Certificates for Graduate Students
The purpose of the Graduate Certificates in Public Health offered by the Department of Health Services is to allow students to focus on a specialized area of study that complements their graduate degree program.
The certificate area of specialization is recorded on the UW transcript.
Students must be currently enrolled in a UW graduate program.
Priority is given to students in the Department of Health Services, but students from graduate programs in other schools and departments are eligible to apply.
- Biobehavioral Cancer Prevention and Control
- Emergency Preparedness and Response
- Graduate Certificate in Health Management
- Health Policy
- Maternal and Child Health
The Biobehavioral Cancer Prevention and Control Certificate program is designed to help train specialists in cancer prevention and control. Certificate recipients will be better prepared to work in local health jurisdictions at the city, county, or state level or regional public health; work sites; managed care organizations; schools; and voluntary associations. They will also be able to participate in cancer prevention and control research in academic and research institute settings.
The Certificate Program in Emergency Preparedness and Response consists of a coordinated sequence of courses designed to provide graduates with a solid foundation in emergency preparedness and response. Students will gain a basic understanding of the roles of public health and other agencies in mounting a multidisciplinary response to a terrorist event or other public health emergency. This pathway is designed to provide students with the knowledge and skills necessary to recognize indications of a terrorist event or other public health emergency; meet the acute care needs of patients and victims, including pediatric and vulnerable populations, in a safe and appropriate manner; rapidly and effectively alert the public health system of such an event at the community, state and national level; and participate in a coordinated, multidisciplinary response.
A recent Institute of Medicine report recognizes health policy as an essential component of the educational mission of schools of public health, stating "Public health professionals across the disciplines of public health cannot be fully effective without an understanding of how policies are made and put into practice." The School of Public Health takes this directive seriously, through both its research and educational missions. The Resource Center for Health Policy ( RCHP web site ) supports the research mission and the Health Policy Certificate Program serves the educational mission. The courses in the Certificate in Heath Policy are designed to give students the core competencies in health policy, including policy development, politics, law, and economics, through the set of required courses, as well as additional competencies and applications through a selection of electives.
Most MCH problems are the result of complex psychosocial, economic and physiological factors that require interdisciplinary approaches to study, prevention and treatment. The coordinated sequence of courses in the Maternal and Child Health Certificate are intended to give graduates an overview of the historical, political and legislative basis for health and social services for mothers and children in the United States, and to introduce students to the etiology and prevention of maternal mortality and major health problems, and the etiology and prevention of child mortality and morbidities associated with biomedical or psychosocial risk.
