Social and Behavioral Sciences - PhD

GWSPH Doctoral programs admit students for the Fall term each academic year.  Applications will be accepted beginning in August and are due no later than December 1st for the next matriculating cohort beginning in the following Fall term.  Find GWSPH graduate admissions information here.

The Social and Behavioral Sciences in Public Health PhD program is designed for professionals seeking to become leaders in public health research. Because admission to this program is highly selective, successful applicants have competitive academic credentials and substantial prior public health professional work experience related to this specialty field. 

A master's degree is required. Applicants who have completed an MPH degree from a Council of Education for Public Health (CEPH) accredited program or who holds a master’s degree in a social, behavioral, or quantitative field will be considered for admission to the PhD Program. Applicants with a master’s degree in another field may indicate their relevant training, work and/or research experience, or educational background comparable to the MPH that may have prepared them for doctoral-level training in Public Health. For the PhD, qualified applicants with degrees from institutions in foreign countries are also eligible for admission.

The GW SPH uses the SOPHAS application system for admissions. Applications will be reviewed following the December 1st deadline, and those applicants selected for an in-person interview (video conference if remote) can expect to be contacted by mid-February.   

Once admitted, students are required to maintain full-time status for the first 2 years of the program. Hence, students are required to take a minimum of 9 credits per semester (maximum of 18) for their first 2 years in the program.

The Graduate Record Examination (GRE) is strongly recommended but not required. Applicants for the PhD in Social and Behavioral Sciences may submit their GRE scores to SOPHAS Code 5268. The program's admissions committee will use these scores as part of its holistic evaluation of each applicant's preparedness and fit for the program. Email gwsphadmitgwu [dot] edu (gwsphadmit[at]gwu[dot]edu) should you have any questions.

Interviews

Select applications for the PhD in Social and Behavioral Sciences may take part in an interview. The interview will be a videoconference interview.

Review

Applications will be reviewed following the December 1st deadline.  Those applicants selected for a videoconference interview will be contacted by late January for an interview.

Please click here for Frequently Asked Questions about the Admissions Process.

Required Schoolwide PhD Foundational & Research Courses

PUBH 8475 | Research Ethics and Integrity in Domestic and International Research (1 credit)
PUBH 8001 | PhD Seminar: Cross Cutting Concepts in Public Health (1 credit) 
PUBH 6862 OR PUBH 8418 | Applied Linear Regression Analysis for Public Health Research OR Applied Statistical Analysis (3 credits)
PUBH 8416 | Study Design and Evaluation Methods (3 credits)
PUBH 6080 | Pathways to Public Health* (0 credits)

*For students without a prior Master's degree from a CEPH accredited school of PH ONLY. Find FAQs on the Advising page here.

SCHOOLWIDE PhD FOUNDATIONAL/RESEARCH TOTAL: 8 CREDITS

COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

Required SBS Core Courses

PUBH 8525 | Advanced Topics in Social and Behavioral Science: Doctoral Seminar (1 credit)
PUBH 8528 | Advanced Topics in Critical Review of Social/Behavioral Theory and its Application in Public Health (3 credits)
PUBH 8419 | Measurement in Public Health and Health Services Research: Doctoral Seminar (3 credits)
PUBH 8417* | Qualitative Research Methods and Analysis (3 credits)
PUBH 8534 | Multi-Level Interventions for Health Promotion (3 credits)
PUBH 8526 | The Application of Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) to Public Health Research (3 credits)

SBS CORE COURSES TOTAL:  16 CREDITS 

* Indicates course may be replaced with EDUC 8257, PSYC 8258 or other doctoral level qualitative class.

Elective Courses

PUBH 6570** | Advanced Public Health Communication: Theory and Practice (3 credits)
PUBH 6887** | Applied Longitudinal Data Analysis (3 credits)
PUBH 8116** | Communicating Research Results (2 credits)
PUBH 8527** | Scientific Writing and Training Grant Development (1 credit)

** Recommended courses

15 credits. See the program guide and/or consult with your advisor for recommendations and course options.

GW 8000-level elective courses do not require advanced approval prior to enrollment, however all prerequisites do apply. Advisor's approval prior to enrollment is required for other courses.

​Course Descriptions

ELECTIVE COURSES TOTAL:  15 CREDITS MINIMUM

Dissertation Research

PUBH 8435 | PhD Proposal Development (2 credits)
PUBH 8999 | Dissertation Research (7 credits) 

DISSERTATION RESEARCH TOTAL:  9 CREDITS MINIMUM

Non-Academic Requirements

Graduate Teaching Assistant Program (GTAP)

All PhD, SBS students must enroll in UNIV 0250- Graduate Teaching Assistant Certification, administered by the University. Successful completion of this Certification is a pre-requisite/co-requisite to taking on a role as a Teaching Assistant. The University does not allow students to be Teaching Assistants unless this certification is completed. The 1-credit, online certification is paid for by GW, however the 1-credit does not count toward the 48-credit minimum required for the PhD, SBS.

Professional Enhancement

Students in this PhD program are required to participate in eight hours of Professional Enhancement in research ethics during their program. Professional enhancement activities supplement the academic curriculum and help prepare students to participate actively in the research community.  Students can fulfill this requirement by attending Public Health-related lectures, seminars, or 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 submit a completed Professional Enhancement Form to the Office of Student Records which is required documentation to be cleared for graduation.

Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) Training

All students are required to complete the Basic CITI training module in Social and Behavioral Research.  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 PhD in SBS 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.

Program Guide, 2024-2025

Program Guide, 2023-2024

Program Guide, 2022-2023

Program Guide, 2020-2021

Program Guide, 2018-2019

Program Guide, 2016

2022 COHORT

 

Lauren Cafferty

What was your background before becoming a PhD student? Are you working while getting your PhD? 

I graduated from George Mason University in 2012 with a BA in Communication. I received my MA in Communication Studies from Texas State University in 2016, after which I worked as a Research Analyst for the University of Southern California’s Hollywood, Health, and Society. I am a Clinical Research Manager in the Department of Family Medicine at Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. In my role, I manage grant-funded, multi-site research studies. I support program directors, project coordinators, and study staff in achieving the research program's goals. I also mentor and train students and faculty through qualitative analysis and interpretation.

Describe an accomplishment for which you are particularly proud. 

In 2021, I was named Outstanding Research Coordinator by the North American Primary Care Research Group, the world’s largest organization devoted to research in primary care.

 

Yuxian Cui

What was your background before becoming a PhD student? Are you working while getting your PhD? 

Before joining GW as a Ph.D. student, I earned an MSPH degree in Health Education and Health Communication from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. During my MSPH study, I worked as a research assistant at Institute for Global Tobacco Control.

Were there any significant experiences in your life that inspired you to choose the field you are pursuing? 

I was born in China, a country with high smoking morbidity, with millions of people suffering from smoking-related diseases, including cancers. I still remember the uncomfortableness due to the choking smoke when many people were smoking inside. As 20 years went by, despite policy improvements in China, tobacco consumption and smoking prevalence among people, especially youth, are highly ranked globally. I want to change this circumstance and help people live healthier.

Why did you pick the Milken Institute SPH? 

As far as I learned from the school website and alumni, Milken’s Ph.D. program can hone students through independent problem-solving research processes and extensive discussions that help students learn from various perspectives. The variety in the department means that I can obtain views and support from varied sources, conceptualize research in a multi-disciplinary way, and conduct the research with a more careful consideration that ensures research quality. In particular, I would benefit from studying with people who share my category of research interests in the program (Yes, it’s my current advisor Dr. Carla Berg!). In IGTC’s journal club and discussions around projects, I found the papers and works from the tobacco control people at the GW were helpful in advancing the research projects. The wide range of resources for research on tobacco control (e.g., publications, experts, etc.) in the program will help me step forward toward my career goal as an independent researcher in tobacco control.

 

Loxley Seager

Were there any significant experiences in your life that inspired you to choose the field you are pursuing? What made you interested in this area (please describe)? 

As someone who is a part of the gender, sexuality, and romantic minority (GSRM) community, the concerns of those in my community have always been at the forefront of my interests in public health. Of the topics concerning the GSRM community, I am particularly interested in both improving mental health and reducing HIV-related stigma among adolescents. Within those topics, I am interested in using sexual health education among adolescents to destigmatize living with HIV, improving care among youth living with HIV, and reducing rates of depression and suicidality among GSRM adolescents by normalizing non-hetero and non-cisgender identities. I am particularly interested in investigating protective factors, rather than risk factors for research and health interventions because it focuses more on the things that are within an adolescent’s control (such as providing GSRM community programs for them to participate in) rather than those outside of it (such as their GSRM identity, which is unchangeable). In my research, I aim to incorporate protective factors and resiliency to build interventions that introduce and build on those positive characteristics for GSRM communities to ultimately improve their overall health.

Describe an accomplishment for which you are particularly proud.

I had several false starts following high school before I found what I wanted to do and be successful in school. About halfway through my undergraduate program, I learned that I have ADHD, yet I still graduated Cum Laude with my BS in Public Health in just 3 years. I like to share this about myself in part because I feel that talking about mental health is incredibly important to destigmatizing it— thus improving care— but also because I am proud of the work that was required of me to do well in school despite the challenges that neurodivergence presents in traditional academic settings.

 

2023 COHORT

 

Breana Castonguay

What excites you in your field/public health?

Everything! The field of HIV/AIDS is transitioning before my very eyes. I was at the International AIDS conference the first time they revealed the promising news of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). Now I am helping contribute to the field of injectable therapies where a daily pill may one day be a thing of the past. It is VERY exciting! But it is important to me that we make sure these amazing therapies are available to all communities and at the same time, consider the intersectionality of racist policies and the affects of racism on community health and access. These are things I want to continue to think about and develop interventions for during my PhD training at GWU. 

Were there any significant experiences in your life that inspired you to choose the field you are pursuing?

Michelle Alexander’s Book, “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness” came out the first year of my graduate program. That book coupled with lectures in the Health Disparities course inspired me to learn everything I could about a system built on racist policies affecting persons, families, and communities of color.

 

Rebecca Erenrich

What made you interested in this area?

My first job after graduating from college was at an online publisher focused on HIV/AIDS, reporting on clinical research. At that job I learned how fascinating health research can be and how very needed research that considers the political, social, and personal contexts of people and communities affected by HIV is. Since then, hearing from people with HIV grateful for the legacy of past HIV researchers and working with study participants who felt affirmed by the attention paid to their communities by recent research has sustained and solidified my commitment to the field and these topics.

Describe an accomplishment for which you are particularly proud.

I am proud of my contributions to the PrEPTECH study, the first randomized controlled trial of a telehealth intervention for HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). Our small team revamped a pilot intervention, recruited and followed a panel of study participants over six months, and is excited to report on our positive findings. 

 

Megan Jones

Describe your public health area of interest in layman’s terms.

Broadly, I am interested in utilizing social and behavioral science to understand the mechanisms of risk-taking behavior and health behavior change among adolescents and vulnerable populations. Through my research, I hope to examine the pathways through which trauma and life instability are associated with health-related behaviors (e.g., substance use, sexual risk behaviors, physical activity, medication adherence, etc.) to ultimately inform the development of interventions that mitigate the effects of such experiences on long-term health outcomes. Additionally, I hope to study how social processes and internal constructs, such as self-efficacy, motivation, stigma, and social relationships influence behavioral health outcomes among marginalized groups.

Why did you pick the Milken Institute SPH?

I chose the Milken Institute SPH because of its emphasis on approaching public health from a multidisciplinary perspective and the various faculty members focusing on community-engaged approaches, health disparities reduction, and behavioral risk-taking. With much of the current research at GWU aligned with my own interests, it is the perfect place to pursue my doctoral training.

 

Mamaswatsi Kopeka

What was your background before becoming a PhD student? Are you working while getting your PhD?

I recently got my Master of Public Health degree from Brown University, with a concentration in Global Health. At Brown, I worked with the Women’s Health Interventions and Transitions (WHIT) research group on a collaborative project that explored the experiences of pregnant + postpartum Women Living with HIV in Cape Town, South Africa. I also really love qualitative research in general, and I worked as a Teaching Assistant for an introductory qualitative research class. When I was not in the classroom, I worked to facilitate impactful engaged scholarship and research projects within the undergraduate community.

Describe your public health area of interest in layman’s terms.

My interests are quite broad, but related. I am generally interested in the health and illness experiences of low-income women. My previous work includes understanding how financial stability impacts the ability to adhere to HIV medication regularly among low-income mothers living with HIV. For my PhD, I am open to learning more about healthcare access, illness management, and advocacy efforts for women in Sub-Saharan Africa.

 

Leslie Manso

What was your background before becoming a PhD student? Are you working while getting your PhD?

I have a Masters in Anthropology and a Bachelors in Psychology. In addition to my PhD studies and duties, I am working as a part-time Data Analyst for the NIMH's Neurodevelopmental and Behavioral Phenotyping Service where patients who have rare diseases are often seen for neuropsychological and clinical assessments. As a Data Analyst, I work closely with the statistician and external contributors to organize, manage, and produce data resulting from neuropsychological batteries. Currently, the department is piloting a REDCap database I designed to manage all the data we collect from the numerous protocols we service.

Were there any significant experiences in your life that inspired you to choose the field you are pursuing?

After working for a memory disorders lab, I noticed the normative neuropsychological data used for Hispanic and Latino populations are outdated. Having Cuban heritage and being born & raised in Hialeah – a Cuban-dominated city – I felt that gathering data to produce better norms at the subgroup level would produce more accurate neuropsychological scoring, and, thus, help professionals provide a more tailored treatment.

Mackenzie Weise 

Why did you pick the Milken Institute SPH? 

I’m a Milken MPH alum and highly value the education and experiences I was provided while earning my master’s degree. Additionally, I chose to pursue a PhD at the Milken Institute SPH based on the unique diversity profile across both the school and surrounding community. The faculty, staff, and students provide strong global perspectives and it’s beyond advantageous to learn and impact change right here within the heart of our nation’s capital.

Describe an accomplishment for which you are particularly proud. 

I’m proud of a lot of personal and professional accomplishments but most of all, I’m proud to be a Black woman in pursuit of a PhD. According to the National Science Foundation’s Survey of Earned Doctorates, only 6.5% of all doctoral recipients were Black or African American females from 2010-2019. I believe the unique viewpoints of Black women are critical for public health education, research, community engagement, and health equity. 

What made you interested in this area? 

My interest in centering underserved and marginalized groups is based on both professional and personal experience. Professional experience has highlighted the weight and priority often given to large samples or majority rule scenarios even though this can omit other important considerations, exposures, or outcomes. On a personal note, I was raised in the southern U.S. where various social determinants of health conditions within Black or African American communities greatly differed from those surrounding other groups. As a result, I have grown to understand how preventable or unjust health disparities can be. 

Emily Zhang 

What was your background before becoming a PhD student? Are you working while getting your PhD?

Before starting my PhD at GWU, I lived in Baltimore while I earned my MSPH in Health Education and Health Communication from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Prior to Baltimore, I lived in Austin while I earned my BS in Public Health from the University of Texas at Austin and worked as a Health Strategies Specialist at the American Heart Association following graduation. During my PhD, I will be working as a graduate research assistant on my faculty advisor’s longitudinal cohort studies examining stress regulation and socioemotional health in Latinx adolescents and social influences of family, neighborhood, and culture on school success and healthy development.

Were there any significant experiences in your life that inspired you to choose the field you are pursuing?

I first learned about public health during my freshman orientation in college when a small row of students in the back cheered for their public health major as the orientation leaders called out each major. I was a biology pre-med major at the time and had never heard of public health before, but I wanted to learn more. After taking an introductory public health class in the spring of my freshman year, I soon switched my major to public health. My undergraduate public health education broadened my perspective of health to include behavioral, community, and societal challenges, some of which are out of one's control. Additionally, as a peer educator for my college’s Counseling and Mental Health Center, I led mental health initiatives on campus centered around social connectedness and mindfulness. I saw the importance of valuing mental health as much as physical health after learning how stress can leave lasting detrimental effects on our well-being. My leadership experience in the program sparked a research interest in the benefits of mindfulness-based interventions for mental and physical well-being.

2024 COHORT

Morgan Speer

Were there any significant experiences in your life that inspired you to choose the field you are pursuing?

I have always been interested in health, but my interest deepened during the first public health course I took as an undergraduate student. In this course, I learned how health is complex and interconnected with our social, community, and organizational networks, as well as how environmental and social factors impact a person’s quality of life. During my undergraduate career I was also involved with organizations like Timmy Global Health and UCLA’s Care Extenders, which exposed me to various aspects of public health such as the global and hospital sectors. These experiences hig lighted a multitude of gaps that exist in our public health systems, fueling my desire to enact meaningful change to enable people to live full, healthy lives. Beyond my educational experiences, my specific interests in substance use and tobacco control are rooted in my personal experience having family members who are long-time smokers or have been affected by substance use disorder.

What made you interested in this area?

Broadly, I am interested in how health behaviors intersect with the built environment – the environments which people work, live, and exist, along with the ways in which health-centered policies sustain health inequities. I am especially interested in how marketing practices and policies affect health behaviors like substance and tobacco use, and how changes in product marketing, pricing, and promotion can ultimately reduce use and support healthy environments across populations.

Describe an accomplishment for which you are particularly proud.

I am a first-gen student, and thus, the first person in my immediate family to pursue a doctoral degree, which is something that I am particularly proud of! I am very excited for what my doctoral training will allow me to accomplish within the field of public health in the years to come.

Laura Schubel

What was your background before becoming a PhD student? Are you working while getting
your PhD?

Prior to becoming a PhD student, I received my BS in communication sciences and disorders from Penn State University and my MPH in epidemiology from George Washington University. Professionally, I worked as a laboratory manager for George  Washington University in the psychology department, as an advisory services analyst at Mathematica, and as a research specialist within MedStar Health Research Institute. I’ve been with MedStar Health Research Institute for many years now, and it’s there that was my first true exposure to public health research. I plan to continue working there throughout my PhD program, conducting public health research within health services, human factors, and implementation science.

Briefly describe your work in that role(s).

Within MedStar Health Research Institute, I am a research specialist dually affiliated with the Implementation Science department and National Center for Human Factors in Healthcare. There, I work as a research task lead, data collector and analyst, project manager, and disseminator for many large grants and contracts. I have worked on projects ranging from a multimillion-dollar NIH R01 grant analyzing how to improve sepsis alerts within Electronic Health Records, to work funded by the DC Department of Health aiming to understand people’s history of and knowledge surrounding opioid use during pregnancy. I have served as a project manager on a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-funded study addressing social determinants of health through community health worker intervention among cancer survivors, and I have worked as a qualitative interviewer, analyst, and implementation specialist on a project looking to improve colorectal cancer screening rates among Black and Hispanic/Latinx individuals in the Washington DC area. These are just a few of the valuable research experiences I’ve gained.

Queen Alike

The Prevention and Community Health (PCH) faculty are involved with a vast array of research for which you may be interested.  See an outline here for information about ongoing research within the department.  Please feel free to contact PCH department faculty at your convenience to discuss further.

In addition, here are some sample dissertation topics from our PhD-Social and Behavioral Sciences graduates:

• Cigarette Package Graphic Warning Labels: The Role of Affect and Mechanisms of Change... Andrea Johnson, PhD 2020
• Investigating the Influence of Social Norms on Intentions and Behaviors: a Multi-level Analysis of Iron Consumption Behaviors Among Women in India... Hagere Yilma, PhD 2021
• Applying Social Cognitive Theory to identify predictors of electronic nicotine product use trajectories and cessation... Nandita Krishnan, PhD 2022
• Social Norms and Tobacco Use: Studies of Change... Shaon Lahiri, PhD 2022
• Risk and Resilience among Female Sex Workers in the Dominican Republic... Beth Maclin, PhD 2022
• Health Disparities among Adolescent Sexual Minority Males: Associations with Multilevel Stigma and Implications for PrEP Uptake... Hannah Yellin, PhD 2023
• Examining associations between timing of physical activity and health outcomes in young adults...Caitlin Bailey, PhD 2024
• Noticing E-Cigarette Warning Labels in relation to Harm Perception and E-Cigarette Use Intentions among a National Sample of US Adults....Christy Wysota, PhD 2024
• An Investigation of Alternative Nicotine Delivery Systems in User-Generated Content on Social Media: A Case Study of IQOS on Instagram....Jiayan Gu, PhD 2024
• Exploring the Influence of Acculturative Stress, Social Support And Family Norms on Intimate Partner Violence and Perpetration....Shikha Chandarana, PhD 2024
• Determinants of Intention and Behavior in E-cigarette Use among US Young Adults: Risk Perception, Social Media Use, and Ad Exposure....Megumi Ichimiya, PhD 2024
• Black Youth, Power, and Change: Describing and Evaluating Pathways for Marginalized Youth-Driven Public Health Practice, Policy, and Systems Change in Washington, DC....Simone Sawyer, PhD 2025