Doctorate in Public Health Program

Developing a doctorate in public health program at MCW to advance mid-career professionals to become transformational leaders in public, population, or community health

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Full Project Name:Doctorate in Public Health Program: Building Leadership CapacityPrincipal Investigator:John Meurer, MD, MBA, Institute for Health and EquityCo-Investigator:David Nelson, PhD, Family and Community MedicineAward Amount:$702,478

Award Date

February2020

Project Duration:53 months

Project Description Narrative:

Leading a community or a specified population toward improved health is challenging and requires a host of advanced public health skills and abilities to provide effective leadership. Doctorate in public heath (DrPH) programs are designed to meet the needs of our current and future public health leaders. However, no academic institutions in Wisconsin currently offer DrPH programs.

A new DrPH program at MCW will address this need and provide a core, interdisciplinary orientation toward evidence-based public health practice, leadership, policy analysis and development, evaluation methods, and translational and implementation research to generate practice-based evidence. This program will help mid-career professionals gain advanced public health skills and abilities to provide effective leadership. It will also support individuals in senior leadership positions to become transformational leaders in public, population, and community health across Wisconsin.

Project Updates:

Obtained approval for curricular modifications, two new required courses, dissertation mentor criteria, and faculty appointments to enhance the DrPH program for current and future students
Completed first year of curriculum with Cohort 1 students
Reached the goal of enrolling 13 students for the second cohort, including five Wisconsin residents, and surpassed the goal of having at least 10% of DrPH enrollees who self-identify as a member of a marginalized population
Developed assessments for the applied practice experience and supported three students to complete the experience with community partners
Finalized the dissertation guide and support eight students to defend their dissertation proposals and advance to candidacy
Received $1.5M from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to provide scholarships to public health students over three years with 14 students receiving a scholarship in academic year 2022-2023