Public Health, MPH

Program Scope

Founded in 1998, the San Francisco State University Master of Public Health degree program,  offered through the Department of Public Health (formerly Health Education), has a mission to promote health and health equity at the individual, community, and structural levels through transformative education, research, scholarship and service, all of which value diversity, engage communities, and are grounded in cultural humility.

Our MPH Program is grounded in a commitment to working alongside communities, challenging systemic barriers to health, and equipping students with the tools to lead change. Our curriculum goes beyond traditional approaches to focus on the structural, political, and lived realities that shape health outcomes.

A Program Grounded in Systems Thinking and Community Engagement: Curriculum that sets us apart

• Apply Public Health Theory/Frameworks Thoughtfully
  Use models like the Social Ecological Model to guide effective assessment, planning, evaluation, and policy development that reflect real-world complexity.
• Rethink Conventional Epidemiology
  Explore new approaches that move beyond deficit-based narratives to better reflect community strengths and systemic context.
• Use Mixed-Methods to Emphasize Lived Experience
  Combine qualitative and quantitative research to illuminate how structural conditions and social determinants shape health, while centering people’s lived experiences.
• Work in Partnership with Communities
  Build meaningful collaborations that ground public health research and practice in the insights, needs, and priorities of the communities you serve.
• Understand How Systems Shape Health
  Critically examine the impact of political and economic forces—from local governance to national policy—on health access, opportunity, and outcomes.

Program Learning Outcomes

1. Apply critical lenses to understanding and solving public health problems at all levels of influence (e.g., personal, interpersonal, community, organizational, societal, and policy).
2. Employ innovative approaches to solving complex public health issues, including a variety of methods and creative uses of multiple data sources from diverse stakeholders.
3. Demonstrate professional leadership applying cultural humility and engaging with communities across diverse settings and sectors.