Regis College’s MPH Program: A Commitment to Real-World Impact

Regis College MPH Curriculum

Foundational Courses

To ensure you are able to make a lasting impact in public health it’s important to ensure a program offers a robust foundational education on relevant topics in healthcare.

“When you get a master of public health degree at Regis College, you're going to get the foundations of every area of public health,” Beatty says.

The foundational public health courses include:

• Biostatistics
• Contemporary Issues in Environmental Health
• Epidemiological Methods
• Health Ethics and Law
• Concepts in Health Administration
• Social and Behavioral Sciences
• Applied Practice Experience
• Integrated Learning Experience Capstone Project

While these courses are included in most MPH degree curriculums, Regis College explores these topics on a large scale.

“We help our students understand these issues on a local community basis,” Beatty says. “But we also encourage them to think about them from a global perspective. I think we’re very different in that way.”

Specialized Concentrations

While foundational courses are an important aspect of an effective education, specialization offers additional opportunities to enhance your public health career options post-graduation.

Regis College’s public health program offers two concentrations:

• Epidemiology: Catered to students interested in big picture solutions in public health, this concentration focuses on the factors that contribute to the spread of diseases and data-based solutions on their transmission.
• Health Policy and Management: Created for students concerned with the delivery of healthcare services, this concentration explores how you can influence public health policies, improve organizational performance, and communicate possible solutions.

While concentrations are common among MPH degree programs, Regis College public health faculty review these topics with an interdisciplinary focus.

For example, Regis’ program teaches students how to collaborate across various sectors outside traditional health care settings.

“One topic we talk about differently at Regis is collaboration outside of ‘normal procedures’ in public health,” Beatty says. “This can mean collaborating with police departments to deal with mental health challenges, communicating with the VA to deal with veterans’ trauma, or even working with fire departments for safety demonstrations.”

This coursework is essential to understanding the complexities in healthcare, as well as developing essential public health skills that can make you effective in the field. However, real-world experience opportunities are the only way you can make a real impact while in school.

Here is a closer look at how Regis College educates students outside of the classroom.

How Regis College Takes Public Health Education Outside of the Classroom

Fieldwork Opportunities

Fieldwork is essential to Regis College’s public health program, offering students hands-on experience in real-world settings. These experiences require students to apply classroom knowledge to public health challenges while supervised by faculty who are experienced professionals in the field.

“Since experiential learning is so important in public health, we create hands-on experience opportunities for students to have diverse networks and resources to do public health work,” Beatty says.

Some common fieldwork placements at Regis include:

• State or local public health agencies
• Homeless shelters
• Community health centers
• Research labs
• Health clinics
• Nonprofit organizations

In addition to these diverse examples, Regis College also incorporates a global element to their fieldwork opportunities. For example, the school has partnerships with universities in Uganda and other international institutions. Students were even able to take a trip to South America to do public health work overseas.

Capstone Project

The capstone project is another key element of Regis College’s hands-on MPH degree program. Over the course of 16 weeks, students are required to complete a research-based project meant to design an intervention that addresses a specific public health challenge.

“Students need to figure out what the problem is, and how to solve it,” Beatty says. “And with the help of a preceptor, which is a public health expert already in the field, students can make a lasting impact as a result of their project.”

In addition to gaining real-world experience during the research portion of the project, each student must defend their project—almost like a dissertation defense according to Beatty.

“These are wonderful to witness,” Beatty continues. “This is largely because students often realize at this moment that they can really make a difference.”

Agents of Change at Regis College

With a large emphasis on leveraging public health education to make a lasting impact in the community, Regis College’s MPH program has produced several effective public health advocates.

For example, Jessica Hekmati ‘23 focused her capstone project on identifying gaps in public health initiatives targeting Q fever. Her work led to the creation of several recommendations that eventually became an epidemiological assessment of Q fever among ruminants and humans in Utah.

For those interested in solving the challenges of maternal care, Regis College has nurtured future advocates in this field as well. Alexis Perez ‘23 used her practicum as an opportunity to conduct community assessments of the maternal healthcare ecosystem in Tennessee to identify the disparities in maternal care, as well as maternal mortality and morbidity in urban and rural areas.

While this work has made a profound impact in the communities these Regis College students served, these experiences have also benefited students as well.

“The MPH program at Regis College was incredible and I would recommend it to any health care undergraduates looking to further their career by influencing the community around them,” says Caitlin Clifford ‘23. “I truly enjoyed my practicum experience at Lawrence General Hospital. I felt like I was really able to make an impact on the community by addressing the social determinants of health and it was a very rewarding experience.”

Start a Rewarding Career in Public Health

While learning in a classroom setting can help students understand the principles of public health, real-world experience is essential to ensuring you are ready to take on the complex challenges of today’s healthcare system.

Regis College public health degree offerings give working professionals an accessible online coursework paired with a 270-hour practicum placement. This allows students to apply their online learning in practical settings and enhance their skills in real-world contexts.

To learn more about the program, contact an admissions counselor to find out how an education at Regis can serve your professional goals.