Health Equity Graduate Certificate

Health Equity = Science + Social Justice

Even before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic the challenge of health equity was one of the greatest facing the United States and the world. The pandemic and the national re-engagement on issues of racial inequity have highlighted the desperate need for the United States to effectively tackle health equity and the possibilities for work and career opportunities for people with the requisite knowledge and skills.

The Saint Michael’s College Health Equity Graduate Certificate is an online educational opportunity for career professionals, college graduates contemplating further graduate study and community members interested in the timely and urgent challenge of health equity. Working within the College’s Public Health program, the certificate is rooted in the College’s commitment to bettering our world and an academic tradition of interdisciplinary work, giving students an ideal place to engage in the inquiry and action needed for success in public health and health equity.

The online asynchronous nature of the Saint Michael’s Health Equity Graduate Certificate program, taught by a combination of scholars with academic expertise and field practitioners bringing cutting-edge knowledge and best practices, can be taken for the entire certificate or for a single course.

The program offers five foundational content-packed courses in discrete areas of competency together with the multiple opportunities to hone specific skills. Agreements with regional public health master’s programs (University of Vermont and Boston University) are in process and, once official, may allow certificate holders easy entry with transferable credits to these programs.

Required Courses

Five Required Courses

The certificate will require five three-credit courses for 15 credits total. The courses can be taken in any sequence

• GPB 510 Introduction to Public Health & Health Policy
• GPB 520 Applied Epidemiology
• GPB 530 Social Determinants of Health
• GPB 540 Global Health Equity & Advocacy
• GPB 550 Community Health & Cultural Competency

GPB Applied Health Equity

All certificate students will be required to take a total of three credits of Applied Health Equity credits.  These can be taken as any combination of GPB 598 (Skills/Praxis) and GBP 599 (Supervised Research/Writing).

GPB 598 Skills/Praxis (1-3 credits)

• Examples of Skills/Praxis Options
  • Data Visualization
  • Spanish/French for Medical Professions
  • Emergency Management
  • PcR Laboratory Testing
  • Social Marketing
  • Skills for Advocacy
  • Project Management
  • Ethics
  • Participatory Action Research
  • Sustainable Food Systems
  • Strategic Planning
  • Opioid Epidemic Success Stories

GPB 599 Supervised Research, Project or Reflection-Based Writing

• Supervised Research/Projects (1-3 credit projects based on previous or current service, employment, or independent research)