MPH Program Overview

Proposed roadmap:

Scheduling:

• HYBRID class schedule 
• Overall, no classes start before 9:30AM or end after 8:00PM
• ONE in-person day per week (9:30-3:15 on campus)
• Remaining courses take place on Zoom during the evenings (5:00 or later start time)

*Some flexibility outside for these times may be required for group meetings or meetings related to the applied practice (in which we partner with a community organization)

PH 890 Master of Public Health Culminating Experience Seminar

The MPH culminating experience seminar provides students the opportunity to integrate, synthesize, apply and demonstrate mastery of the MPH competencies acquired in the program. Through a review of the professional literature, class readings and assignments, critical discussion, and instructor, advisor, and peer feedback, students develop professional products that showcase MPH competency mastery, as well as their unique interests and passions within the field of public health.

Student Learning Outcomes:

• Examine critical issues in the field of public health
• Demonstrate application and integration of MPH core competencies through the development of professional products appropriate for use in the field
• Demonstrate skills in graduate level writing competencies
• Practice formal presentation skills

Examples of Past Titles of Culminating Experience Projects

• Caregiving during COVID-19: Mental health and resilience among Filipino home care workers during the coronavirus pandemic (2021)
• Preventing far-right extremist violence: A scoping review of public health and equity-informed prevention strategies (2021)
• Towards liberatory, humanizing and holistic health approaches for youth of color: A critical analysis on youth development (2019)
• Advancing environmental health equity: A critical analysis of environmental racism against native American communities (2019)
• Queering public health data: Lessons from a queer feminist approach to critical data studies (2018)
• The violation of human rights: How fear created by U.S. immigration enforcement programs impact immigrant health (2017)
• "You are so well spoken!" Analyzing the effects of micro-aggressions on the mental health of Black women (2017)

Our curriculum and pedagogy is guided by three main principles:

1. We have been accredited by Council on Education of Public Health (CEPH) since 2003. You can find more information on CEPH competencies, which are scaffolded throughout our MPH Curriculum, here. 

2. National Commission for Health Education Credentialing, who's Eight Areas of Responsibility help guide us in terms of our specialization, which is Community Health Education. These competencies also serve as the basis for the Master Certified Health Educator Exam (MCHES), which many of our alumni go on to take. You can find more about the areas of responsibility and competencies here. 

3. In addition to these two formal sources of competencies & skills, our program added the idea of Cultural Humility as a central tenet to our curriculum. The idea of promoting health equity and cultural humility is woven into every course in our MPH program and we do this through promotion of  (1) critical self-reflection and life-long learning, (2) recognizing and challenging power imbalances & developing mutually beneficial partnerships, and (3) institutional accountability. For more information on cultural humility, please see this documentary which was produced/directed by our faculty member, Dr. Vivian Chavez. 

Students will be individually partnered with a community organization and act as a consultant, producing two professional products by the end of the semester. 

Roadmap:

The 45-unit curriculum consists of 17 courses listed in our 5 semester degree plan below. However, longer time to degree completion plans are also available, one example being a seven semester plan. For additional information on course descriptions, please visit SF State’s Academic Bulletin: MPH Degree Requirements and click on the course you are interested in learning more about.

Scheduling:

To accommodate working professionals, the SF State MPH class meetings are concentrated as much as possible into two days per week.

Principal Day

Currently, Thursdays, from 9 a.m. through the evening during each semester of enrollment in the program. Consequently, for all semesters of program enrollment, students must negotiate release time from their employment on the principal day.

Note: All students are expected to keep this day designated for the program in case shifts in course scheduling occur on the principal day. Also, the principal day is reserved for periodic program related activities.

2nd Course Day

As much as possible, the program concentrates coursework onto one principle day and a second day. Currently, the scheduling of the second course day is as follows (May be subject to change):

• Semester One: The second coursework day will be Monday or Tuesday with a start time of 4 p.m., going into the evening.
• Remaining Semesters of Program: The second coursework day will be a Monday or Tuesday evening, consisting of a three hour class period, usually with a 6 p.m. start time.
• Elective: The day/time of the elective course will depend on the particular elective course selected by the student.

Group Project Work Time Scheduling

• Team Time Coordination: When setting meeting times and dividing team tasks, student teams must attempt to minimize conflicts with work and life commitment schedules of individual team members.
• Flexibility: Students should be aware that occasional additional work hour flexibility will likely be necessary during periods of student team project completion, which might include evenings, weekends, and business hours on days other than Thursdays, the latter especially coming into play when working on projects that include engagement with the community during daytime business hours.
• Built-in Program Time: The principal day may provide prime time for small group project meetings and activities.

Overview

The SF State MPH program includes a faculty-supervised public health profession team practice experience. The experience is an opportunity for students to put into practice the theory and concepts of an ecological approach to health. The public health profession team practice experience (PH 821) aims to provide students with:

• a firm understanding of how to plan, apply and present a community health education project, and
• training & development in professional public health practice skills.

Process

The team practice involves collaboration with community partners to develop and conduct a community health education project (typically spring and summer of the first year, but subject to change). Students work in small teams on various tasks and activities. Depending on the project, roles may include conducting literature reviews, data collection, analysis and reporting. Future team practice experiences will continue to expand collaboration with community partners and focus on critical public health equity issues in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Past Team Practice Projects

For many years, SF State Department of Public Health (formerly Health Education) and the Health Equity Institute at SF State have supported the MPH Team Practice and the Community Assessment for Change course and implementation of community assessments focused on housing and health. From 2012 to 2016, the assessment done had been part of a multi-year collaboration with HOPE SF — an effort led by the Mayor's Office and SF Foundation. Its aim is to transform some of the most distressed public housing sites in San Francisco. 

The entire class, in collaboration with the instructor and community partners, developed all aspects of the assessment and implemented the selected assessment methods. The class then analyzed the collected data and developed findings and recommendations. The practice courses culminate in the development of an assessment report, a user friendly community brief, and a formal presentation of assessment findings and recommendations to key stakeholders. 

The following details the most recent community assessment projects:

• 2019 MPH Community Assessment Project: An Examination of Housing Insecurity Amongst SF State Students (Collaboration with SF State's Basic Needs Initiative and Health Promotion & Wellness
• 2018 MPH Community Assessment Project: Conducting Data About Living Circumstances - Challenges & Opportunities (Collaboration with the County and City of San Francisco's Whole Person Care Initiative)
• 2017 MPH Community Assessment Project: Housing, Pregnancy & Preterm Birth in SF (Collaboration with UCSF's Preterm Birth Initiative)