Overview
Washington, D.C. is the epicenter of work in health communication, with more health communication companies based in D.C. than in any other place in the U.S. The mission of the GW Master of Public Health (MPH) Public Health Communication and Marketing program is to train the next generation of public health professionals to make use of cutting edge communication and marketing tools to advance public health objectives.
Public Health Communication and Marketing graduates will gain expertise in the strategic use of communication and marketing tools to work collaboratively with a broad range of other public health experts and to implement or supervise the implementation of the communication and marketing components of public health initiatives.
Public Health Communication and Marketing graduates will be able to:
- Develop, implement, and evaluate communication programs that help people make sound health decisions and effectively manage their health behaviors.
- Develop, implement, and evaluate marketing programs that improve the health capacity of communities by enhancing the competitiveness of the healthful (versus unhealthful) products and services offered to community members.
- Develop, implement, and evaluate communication programs that promote the adoption of policies – in the public and private sector – which enhance health.
- Learn to create campaigns that make use of digital tools such as social media, mobile and mass media and involve story-telling, game play and app design.
Flexible Programming
To help students fit graduate school into their daily life, Milken Institute SPH provides flexible course offerings, which allows Public Health Communication and Marketing students to take up to 15 credits online.
Program Prerequisites
There are no specific prerequisites for entering the Public Health Communication and Marketing master’s program, other than a bachelor’s degree or higher degree. This program is a good fit for anyone with an interest in improving human health. Students who are especially interested in working with diverse populations and those who wish to study broad categories of health concerns are great candidates for this MPH in Public Health Communication and Marketing.
Curriculum
MPH Core Requirements
PUBH 6001 | Biological Concepts for Public Health (2 credits)
PUBH 6002 | Biostatistical Applications for Public Health (3 credits)
PUBH 6003 | Principles and Practice of Epidemiology (3 credits)
PUBH 6004 | Environmental & Occupational Health in a Sustainable World (2 credits)
PUBH 6006 | Management & Policy Approaches to Public Health (3 credits)
PUBH 6007 | Social & Behavioral Approaches to Public Health (2 credits)
CORE TOTAL: 15 CREDITS
PUBH 6014 | Practicum (2 credits)
PUBH 6015 | Culminating Experience (2 credits)
PRACTICUM/CE TOTAL: 4 CREDITS
Public Health Communication and Marketing Requirements
Required Department Courses
PUBH 6500 | Planning and Administration of Health Promotion / Disease Prevention Programs (3 credits)
PUBH 6501 | Evaluation of Health Promotion / Disease Prevention Programs (3 credits)
Required Program-Specific Courses
PUBH 6503 | Introduction to Public Health Communication and Marketing (3 credits)
PUBH 6570 | Advanced Public Health Communication: Theory and Practice (3 credits)
PUBH 6571 | Social Marketing: Theory and Practice (3 credits)
PUBH 6504 | Social and Behavioral Science Research Methods (3 credits)
PROGRAM-SPECIFIC TOTAL: 18 CREDITS
Public Health Communication and Marketing Electives
Sample list of approved courses shown below. For the most up to date list of approved electives, please reference the program guide.
PUBH 6572 | Marketing Research for Public Health (3 credits)
PUBH 6532 | Community Organization, Development and Advocacy (3 credits)
or
PUBH 6573 | Media Advocacy in Public Health (3 credits)
PUBH 6574 | Public Health Branding: Theory and Practice (2 credits)
PUBH 6575 | Communication Skills for Public Health Professionals (1 credit)
PUBH 6599 | TOPICS COURSE: Social Media and Mobile Health in Public Health Campaigns (2 credits)
PROGRAM-SPECIFIC ELECTIVES TOTAL: 8 CREDITS
Non-Academic Requirements
- Professional Enhancement
Students in degree programs must participate in eight hours of Professional Enhancement. These activities are pre-approved by an advisor and may be Public Health-related lectures, seminars, and symposia related to your field of study.
Professional Enhancement activities supplement the rigorous academic curriculum of the SPH degree programs and help prepare students to participate actively in the professional community. You can learn more about opportunities for Professional Enhancement via the Milken Institute School of Public Health Listserv, through departmental communications, or by speaking with your advisor.
Students must submit a completed Professional Enhancement Form to the student records department gwsphrecords@gwu.edu.
- Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) Training
All students are required to complete the Basic CITI training module in Social and Behavioral Research prior to beginning the practicum. This online training module for Social and Behavioral Researchers will help new students demonstrate and maintain sufficient knowledge of the ethical principles and regulatory requirements for protecting human subjects - key for any public health research.
- Academic Integrity Quiz
All Milken Institute School of Public Health students are required to review the University’s Code of Academic Integrity and complete the GW Academic Integrity Activity. This activity must be completed within 2 weeks of matriculation. Information on GWSPH Academic Integrity requirements can be found here.
Program Guides
Past Program Guides
Students in the MPH in PH Communication and Marketing program should refer to the guide from the year in which they matriculated into the program. For the current program guide, click the red "PROGRAM GUIDE" button on the right-hand side of the page.
To view sample schedules and learn about the core competencies developed within the program, see the degree program guide.
Practicum / CE
Students in the GW MPH programs gain practical skills and knowledge through their practice experiences. It is important for MPH Public Health Communication and Marketing graduates to feel confident in their skills and gain real-world experience during their studies. Students in the Public Health Communication and Marketing MPH program complete both a Practicum and a Culminating Experience to practice their knowledge and skills in real-world settings.
Your Practicum
In the Department of Prevention and Community Health, the Practicum is a course designed to engage students in a Practice Activity—a planned, supervised, and evaluated experience in a public health organization. The Practice Activity can be related to either primary research or public health practice. It might include activities such as conducting literature reviews, writing proposals, designing ad campaigns, or collecting and analyzing data.
The Practice Activity for the MPH Public Health Communication and Marketing degree may not be directly related to the student's day-to-day work. This is to ensure that students learn and apply new skills in the context of public health. If the student does conduct the Practice Activity at his/her place of employment, it must be work for which the student is not remunerated.
Culminating Experience
The Culminating Experience (CE) integrates the knowledge and skills students acquire through their academic work and the Practice Activity. The CE requires students to identify and define a specific public health issue and formulate hypotheses to address that issue. Students work with data obtained through either primary research or from an existing dataset. The process of proposal development, data analysis, interpretation, and extrapolation of the results culminates in a written report or manuscript and an oral presentation.
Examples of Recent CEs:
2016
- Helping or Hurting? The Role of Social and Commercial Marketers in Obesity Related Health Messages
- The Effects of Perceived Social Support on Smoking Cessation: A Quit4Baby Analysis
2015
- Changing the Conversation Between Parents and Children: Writing a Children’s E-Book to Address Weight-based Stigma
- Communicating with men who have sex with men about Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP): Testing the Application of the Risk Perception Attitude Framework
Careers
GW MPH graduates of Public Health Communication and Marketing (PHCM) are in high demand as the need for health communication experts is quickly growing at the local, national, and global levels. Strong evidence exists that deem a master’s degree an essential requirement for a career in the field of health communication (McKeever, 2014).
GW PHCM graduates consistently have obtained employment in a variety of sectors. The top organizations to hire GW PHCM graduates represent: the federal government, non-profit advocacy or volunteer organizations, a variety of for-profit consulting agencies, and educational institutions. Graduate’s employment stories also demonstrate that the degree permits both tremendous opportunity for growth as well as flexibility to move across employment sectors.
Graduates express high success rates in securing jobs upon graduation in addition to financial success. National data suggests that those who graduate with an MPH without prior work experience can expect a starting salary of at least $50,000 (Edgar et al., 2015).
- McKeever, B.W. (2014). The status of health communication: Education and employment outlook for a growing field. Journal of Health Communication, 19, 1408-1423.
- Edgar, T., Gallagher, S.S., Silk, K,J., Cruz, T.B., Abroms, L.C., Evans, D.,…Miller, G. (2015). Results from a national survey of health communication master’s degree recipients: an exploration of training, placement, satisfaction, and success. Journal of Health Communication, 20, 345-366.
Jobs Our Alumni Have Held
Depending on years of experience before starting your degree, position levels will vary. Below are examples of jobs, by sector, for which our graduates have been offered and you can expect to be prepared for with 0-2 years of experience after earning your MPH PHCM.
Federal Agency
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) - Public Health Analyst
- Food and Drug Administration (FDA) – Program Specialist
- National Cancer Institute (NCI) - Health Communication Fellow
- National Institutes of Health (NIH) – Writer/Editor
- Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration (SAMHSA) – Health Communication Specialist
Non-Profit Organizations
- Population Services International (PSI) – Communications and Knowledge Manager
- FHI 360 (formerly AED) - Program Associate, Marketing Research
- Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute – Communications Manager
- Epilepsy Foundation – Manager of Communications
- American Institutes for Research – Digital Communications Associate
Consulting Groups & Other Private Agencies
- Ketchum – Account Executive
- Edelman – Senior Account Supervisor
- Hager Sharp – Vice President
- Spectrum Communications – Account Executive
- Proteus Digital Health – Customer Success Specialist
Academia
- GW Milken Institute of Public Health - Research Associate
- National Children’s Hospital – Clinical Research Coordinator
Profiles of PHCM Alumni
Below are examples of career paths of some PHCM alumni:
- Megan Jacobs MPH '10 – Product development, project management and research
Like many graduates, Megan began her post-degree work with a fellowship. At the National Vaccine Program Office as a Communications Fellow, she assisted with development and organizing stakeholder input for a consumer-focused vaccine website. She moved on to work for the Schroeder Institute for Tobacco Research and Policy Studies at Truth Initiative (then Legacy) as Project Manager, creating web content and products, overseeing social media strategy, and managing online recruitment for large clinical trials. Megan is currently Lead, Integrated Product Design at Truth Initiative Innovations, where she oversees product development and management of digital smoking cessation interventions.
- Lauren Sogor, MPH '08 - Campaign Manager and Communications Specialist
More PHCM alumni information - See these links below:
Faculty
Students pursuing an MPH in Public Health Communication and Marketing have access to a world-class faculty with relevant expertise and diverse experience in research, governmental, clinical, and communication settings. The many areas of interest and research experience for professors and lecturers in the Public Health Communication and Marketing Master of Public Health program include behavior science, program planning, new media, and ad and strategy development.
Full Time Faculty
Lorien Abroms (Program Director)
Adjunct Faculty
Christina Nicols