Is public health for you?

Dr. Patrick Hanington says there really is something for everyone within the field.

Ever found yourself daydreaming about what you’ll do after graduation with that degree you’re working so hard to get? 

How about assisting with an anti-smoking campaign? Or helping to design healthier communities? Or delving into how climate change impacts human health? Or combating obesity in children? Or researching how to handle deadly bacteria that have grown resistant to antibiotics? Or…?

All of those careers fall within public health — a field that certainly had its profile raised big-time thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic — but there’s a lot more to it than vaccine campaigns and social distancing.

Now, undergraduate students have new opportunities to explore the breadth of public health, thanks to expanded course and certificate offerings from the University of Alberta’s School of Public Health.

New for the winter 2025 term are two 300-level undergrad courses, one in epidemiology — the study of how diseases spread and affect different populations — and the other on how health promotion campaigns can advance health, wellbeing and equity in an unequal world. 

Several 500-level graduate courses have also been made available to undergraduate students at the 400 level, including SPH  456- Climate Change and Human Health, SPH 412 - Environmental Risk Assessment and Management, SPH 414 - Intro to Environmental Health,  and SPH 416 - One Health —  an integrated, unifying approach to balancing the health of people, animals and the environment.

Coming later next year, new 300-level courses, one on how to fight misinformation in public health, and another on climate impacts on human health. The latter will be taught by Sherilee Harper, Canada Research Chair in Climate Change and Health and vice-chair of an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change working group. Both will be designed as online on-demand courses open to the public and students, much like U of A’s popular Indigenous Canada and Bugs 101. 

Something for everyone

The School of Public Health was established in 2007 and has become a research powerhouse at the University of Alberta. Traditionally a graduate school, it offers a master of arts in community engagement, master of public health, and research-based master of science and doctorate degrees, as well as various graduate embedded certificates. 

Patrick Hanington, associate dean of education for public health, says there really is something for everyone within the field. Math enthusiasts can see themselves in epidemiology; psychologists can use their expertise to create effective health promotion campaigns. Professional degree holders in engineering, education or nursing find a focus on population health satisfying. 

Hanington’s own expertise is in a chronic and often deadly disease called schistosomiasis that afflicts more than 200 million people, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, and is transmitted by parasites found in snails. 

“What students can see through our new undergraduate courses is that almost everything is somehow related to public health,” says Hanington. “As a good example, I study snails, but that connects to an important human health problem.”

Hanington teaches SPH 200 - Introduction to Public Health, which started with 37 students back in 2020 and is now attracting 2,000 students per year for an online asynchronous course that can fit into any class schedule. It’s a primer for future studies in public health, which students can now build on with the new 300- and 400-level course offerings. 

“The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of public health initiatives, disease prevention, chronic disease management and health promotion campaigns, so there’s a lot of interest from the undergraduate population in learning more about what public health actually is,” Hanington says.

First undergraduate certificate in planetary health

About 47 per cent of the students who enrol in SPH 200 are based in the Faculty of Science, and 28 per cent come from the Faculty of Arts, but every faculty is represented. Thirty per cent are international students, Hanington says, who may come to the U of A with a deeper and distinct appreciation for the importance of public health in their home countries. Almost all are interested in public health as a future career.

“SPH 200 is a practical education in what public health is and how it connects to these other educational areas,” Hanington explains. 

The new undergraduate embedded certificate in planetary health allows students to explore how global processes such as climate change, biodiversity loss and ecosystem integrity interact with regional factors like access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene, access to safe and secure food, and exposure to air pollution to affect population health. To earn the certificate, students must take SPH 200: Introduction to Public Health, SPH 414: Introduction to Environmental Health and SPH 416: One Health, and then six more related credits from a long list of possible courses from the School of Public Health and the faculties of agricultural, life and environmental sciences, science, arts, engineering and Native studies. 

This curated list of elective courses from across campus can also serve as a resource for students interested in finding courses related to their interests in other faculties, says Hanington. 

“We’ve already heard from students who are excited to see that, while they are studying in the Faculty of Science, there are courses in the Faculty of Arts or others that relate to climate change and planetary health,” he says.

The School of Public Health has plans to further expand the number of courses and certificates for undergraduate students, with a goal to educate the general public and create new career opportunities for students.

Hanington’s advice to any undergraduate student whose imagination has been captured by a future career in public health is to “search SPH” within the U of A course calendar to find all of the expanding options as they become available. 

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Read more about public health research at the U of A: 

• New research hub focuses U of A expertise on how climate change affects health
• Financial strain is bad for our health, says new Canada Research Chair
• Why public health measures to stem COVID-19 are the most ethical thing to do
• Researchers to map health effects of climate change across Alberta
• Indigenous mentorship program uses research to foster young people’s mental, physical and spiritual health
• U of A Elders, faculty and students contribute to research network aimed at improving health outcomes for Indigenous peoples in Alberta
• Devices designed for athletes could help save lives of children with malaria