Aims and Objectives

The program seeks to address the changing public health needs of California and the nation by providing a strategic vision of future societal health needs and by training professionals to achieve that vision. Through training in contemporary public health practice and population health, the program participates in a national movement to improve health and life expectancy. The MPH program endeavors to be responsive to the needs of students and the public by fostering public health programs with high societal relevance through collaboration with the nearby California Department of Public Health and other public health organizations.

The MPH program at UC Davis draws upon the strengths of the Davis campus in public health, epidemiology, veterinary medicine, biostatistics and informatics, rural health, occupational and environmental health, nutrition, health services research, food safety, telemedicine, and zoonotic diseases. Close affiliation with the California Department of Health Services in Sacramento provides outstanding teaching and practicum experiences in public health practice. UC Davis has a tradition of addressing the health needs of rural residents, migrant and seasonal farm workers, and other under-served populations. Other areas of interest include chronic disease epidemiology (cardio-pulmonary, reproductive, cancer), food safety, gerontology, women’s health, exposure assessment, public health economics, smoking-related disease, violence prevention, health needs of minorities, and international health.

There are also many research centers and institutional programs at UC Davis that enrich the experience of studying here: co-location of a School of Medicine and a School of Veterinary Medicine, the Center for Health Services Research in Primary Care, the Graduate Group in Epidemiology, the Department of Nutrition, a new Division for Biostatistics within the Department of Public Health Sciences, a Center for Healthy Aging, the UC Davis Health System, California Animal Health & Food Safety Laboratory System, California Regional Primate Research Center, Center for Vector-Borne Disease Research, International Laboratory of Molecular Biology for Tropical Diseases, Western Center for Agricultural Health & Safety, UC Davis Cancer Center, and a Violence Prevention Research Program, among others.