The Executive MPH: A degree for career professionals

The lunch crowd in the Yale School of Public Health’s student lounge in mid-October was filled with adult students dressed in business casual huddled in conversation, discussing decidedly non-academic topics: Ways to manage their medical practices since federal telehealth funding expired October 1, challenges posed by the federal government shutdown, and navigating school alongside work and family.

These students are mid-career professionals from a variety of industries. There are CEOs, elected officials, lawyers, educators, civil servants, and military professionals—a physician-trainee joined the group after days of inpatient hospital service. All of them were first-year students in the Executive MPH (EMPH) program, on campus for intensive in-person training in design thinking, a strategic approach to problem-solving and innovation. As they worked in small groups applying this method, eating became an afterthought.

Most adults cannot pause their career and relocate their family to pursue a two-year degree. The program combines these in-person, intensive classes with online evening courses. “It has been remarkable to take on this program as a group, especially when juggling and maintaining full-time jobs as well as our personal lives,” said EMPH student Gregory Jackson, who oversaw the country’s response to mass shootings as deputy director of the White House Office of Gun Violence.

The EMPH students work through the program as a cohort; they learn, collaborate, and develop close relationships with peers who have different lived experiences, professional expertise, and political views drawn from communities across the United States as well as Mexico and Canada.

“I’ve established deep relationships amongst my classmates and am part of a team that is working through this program together,” Jackson said. “Within our cohort there are doctors, librarians, health executives, nurses, teachers, parents, and policy leaders committed to making our communities healthier.”

The cross-disciplinary structure of the cohorts is meant to foster new ideas and approaches. “This interdisciplinary relationship-building is helping me to think more creatively about how to solve big public health challenges,” said EMPH student Dr. Kathryn Norman, MD, a clinical fellow in Medical Oncology and Hematology at Yale School of Medicine.

In addition to the cohort structure, YSPH’s Executive MPH uses a hybrid learning format, with three in-person intensives and live discussions in every online course. The goal is to create opportunities for students to develop deeper relationships with their cohort, faculty, and expert instructors. “Community matters at Yale. Anyone who's been at YSPH knows this,” said EMPH Executive Director Dr. Abigail Friedman, PhD, pointing to the school’s high faculty-to-student ratio.

EMPH student Priya Khimani, who works on digital health partnerships for a health care company, praised the emphasis on community, saying, “it has been fantastic to have others who truly understand the balancing act that is graduate school, and we are there to consistently support one another.”

This difficult moment for public health is “a reason to double down” as educators, said Friedman, who is also an associate professor of public health (health policy). “We need to invest in people who are dedicated to serving their communities to strengthen the health of the public and ensure that we can prosper as a community and a population.”

Offering a Yale-caliber, executive-focused education to a diverse group of students who can bring their knowledge back to their local communities helps to build trust in public health. “Not only are they gaining foundational knowledge and frameworks, but they’re also gaining skills that help them to communicate and collaborate with people who might view things differently,” Friedman said.

“I have gained the ability to apply core public health principles and practices to my day-to-day job working on digital health partnerships for a health care company,” Khimani said. “This integration is one of my favorite parts of the program and makes learning feel tangible.”

The EMPH students have a broad range of perspectives, which helps them practice difficult conversations with each other. The in-person lecture, “The Communication Skill Every Leader Needs,” taught in October by Dr. Susan Nappi, DrPh, MPH ’01, executive director of the Office of Community & Practice, and Randi McCray, associate director of school community & culture, emphasized using active listening, empathy, and storytelling to enhance trust.

“Providing opportunities to connect, collaborate, and form relationships across different life experiences prepares leaders to better advocate for people whose experiences are different from their own. As long as we make that a priority, we can do really awesome things, and Yale's a great place to do it,” Friedman said.

Some MPH programs for mid-career students are offered entirely online with remote faculty contact but no in-person interaction. These programs are often self-paced without the consistent presence or support of other students. Other executive programs are entirely in person. “EMPH students don't need to be physically in the same place all the time for learning to be impactful and to be a resource for each other,” said Friedman, who learned the value of remote learning during COVID when instead of teaching 80 students in an auditorium she taught on Zoom “where everyone sits at the front of the room.”

The EMPH offers four tracks: health policy, health informatics, environmental health sciences, and applied analytic methods and epidemiology to allow students to focus on areas that best serve their professional goals. The program also just launched a volunteer professional mentorship pilot program. EMPH alums and expert instructors hold career mentorship office hours to talk with students about career paths in their sectors and provide insights informed by experiences outside academia.

EMPH student Dr. Vincent Carsillo, DO, a nephrologist at Albany Med Health System, noted that his cohort is “a diverse group of professionals who came together with a shared purpose to translate their new knowledge into action,” adding, “This group will change the world.”

At least the world of public health. And that’s the program’s point.