Global Health Specialization | Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis
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Global Health Specialization

The Global Health specialization prepares students to confront complex issues primarily impacting resource-poor populations around the world.

 Understanding and confronting global health issues often requires transdisciplinary approaches that integrate multiple sectors working together for creative solutions. Strategies focus on vulnerable groups such as pregnant and lactating women, infants, young children, adolescents, internally displaced persons, refugees, persons with disabilities and older adults. 

The specialization provides students with knowledge about major infectious and chronic diseases, as well as other health conditions. Students learn to deconstruct and analyze mainstream development discourse and develop a context-specific understanding of the root causes that lead to health outcomes. Students also create program and policy solutions to address global health problems. 

Graduates are prepared for careers in multilateral organizations, the United States federal government, and nongovernmental organizations based in the U.S. and abroad.

Specialization Requirements: 15 Credits

  • Global Health
  • Transdisciplinary Problem Solving (TPS) course*
  • Policy, Politics and Power in Global Health
  • One elective course*
  • MPH practicum (global health-focused)

*Select from a list of pre-approved courses related to global health

TPS course options include:

  • TPS: Global Hunger & Undernutrition
  • TPS: Implementing Public Health Interventions in Developing Countries (taught abroad)
  • TPS: International Family Planning and Reproductive Health
  • TPS: Protection of Women and Children in Humanitarian Settings

Global Health-focused electives include:

  • International Social Development Theory
  • Global Anti-Poverty Interventions
  • Development Practice in International Settings
  • Global Burden of Disease
  • International Child Welfare

Practicum

The MPH program requires 360 hours of practicum. Students in the Global Health specialization must complete their practicum experience in a low- or middle-income, international setting. 

Students who enter the specialization with at least 1 year of experience in a low- or middle-income, international setting may pursue their global health-focused practicum within a high-income setting (e.g., USAID in Washington, D.C.) that has been approved as a Core Affiliated Site.

Sample low- and middle-income, international practicum sites include:

  • Helen Keller International
  • INTERSOS
  • Maji Safi Group
  • TERREWODE
  • Ripples Foundation
  • World Health Organization


Jessica Levy

Specialization Chair

Associate Professor of Practice Jessica Levy investigates how to best measure and operationalize the ways in which gender dynamics influence global health and development. Currently, her work is based in Jordan on a project that aims to improve gender equality and family planning outcomes.


Kate Chlitheroe

Featured Graduate

“The specialization equipped me with the conceptual frameworks I need to understand complex global health issues. Everything we learned about balancing theory with practice, prioritizing ethics, centering community perspectives, and thinking about global health issues in a transdisciplinary way is directly relevant to the work I’m doing right now.”



—Aishwarya Nagar, MPH ’19, Research Associate, Iris Group, INC.