About the Field

Community Health Education

The purpose of the community health education major is to prepare students to be public health leaders who can design, implement, advocate for, and evaluate efforts to promote healthy behaviors and social conditions for specific populations. The program prepares students to use social science theories and individual, community, and policy-based intervention strategies.

Career Prospects

The professional field of community health education once was practiced mainly in classrooms and health care facilities. Now, community health educators work in a variety of settings, including all levels of government, voluntary and social service agencies, medical care organizations, workplaces, schools, and advocacy organizations.

Sample job titles of recent graduates include coordinator, tobacco research program; coordinator, high-risk youth project; community health planner in an HMO; health program coordinator, Minneapolis Urban Coalition; reproductive health coordinator, American Refugee Committee.

Job titles several years after graduation include: public affairs director, Planned Parenthood; program manager, Edina Public Schools; executive director, Association of Health Care Journalists; and director, Minnesota Migrant Health Promotion Program.

Community Health Education at the University of Minnesota

Through coursework and fieldwork taken at the School of Public Health, students in community health education develop basic competencies in theory, health behavior and policy interventions, assessment methods, cultural competency, and management.

Each graduate should have the ability to:

• Use theories of behavior and social change to inform the planning and evaluation of health interventions
• Identify individual, community, and policy level interventions that are effective in promoting healthy behaviors and social conditions
  
• Design and implement effective individual, community, and policy-level interventions targeting a variety of health behaviors
  
• Assess the health status of populations and communities
  
• Utilize appropriate data collection strategies and qualitative and quantitative methods to evaluate health interventions
  
• Identify the role of cultural, social, and behavioral factors in influencing health behaviors and status
  
• Develop and adapt approaches to solving health problems, taking into account cultural differences
  
• Communicate health information effectively both in writing and orally
  
• Advocate for public health programs and resources
  
• Collaborate with public health agencies and other constituency groups
  
• Coordinate and manage health programs/services
  
• Relate ethical considerations and values to one¿s professional practice

The M.P.H. in community health education is a good path for students planning for a career as a public health practitioner or to pursue a Ph.D. degree in social and behavioral epidemiology, which is available in the School of Public Health.

Research Activities

Research activities focus on behavioral and social epidemiology and community health promotion programs.

Faculty are involved in assessing population behavior patterns and psychosocial risk factors; designing community-wide prevention and treatment programs for heart disease, cancer and AIDS; preventing alcohol and drug abuse; influencing health policies; and evaluating outcomes of behavior change efforts in schools, worksites, physicians¿ offices, and communities.