Wright State grad student Dan Baker manages emergency plans for the Toledo-Lucas County Health Department, coordinating response in a region that includes half a million people, Lake Erie and a nuclear power plant.
Make a Difference
Wright State University believes in your potential to become a public health leader. Our interdisciplinary approach increases your research opportunities and expands your future career options. Join other Raiders already making an impact on their communities. Channel your potential into a life that will influence positive change, both local and global.
What is Public Health?
- Public health promotes and protects the health of people and the communities where they live, learn, work, and play.
- Public health promotes wellness by encouraging healthy behaviors.
- Public health works to track disease outbreaks, prevent injuries, and shed light on why some of us are more likely to suffer from poor health than others.
- Public health saves money, improves our quality of life, helps children thrive, and reduces human suffering.
— American Public Health Association
Public Health Degrees
Master of Public Health (M.P.H.)
Exceptional leaders require exceptional education. Public Health at Wright State wants you to be fully prepared to save lives, locally and globally, by improving access to health care, helping control epidemics, battling addictions through education, and other skills that can significantly impact our world.
Our Master of Public Health program was founded in 2004, a first for any university in southwest Ohio. It is fully accredited by the Council of Education in Public Health. You can choose from two concentrations—health promotion and education or population health.
The first will help you develop specific advanced skills and make you eligible to sit for the Certified Health Education Specialist exam. The second will allow you the flexibility to choose public health courses based on your interests and professional goals.
You will benefit from this program’s student diversity, an interdisciplinary approach that includes experts from several academic departments, and collaborations with 23 health districts in southwest Ohio, the Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine, and many other community partnerships.
The Master of Public Health program is accredited by the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH). This program is offered through the Boonshoft School of Medicine.
Public health (B.S.)
If you want to become a leader in confronting global and local community health issues, consider our Bachelor of Science in Public Health.
The curriculum will help you develop a well-rounded, interdisciplinary approach to public health. You will learn skills valuable in any field, including critical thinking, scientific reasoning, technical writing, and a focus on community health and engagement.
The coursework is centered on life science topics that impact public health including health and disease, food and nutrition, cells and genes, organisms and ecosystems, ecology, anatomy, physiology, and epidemiology. You will also study chemistry, statistics, psychology, and experience an on-site public health internship.
This program is offered through the Boonshoft School of Medicine.
Public Health (B.A.)
If your goal is to improve lives worldwide through a career in public health, our Bachelor of Arts in Public Health will prepare you to do just that.
The interdisciplinary curriculum offers you a well-rounded education. You will develop valuable knowledge and skills, critical thinking, scientific reasoning, scientific and technical writing, and a focus on community engagement and health.
The coursework includes life science topics that impact public health including health and disease, food and nutrition, cells and genes, organisms and ecosystems, ecology, anatomy, physiology, and epidemiology. You will also study chemistry, statistics, and psychology and experience an on-site public health internship.
This program is offered through the Boonshoft School of Medicine.
Bachelor of Science in Nursing (B.S.N.)
Nurses care for individuals and families from birth to death in local as well as international communities. Workplace environments can include newborn nurseries to elderly care facilities and school clinics to the World Health Organization. A Wright State nursing education prepares you to participate in research to improve the health of people and improve healthcare practices.
Outside the classroom, you can benefit from clinical experiences in health assessment, maternity, pediatrics, adult health, community health, mental health, and complex care settings. Wright State has contacts with more than 200 area agencies for clinical experiences and research, and you can now complete your B.S.N in just three years.
This program is offered through the College of Health, Education, and Human Services.
Public Health Minor
A minor in public health is ideal for those students interested in pursuing public health as a career path or supplementing their pre-health concentration or pairing this minor with an existing degree program. The program currently consists of 23 semester hours, including 12 hours of approved electives.
Public health degrees can be combined with any number of fields of study. Choosing the right major for you depends on what area of public health you might be interested in. The minor in public health provides you with a general idea of study and outlook on your potential career.
This program is offered through the Boonshoft School of Medicine.
M.B.A. Health Care Management Concentration
Health care management is a growing field that requires a specific set of knowledge and skills. You should consider a health care management concentration in the Master of Business Administration program.
Courses are designed to introduce you to health-specific business concepts, evaluation techniques, and strategic thinking. You will study health resource management and policy, strategic leadership in health care organization, and the financial management of health care organizations.
This concentration is co-sponsored by the Raj Soin College of Business and the Boonshoft School of Medicine.
Contact us
Are you a current Wright State student looking for information? Contact your advisor.
Why wright state
PUBLIC HEALTH SUCCESS STORIES
The U.S. Public Health Service will recognize Nicholaus J. Christian for his involvement in public health issues in his community.
Justin Kelley is pursuing a M.D./M.P.H. dual degree at the Boonshoft School of Medicine to prepare for a medical career in health policy and management.
Local and Global Impact
How badly are leaders in public health needed? The statistics, both globally and in our community, tell us.
Consider these facts from Public Health–Dayton and Montgomery County:
- In 2021, 337 people in Montgomery County died from accidental overdoses, an increase of 255 percent from 2011.
- Almost a third of the population has low access to a grocery store, and more than half of the low-income population has low access to healthy foods.
- In 2016, there were 12.6 deaths per 1,000 live births among Montgomery county’s Black population, more than double the death rate of white births.
- In the most recent study, the Dayton area exceeded the Ohio average in preterm births, lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality rate, drug overdose death rate, breast cancer, Alzheimer’s Disease, obesity, being uninsured, and other key community health indicators.
Consider these facts from the World Health Organization:
- About 39 million people have died from AIDS since the beginning of the epidemic.
- About 45 percent of deaths among children under age 5 are linked to undernutrition.
- About 2.6 million children in 2016 died during the first month of life.
- About 2.3 billion people still do not have basic sanitation facilities such as toilets or latrines.
These statistics are only the tip of the iceberg. Leaders also help correct health inequities, reduce environmental hazards, create educational programs, conduct research, and promote policies and legislation that will lead to improved lives. Public Health at Wright State wants to work with you as you seek to become part of the solution.
Interdisciplinary Education
Public Health at Wright State offers you the opportunity to learn from the best.
Our bachelor’s degree programs are housed in the College of Science and Mathematics, College of Health, Education, and Human Services, and Boonshoft School of Medicine. Our master’s degree programs are housed in the Boonshoft School of Medicine and Raj Soin College of Business. We also partner with a variety of Wright State’s other academic departments, including the College of Liberal Arts and the School of Professional Psychology.
Your professors will work with experts from throughout the university to see that you are fully prepared for the challenge of becoming a public health leader.
You can take advantage of this interdisciplinary approach in any of Wright State’s academic offerings that can help prepare you for a public health career in many fields, including:
- Chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear defense
- Emergency preparedness
- Environmental health sciences
- Environmental sciences
- Epidemiology
- Global health
- Health promotion and education
- Integrative biology and toxicology
- Pharmacology and toxicology
- Population health
- Public health
- Public health education
- Public health emergency preparedness
- Public health leadership
- Public health management
Opportunities
Public Health at Wright State and the Dayton region offer you opportunities for professional growth and experience as you prepare to become a leader in public health.
The Master of Public Health program (M.P.H.) operates in partnership with 23 health districts in southwest Ohio as well as Public Health–Dayton and Montgomery County and the Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine. Recent M.P.H. students have enjoyed hands-on internship opportunities with:
- Public Health of Dayton and Montgomery County
- Greene County Combined Health District
- Reachout Montgomery County
- Dayton Children’s Hospital
- American Red Cross
- Dayton Fire Department
- Premier Health
- CareSource
As an undergraduate, you can take advantage of some unique experiential learning options. In the Applying Scientific Knowledge program, coursework and undergraduate research are one and the same.
Our Undergraduate Research and Experiential Learning program allows you to explore career options and interact with faculty members. The M.P.H. program includes a valuable practicum element.
Employment Outlook
Public Health at Wright State graduates are currently serving as health commissioners and in key leadership positions in the healthcare industry.
The potential career options in public health are almost unlimited and the number of job openings continues to expand. A recent search of the American Public Health Association’s employment site returned more than 4,500 open positions. Here is a partial list of career options from publichealthdegrees.org:
- Clinical research coordinator
- Clinical services coordinator
- Community health specialist
- Environmental scientist
- Environmental specialist
- Health educator
- Health promotion specialist
- Health specialty teacher
- Healthcare social worker
- Medical and health services manager
- Mental health and substance abuse social worker
- Mental health counselor
- Natural sciences manager
- Prevention specialist
- Program manager
- Public health administrator
- Public health consultant
- Public health educator
- Public health epidemiologist
- Quality improvement coordinator
- Research assistant
- Research director
