Health Nutrition
All students: Karina Lora 

MS - Strength and Conditioning
All students: Todd Miller

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, Allison Sylvetsky, 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 Epidemiology and Disease Control 
All students are initially assigned to: Christopher Mores. Students are later matched with a permanent advisor based on interest area, to either the program director one of the following: Jack Sandberg, Catherine Arsenault, or Uriyoan Colon-Ramos.

MPH - Global Health Policy and Systems
All students are initially assigned to: Wolfgang Munar. Students are later matched with a permanent advisor based on their interest area to either one of the program directors or one of the following: Catherine Arsenault, Nino Paichadze,  Carlos Santos-Burgoa. or Seble Freyhwot.

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: Emily Smith. 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

Department of Prevention and Community Health

MPH - Community Health and Prevention Science
All students are assigned to: Ana Maria del Rio-Gonzalez
After accepting enrollment, students will be assigned to a permanent advisor based on interests. This advisor may continue to advise you for your Culminating Experience unless you request a different advisor based on evolving interests.

MPH - Community Oriented Primary Care
This program is no longer accepting applications.
Please visit our newest program, Community Health and Prevention Science.

All students are assigned to: Ana Maria del Rio-Gonzalez
After accepting enrollment, students will be assigned to a permanent advisor based on interests. This advisor may continue to advise you for your Culminating Experience unless you request a different advisor based on evolving interests. 

MPH - Health Promotion
This program is no longer accepting applications.
Please visit our newest program, Community Health and Prevention Science.

All students are initially assigned to: Elizabeth Andrade
After accepting enrollment, students will be assigned to a permanent advisor based on interests. This advisor may continue to advise you for your Culminating Experience unless you request a different advisor based on evolving interests. 

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; Jerry Franz; Karen McDonnell; Monica S. Ruiz; Nitasha Nagaraj; Michael Long; Tamara Henry; and Melissa A. Napolitano.

MPH - Public Health Communication and Marketing
All students are initially assigned to: Jerry Franz
Students stay with Mr. Franz as their academic adviser until they graduate. When the time comes for the Culminating Experience (CE) project, 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; Derek Dangerfield II; Elizabeth Andrade; or Khadidiatou Ndiaye.

PhD – Social and Behavioral Sciences
The program director, Bart Bingenheimer provides overall academic advising for all students. During the application and interview process, students will indicate interest which faculty member they feel is a good match with their interest.  Prior to matriculation, the program director will match the student with a content area mentor. The content area mentor will advise the student his/her program of research and generally about coursework, and will likely serve as the dissertation chair.  The program director will provide overall academic advising to all students.

Online Programs

MHA@GW
All students: Kelley Vargo and Laura Vasisko, please email them at mhaatgwprogramgwu [dot] edu

MPH@GW
All students: Kelley Vargo, Christiana Ebiasah, Malika Hook Muhammad, Ann Rich, Laura Vasisko, and Stephanie Bout

For general advising inquiries, please email mphadvisinggwu [dot] edu (mphadvising[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)