What’s Different About Global Health at Yale?

• The Global Health Concentration is available to students from any YSPH department enrolled in the traditional two-year M.P.H. or five-year BA-BS M.P.H. programs. Students in the one-year Advanced Professional M.P.H. program may enroll in the Global Health Track. Coursework is offered throughout the University to encourage creativity and innovation, while fostering a global perspective.
• YSPH faculty is on the front lines of global health response, from zika to health systems to food insecurity.
• Access to faculty led multidisciplinary centers across the University including the Yale Institute for Global Health (YIGH)

About the Concentration

The Yale School of Public Health is a leader in Yale University’s commitment to improve health across the globe through research, education and community engagement. The School uses science to foster health, promote innovation, train leaders and make a difference in the world. Faculty research spans a variety of fields including chronic and infectious diseases, implementation science, environmental health, behavioral determinants of health, policy and administration.

The Global Health Concentration builds on all these experiences and emphasizes an integrative problem–solving approach to global health issues and to diseases and conditions that afflict developing and developed countries.

Students who complete this concentration will be well prepared for positions in a variety of organizations—public and private, national, bilateral and multilateral—dedicated to global health challenges.

Our Alumni

The Yale School of Public Health has more than 6,100 alumni working around the world in virtually every facet of public health. Many have become leading figures in global health and are an active part in providing internship and professional opportunities for students. They include:

• Unni Karunakara, MPH ’95, Dr.PH, former international president of Médecins Sans Frontières, and now a senior fellow at Yale’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs.
• Dechen Wangmo, MPH ’07, Minister of Health, Bhutan.
• Vandine Or, MD, MPH ’96, director, Department of International Cooperation, Ministry of Health of Cambodia.
• Juan Lubroth, DVM, MPH, PhD ‘95, chief veterinary officer of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.
• Jacob Creswell, MPH ’00, team leader, Innovations and Grants at Stop TB Partnership, UNOPS.
• Elisabeth Schauer-Kaiser, PhD, MPH ’96, director, Vivo International.
• Susan Michaels-Strasser, MPH ’95, MSN ’95, PhD, former country director, Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation in Zambia, now assistant professor of epidemiology at Columbia University Medical Center.
• Lawrence Meagher, Jr., MPH ’76, retired executive director and CEO, Hospital Santa Catarina, Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Students pursuing the Global Health Concentration must fulfill the requirements of their respective departments or programs. In addition, the Global Health Concentration requires the student to complete the following courses. As part of the Global Health Concentration, it is strongly encouraged that students focus their Master’s Thesis (if applicable) on a global health issue as determined by their department/program.

• EPH 591 Global Health Seminar - 0 units (taken first semester)
• EPH 595 Global Health Foundations: Principles and Applications - 1 unit (taken 2nd semester)
• EPH 521** Summer Internship - Please note that GHC internships must meet the Office of Public Health Practice APE guidelines - 0 units

One of the following capstone courses:

• EPH 557 Evidence-Based Decision Making in Global Health - 1 unit (taken final semester; can be taken as an elective if HPM 575 is taken as capstone)
• HPM 575 Evaluation of Global Health Policies and Programs - 1 unit (taken final semester; can be taken as an elective if EPH 557 is taken as capstone)

Three courses from at least two of the perspectives of public health from list of previously approved courses. Please note that all courses listed may not be offered each term.

**Student must complete a global health focused internship in a low to middle income country. If the student has already had 10-12 weeks of global health experience, they can do an internship based in the United States or another high-income country as long as it is pertinent to global health; otherwise, they must do an internship abroad. This alternative option must be approved by the GHC office prior to the start of the internship. All GHC students conducting an international internship must complete the International Pre-Departure Preparation Workshops held in the spring semester of their first year.

rev. 8.16.2023

All MPH students working towards the Global Health Concentration are required to complete an internship in a low to middle-income country as part of their studies. This internship is during the summer and typically involves 10-12 weeks of full–time work. Students often apply for internship opportunities in conjunction with their faculty advisor, by searching listings on YSPH's Handshake career platform, or accessing a global network of YSPH alumni. The location of the internship is largely up to the student.