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DrPH in Community & Behavioral Health

This program is designed to help you become a public health leader. You'll learn how to develop, implement, and evaluate evidence-based programs that contribute to community health and wellness. In addition to taking courses that cover research methods and advanced public health theory and practice, you’ll also learn about leadership, management, and grant writing. Areas of specialization include (but are not limited to): community-based participatory research, health equity, program design and evaluation, American Indian and Alaska Native health, mHealth strategies, and mental health. Faculty in our department study everything from adverse childhood experiences to nutrition to school-based interventions, which means you can find the faculty mentor who's right for you.

Quick facts, careers, and skills

When you leave this program, you’ll have the skills you need to develop sound health promotion policy and contribute to research that links social and behavioral factors to health.

Quick facts

Program location: CU Anschutz
Credit hours: 55
Est. time to complete: 3-6 years

Sample careers

Program director
Health program consultant
Analyst
& more

Skills you'll gain

Management
Research methods
Proposal writing
& more

Curriculum

Upon entering the DrPH program, students will have three years to pass the written qualifying exam and should complete the dissertation and public defense of the dissertation within seven years of entering the program.

Each student, in consultation with their faculty advisor, will develop a proposed course of study. The course of study must specify both a major focus area and minor area of study, courses to be taken, and proposed timeline for courses, practicum, preliminary and comprehensive exams, and dissertation.

Course requirement	Course ID	Credits
DrPH Seminar	PUBH 6842	4*

*1 credit hour semesters, first four semesters of tenure

Course requirement	Course ID	Credits
Minor area		6

Total credits: 55

Download the program plan of study >

View the course book and course schedule >

Competencies

Identifier	Competencies
DrPH 1	Explain qualitative, quantitative, mixed methods and policy analysis research and evaluation methods to address health issues at multiple (individual, group, organization, community and population) levels.
DrPH 2	Communication -The ability to assess and use communication strategies across diverse audiences to inform and influence individual, organization, community, and policy decisions that enhance health.
DrPH 3	Explain the use of limitations of surveillance systems and national surveys in assessing, monitoring and evaluating policies and programs and to address a population's health.
DrPH 4	Propose strategies for health improvement and elimination of health inequities by organizing stakeholders, including researchers, practitioners, community leaders and other partners.
DrPH 5	Communicate public health science to diverse stakeholders, including individuals at all levels of health literacy, for purposes of influencing behavior and policies.
DrPH 6	Integrate knowledge, approaches, methods, values and potential contributions from multiple professions and systems in addressing public health problems.
DrPH 7	Create a strategic plan.
DrPH 8	Facilitate shared decision making through negotiation and consensus-building methods.
DrPH 9	Create organizational change strategies.
DrPH 10	Propose strategies to promote inclusion and equity within public health programs, policies and systems.
DrPH 11	Assess one's own strengths and weaknesses in leadership capacities, including cultural proficiency.
DrPH 12	Propose human, fiscal and other resources to achieve a strategic goal.
DrPH 13	Cultivate new resources and revenue streams to achieve a strategic goal.
DrPH 14	Design a system-level intervention to address a public health issue.
DrPH 15	Integrate knowledge of cultural values and practices in the design of public health policies and programs.
DrPH 16	Integrate scientific information, legal and regulatory approaches, ethical frameworks and varied stakeholder interests in policy development and analysis.
DrPH 17	Propose interprofessional team approaches to improving public health.
DrPH 18	Assess an audience's knowledge and learning needs.
DrPH 19	Deliver training or educational experiences that promote learning in academic, organizational or community settings.
DrPH 20	Use best practice modalities in pedagogical practices.

Identifier	Competencies
DrPH-CBHS 1	Synthesize health behavior theories, models, frameworks and evidence-based integrative strategies at multiple levels of socio-ecological model to develop theory-informed conceptual models.
DrPH-CBHS 2	Apply advanced statistical methods used in social sciences, such as multilevel modeling or latent variable methods.
DrPH-CBHS 3	Collect and analyze qualitative data to inform a public health issue.
DrPH-CBHS 4	Design a research study that is responsive to community needs and answers a public health research question.
DrPH-CBHS 5	Demonstrate an in-depth knowledge in the candidate's chosen substantive interest area in behavioral/social science related to public health.
DrPH-CBHS 6	Develop a grant proposal to address a public health problem.
DrPH-CBHS 7	Integrate principles of design for dissemination into the development of a public health intervention.

Colorado School of Public Health

CU Anschutz

Fitzsimons Building

13001 East 17th Place

3rd Floor

Mail Stop B119

Aurora, CO 80045

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Course requirement	Course ID	Credits
CBH Advanced Seminar	CBHS 7670	3
Qualitative Research Methods	CBHS 6622	3
Latent Variable Methods	CBHS 7010	3
Choose one of the following two options:
Applied Biostatistics II	BIOS 6602	3
Applied Quantitative Analysis	CBHS 6637	3
		12

Course requirement	Course ID	Credits
Choose one of the following two options:
Management of Non-Profit Organizations + 1 credit HSMP Independent Study	HSMP 6633 + HSMP 6840	2+1
OR
Management, Budgeting, Public Health Administration	HSMP 6634	3

colorado school of public health

coloradoSPH

DrPH in Community & Behavioral Health

Quick facts, careers, and skills

Curriculum

Total credits: 55

Competencies

Colorado School of Public Health

CU Anschutz

Fitzsimons Building

DrPH in Community & Behavioral Health

Quick facts, careers, and skills

Curriculum

DrPH seminar

Focus area courses

Leadership

Management

Proposal Writing

Minor

Selectives

Directed Reading

Practicum

Dissertation

Total credits: 55

Competencies

Core competencies

Focus area competencies

Colorado School of Public Health

CU Anschutz

Fitzsimons Building