PROVIDENCE – In response to the global COVID-19 pandemic, Brown University recently announced that it’s launching an online-only master’s degree program in public health, aimed at best preparing the next generation of public health leaders regardless of whether they can relocate to Providence.
Brown University said the two-year Master of Public Health program marks Brown’s first exclusively online degree program.
“As we continue to battle the global pandemic, I believe it is our moral obligation to share our knowledge with others to improve global public health,” said Dr. Ashish K. Jha, dean of the Brown’s School of Public Health. “The online extension of the MPH program strengthens our commitment to ensure that more people can access a Brown education and that we stay true to the University’s mission to serve the community, nation and world.”
Brown University said the fully online degree program is now accepting applicants. The first cohort will begin in fall 2022, the university announced.
The university said it’s seeking a “diverse student population” from across the world, with a preference for applicants who already have at least two years of professional work experience. Jha said that COVID-19 exposed weaknesses in public health systems and showed an urgent need to educate future health leaders to protect the world from future threats to public health.
“Our new online MPH program will allow us to demonstrate our commitment to educational equity by diversifying and vastly expanding access to the knowledge and wisdom of our faculty as well as other global public health leaders,” Jha said.
Jennifer Nazareno, who has a dual faculty appointment at the School of Public Health and Brown’s Nelson Center for Entrepreneurship, was appointed to serve as associate director of the online Master’s degree program. Nazareno said the graduate degree students will study “current real-world public health issues,” including COVID-19, the opioid crisis, long-term care, HIV/AIDs and social inequities in health care access.
“Students will gain the knowledge and global context to examine how historic and present-day power relations produce health inequities, critically evaluate policies that impact public health, and advocate for policies and programs that improve the health of diverse populations,” Nazareno said.
The program consists of 12 courses, combining real-time streaming discussions and asynchronous components, including interactive multimedia, recorded lectures and demonstrations. Weekly virtual meetings with course instructors will be recorded and available for access at any time, according to Brown’s School of Public Health.
As part of the master’s degree program, Jha and Dr. Megan Ranney, academic dean at the School of Public Health, will host interviews and learning modules with prominent health leaders from around the world.
“To create the public health workforce of the future, we need to create new modes of public health education,” said Ranney, who’s also the director of the Brown-Lifespan Center for Digital Health. “That’s why we’re so excited to be launching Brown’s first online-only master’s degree, accessible to adult learners from across the world. Only by diversifying the ways we teach will we be able to make great public health available to all.”
Marc Larocque is a PBN staff writer. Contact him at Larocque@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter @LaRockPBN.
