Craig Molgaard, Professor and Chair
The School of Public and Community Health Sciences is an interdisciplinary program that offers the Master of Public Health degree and a certificate in public health. The program is designed to prepare public health practitioners to address the challenges of rural and global health issues. Distance learning technology is used to allow working professionals to participate. This program addresses current and forecasted needs for graduate education in public health. Its focus on rural population health problems assists in promoting improvement in the health of the people of Montana and throughout the world.
Special Degree Requirements
For the M.P.H. degree, all students must successfully complete 42 graduate credits. The following core courses are required:
- PUBH 510 Introduction to Epidemiology
- PUBH 520 Fundamentals of Biostatistics
- PUBH 530 U.S. Healthcare System and Policy
- PUBH 540 Social and Behavioral Sciences in Public Health
- PUBH 550 Program Evaluation and Research Methods
- PUBH 560 Environmental and Rural Health
- PUBH 580 Rural Health Issues in a Global Context
- PUBH 591 Practicum
- PUBH 593 Professional Portfolio
- PUBH 595 Ethical Issues in Public Health
- PUBH 599 Professional Paper
- PUBH 596 Independent Study
- PUBH 597 Research
Electives offered by other departments may be used to create a plan of study that tailors the learning experience to the needs of the student.
Courses
G = for graduate credit. R after the credit indicates the course may be repeated for credit to the maximum indicated after the R. Credits beyond this maximum do not count toward a degree.
Public Health (PUBH)
G 510 Introduction to Epidemiology 3 cr. Offered autumn. Principles and methods of epidemiologic investigation, descriptive and analytic epidemiology techniques, disease frequency, risk determination, study designs, causality, and validity.
G 520 Fundamental of Biostatistics 3 cr. Offered fall. Parametric and nonparametric methods. Data collection, storage, retrieval, transformation, analysis and interpretation. Applications for biomedical sciences.
G 530 U.S. Healthcare System and Policy 3 cr. Offered autumn. The U.S. healthcare system including the rural system. Organization, management, evaluation, and finance. Federal and state policy.
G 540 Social and Behavioral Sciences in Public Health 3 cr. Offered spring. Behavioral and social factors relevant to the identification and solution of public health problems, principles of health behavior change, applications, and assessment of interventions.
G 550 Program Evaluation and Research Methods 3 cr. Offered summer. Prerreq., PUBH 510 or equiv. and consent of instr. Historical, conceptual, values, ethics, and socio-cultural aspects of community-based research, building partnerships, working with diverse populations, developing a research proposal and participatory evaluation.
G 560 Environmental and Rural Health 3 cr. Offered autumn Relationship of people to their physical environment, how this relationship impacts health, and efforts to minimize negative health effects.
G 580 Rural Health Issues in a Global Context 3 cr. Offered summer. Prereq., 15 core credits and consent of instr. Analysis of public-health themes. Focus on rural concerns and transnational influences. Includes human rights, health equity, mobile and vulnerable populations, and transnational competence.
G 591 Practicum 3 cr. Offered autumn, spring, and summer. Prereq., admission into the M.P.H. program or consent of instructor. Semester long graduate practicum and on-line seminar designed to advise students of the practicum requirements, the process of the practicum development, and the evaluation process.
G 593 Professional Portfolio 3 cr. Offered autumn and spring. Prereq., admission to the M.P.H. program or consent of instructor. Integrates the student’s practice experience and knowledge gained through course work, practicum, and possibly professional papers and research with the goals and learning objectives of the M.P.H. program into a portfolio. Students will present their portfolio to illustrate their growth as a professional public health practitioner.
G 595 Special Topics Variable cr. (R-12) Offered intermittently. Experimental offerings of visiting professors, experimental offerings of new courses, or one-time offerings of current topics.
G 596 Independent Study Variable cr.
G 597 Research 3 cr. Offered autumn and spring. Prereq., admission to the M.P.H. program or consent of instructor. With the guidance of their faculty advisor, students will develop a syllabus specific to what they propose to accomplish with their research project.
G 599 Professional Paper or Portfolio 3 cr. Offered every term.
Faculty
Public Health Core
Professors
- Amanda Golbeck, Ph.D., University of California at Berkeley, 1983; MPH, University of California at Berkeley, 1982
- Craig Molgaard, Ph.D., MPH, University of California at Berkeley, 1979
Associate Professors
- Kari Harris, Ph.D., The University of Kansas, 1998; M.P.H., The University of Kansas Medical Center, 1997
MPH Program Faculty
Professors
- Peter Koehn, Ph.D., University of Colorado, 1973 (Political Science)
- K. Ann Sondag, Ph.D., Southern Illinois, Carbondale, 1988 (Health and Human Performance)
- Willard O. Granath, Ph.D., Wake Forest University, 1982 (Biological Sciences)
- Janet L. Finn, Ph.D., University of Michigan, 1995 (Social Work and Anthropology)
- Tom Seekins, Ph.D. University of Kansas, 1983 (Department of Psychology and the Rural Institute)
Associate Professors
- Ann Cook, Ph.D., The University of Montana, 2001 (Research, Psychology)
- Jean T. Carter, Ph.D., The University of Arizona, 1997; Pharm.D., The University of Arizona, 1993 (Pharmacy Practice)
- Kimber Haddix McKay, Ph.D., University of California at Davis, 1998 (Anthropology)
- Gilbert Quintero, Ph.D., University of Arizona, 1998 (Anthropology)
Assistant Professors
- Duncan Campbell, Ph.D., Washington State University, 2003 (Psychology)
- Bryan Cochran, Ph.D., University of Washington, 2003 (Psychology)
- Nikole Cronk, Ph.D., University of Missouri-Columbia, 2006 (Research, Public Health)
- Curtis Noonan, Ph.D., Colorado State University, 2000 (Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Pharmacy Practice)
- Elizabeth Putnam, Ph.D., University of Texas-Houston, 1989 (Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences)
- Robin Saha, Ph.D., University of Michigan, 2002 (Environmental Studies)
- Lawrence L. White, M.H.A., (College of Health Professions and Biomedical Sciences)
Project and Research Directors
- Donna Bainbridge, Ph.D., Boston University, 1990 (Rural Institute)
- Kathleen Humphries, Ph.D., the University of California at Davis, 1995 (Rural Institute)
- Rosemary Hughes, Ph.D., University of Houston, 1989 (Rural Institute)
- Holly Lenz, Ph.D. Oregon State University, 1996 (Montana Tobacco Use Prevention Program, Montana DPHHS)
- Meg Ann Traci, Ph.D., The University of Montana, 2000 (Rural Institute)