The College of Health Sciences and School of Public and Population Health recently received approval from the Idaho State Board of Education to launch the new Doctor of Philosophy in Public and Population Health Leadership for fall 2023.
The program will be a first for Idaho — benefiting public health in the region and throughout the state.
The degree in public and population health leadership was designed by Doug Myers, a professor in the School of Public and Population Health, and Mike Mann, the school’s director, along with a team of colleagues.
The program will train future public health scientist leaders, and provide advanced training for those who intend to become upper-level leaders in public and population health and healthcare organizations.
“This program will round out our School of Public and Population Health’s capacity to serve the public health needs of Idaho as we can now deliver the advanced level public health training which goes with the PhD degree,” Myers said.
Curriculum is tailored to provide students with the scientific knowledge and leadership skills needed to identify and contextualize public health problems, develop strategies to address the problems, design scientifically rigorous research studies, lead research teams and communicate scientific findings to a range of audiences.
“The PhD in Public and Population Health Leadership is designed to create a new role, the public health scientist leader, and is an attempt at streamlining public health education at its highest levels,” Myers said. “Graduates of the program will not just be prepared to serve as only scientists or only leaders — they will be prepared to be both.”