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The technical information I learned about industrial hygiene, toxicology, environmental health and epidemiology is applicable every day for me in my role. Having a varied education including elements of infectious disease, international health and health policy has really helped me bring a diverse background to what I do now.

David Newman, MPH/MES '96
Executive Director of Occupational Health and Safety, Comcast

Real World Application of Public Health Skills and Training

When you enroll at the Yale School of Public Health, you'll hear a lot about the Applied Practice Experience (APE) requirement. Whether you complete this immersive experience through an internship, independent project, or a practicum course, they are carefully planned, supported and evaluated by our practice and career management staff. This experience provides robust opportunities for the real-world application of public health knowledge and skills and support your career goals. Many students report inspiring, life changing experiences from their time around the world and in local settings.

Applied Practice Experiences

Sample practicum projects

  • Assist in analyzing results from a pilot fruit and vegetable incentive program. Findings were utilized by Wholesome Wave to report back to the community members being served by the programs and will be used to inform a variety of audiences in future reports.
  • Assist in analyzing results from a community survey conducted with residents in New Haven specifically to assess experience with, access to, and hesitancy with obtaining COVID-19 testing. Findings were utilized by the New Haven Health Department to inform policies and programming.
  • In partnership with Dreamkit, developing and implementing a new survey tool to measure youth progress and behavior change through building new skills on an app designed to serve youth experiencing homelessness

Recent internships

  • Neighborhood Health Project: Neighborhood Health Project Needs Assessment
  • Massachusetts General Hospital: Use of Eko DUO stethoscope in critical care units in the setting of the COVID-19 pandemic
  • New Mexico Department of Health: NMDOH Remote Internship (Updating Evidence-Based Key Interventions for Drug Overdose)
  • BenHealth Consulting & Technology: Patient experience on cancer treatment in China
  • Chinese Center for Disease Control & Prevention: Methods to Estimate the Number of People Living with Undiagnosed HIV

Student Research

Contributing to science is important to many of our students and opportunities for research abound at Yale. Many students use their summer internship to do research that culminates in the MPH thesis required by this department. Others work with faculty labs and research teams to access data and formulate their analysis. In addition many students work as research assistants at the Yale School of Public Health, Yale School of Medicine, Yale New Haven Hospital or the VA on faculty research, culminating in peer review publications.

Recent Thesis Topics

2021

  • The Association of Total Blood Mercury Levels and Overweight/Obesity Among Women at Menopause: A Cross-sectional Study of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2011–2018
  • The Associations Between Circadian Genetic Factors and Cancer Survival
  • Public Health and Natural Gas Policy in Connecticut
  • A Source-specific Algorithm to Estimate Occupational (1?3)-ß-D-glucan Exposure for Farmers in the Biomarkers of Exposure and Effect in Agriculture Cohort
  • Investigation on the association between unconventional oil and gas development and traffic accident rates in Ohio
  • Extreme Heat Vulnerability and Spatial Accessibility to Cooling Centers in Connecticut
  • An Agenda-Setting Report: Biome Monitoring for Human Health
  • Transcriptomic and Metabolomic Analyses of Acetaminophen Exposure in Human iPSCs: Potential Mechanisms Explaining Epidemiological Associations Between Prenatal Acetaminophen Exposure and Increased Risk of Autism Spectrum Disorder
  • Co-distribution of Ambient Light at Night and Incidence of Human Cancers and COVID-19
  • Identifying Serum Metabolite Biomarkers of Thyroid Cancer
  • Genetic Determinants for Cancer Risks with Racial Differences and Asthma
  • Predicting spatiotemporally-resolved air temperature over Sweden from satellite data using an ensemble model

2019

  • Assessment of lead exposure to children in a historically contaminated area, Copsa Mica, Romania
  • Association of HPV and Oral Cancer
  • Coarse Particulate Matter Exposure and Inflammation
  • Evaluation of sociodemographic factors and presence of oil and gas waste disposal wells in Kansas
  • Evaluation of the Endocrine Disrupting Potential of Chemicals Used in Crumb Rubber: A Multi-Factorial Approach
  • Examining the Association Between Cigarette Smoking and Hypertension in Rural China
  • Exploring Pharmaceutical Waste Prevention and Disposal Practices in Nurse Populations
  • Exposure to 1,4-dioxane Dysregulates Stool Metabolomic Network
  • Exposure to Atmospheric Metals Using Moss Bio-Indicators and Neonatal Health Outcomes in Portland, Oregon
  • Function of PIWI-Interacting RNAs in Prostate Cancer
  • Impacts of Ambient Temperature on Foodborne Salmonella Infection
  • Insecticides and Obesity Risk in the Agricultural Health Study
  • Interaction between Green Chemistry, United Nation Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Public Health
  • Multi-State Analysis of Unconventional Oil and Gas Development and Rates of Sexually Transmitted Infections in the United States
  • Project on Assessing the Temperature-Mortality Relationship for Older Adults in China
  • Proximity to Nearest Major Road and Time to Pregnancy in the Early Pregnancy Study
  • Qualitative and Quantitative Risk Assessment of Inhalable Particles and Volatile Organic Compounds for an Aerospace Product Manufacturer
  • Using Volatile Organic Compounds in Exhaled Breath as a Biomarker for Early Lung Cancer Detection: A Systematic Review

2018

  • Phthalate Exposure from Drinking Water in Romanian Adolescents
  • Assessment of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) and Residential Proximity to Unconventional Natural Gas (UNG) Development in Ohio
  • The Association Between Food Environments and Preschool-Aged Children Obesity Rate: A County-Level Cross- Sectional Study in the United States
  • Medical, nursing, and physician assistant student knowledge and attitudes toward climate change, pollution, and resource utilization in the health care sector
  • Exposure to Polychlorinated Biphenyl (PCBs) and Risk of Papillary Thyroid Cancer (PTC): A Nested Case-Control Study
  • Enrichment Analysis to Identify Biochemical Pathways, Commonly Altered in Right-sided Colon Cancer
  • Alcohol Consumption and the Risk of Stomach Cancer: A Meta-analysis
  • Association between electronic health records meaningful use attestation and Medicare spending per beneficiary among US hospitals
  • National NCDs research capacity assessment in 7 LMICs

2017

  • Examining the Association Between Temperature and Mental Health-related Outcomes in California
  • Cell Phone Use and Risk of Thyroid Cancer: a Population-based Case Control Study in Connecticut
  • Understanding the Role of Effect Modification of Maternal Risk Factors on Infant Respiratory Distress Outcomes
  • Genetic Variations in the AGEs/AGER Pathway and Risk of Pancreatic Cancer
  • Assessment of Volative Organic Compounds (VOCs) and Residential Proximity to Unconventional Natural Gas (UNG) Development in Ohio
  • Chemicals in Crumb Rubber Synthetic Turf Infill Predicted to be the Most Toxic
  • Toxicology and Pharmacokinetics of Perfluoroorctanoic Acid (PFOA)