The desire to make a difference in the world brings people to consider bringing about change on a global level.
The desire to make a difference in the world brings many people to consider bringing about change on a global level. There are underserved populations all over the world that do not have many of the basic things we take for granted with our standards of living. In order to make a difference in these areas, delivering some of those “basic” things can make the difference they are looking to carry out.
With the field of public health, bringing basic medications, vaccinations, and even clean water can change everything for those populations in many areas. In order to make these kinds of improvements, a person needs to be properly trained and educated on the field of public health on a global scale. Graduating with a Master of Public Health degree in Global Health Leadership is the best first step to prepare a person for a position capable of bringing about this kind of change.
The following information is provided to explain the basic elements of global health leadership, as well as to explain the public health field as a whole.
MPH Degree Programs in Global Health Leadership
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University of Southern California – (Featured & Highly Recommended!) – MPH in Global Health Leadership – There is no restriction for the backgrounds of the students in this program. The thorough coursework includes preparations for future graduates to feel comfortable performing as public health professionals, on a national or international stage. The global element requires additional experiences with diversity practices and multi-cultural understanding of how societies and public health differ.
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University of Liverpool – (Featured & Highly Recommended!) – MPH in Public Health – Want to study at a UK Non-Profit university without leaving your house? The University of Liverpool offers a fully accredited Online Masters in Public Health. Specialization tracks include Epidemiology, International Public Health, Management of Health Systems & Management. Ideal for developed and developing country students.
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University of North Carolina – MPH in Leadership for Global Public Health – Current professionals interested in expanding their knowledge of the field of public health are the targets of this program. With an existing background of some health-related responsibility, they will have opportunities to customize their graduate curriculum to match their experiences and aspirations. In addition, this program is available as an online offering.
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Yale University – Master of Public Health in Global Health – With a primarily global perspective, students are challenged to be innovative in their thinking and in their creativity for developing solutions to existing global health issues. This program can be completed in a two-year timeframe or in a fast-track one-year time period for advanced professionals accepted into that track.
YouTube Special Feature
Rachel Smith, MPH student at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, talks about her experience as a distance education student studying public health leadership.
Curriculum and Courses for a MPH in Global Health Leadership
The Association of Schools of Public Health (ASPH) provides resources to the public health field in order to regulate and create consistency within some of the graduate school programs and degrees. For the MPH degree, they have provided the foundation for the curriculum of colleges and universities. As for the core of the MPH program, the courses will consist of the five studies within public health. These are widely considered to be:
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Biostatistics
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Environmental Health Sciences
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Epidemiology
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Health Policy Management
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Social and Behavioral Sciences
The foundation of these five areas will provide students with all of the basic understanding necessary to be a professional in public health. Within their specialization, in this case global health leadership, the courses will consist of the various studies that create expertise in that field.
These courses vary between different graduate programs, but an example of the curriculum at the Keck School of Medicine of University of South California provides an option to look into. Their courses include topics such as:
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Cultural Perspective
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Leadership and Management
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Emerging Trends
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Biological Basis of Disease
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Organizing and Mobilizing Communities
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Interdisciplinary Approach to Disaster Study
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Ethical Issues
These courses would provide the knowledge and skills essential to practice as a global health leader. Many of these courses have more to do with preparing the graduate for the challenges based in these situations, ensuring a more effective and successful implementation.
Sample of Core Competencies
As it does with the public health curriculums, ASPH also created a core competency model for the MPH degree. Overseeing the five main disciplines of MPH, as listed above, the following list of competencies should be realized by all graduates of an MPH degree:
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Communication and Informatics
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Diversity and Culture
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Leadership
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Professionalism
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Program Planning
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Public Health Biology
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Systems Thinking
In addition to these competencies anticipated from the MPH, there are an additional set of competencies that should be learned by all graduates with specializations in Global Health Leadership. The separate competencies for global health are:
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Capacity Strengthening
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Collaborating and Partnering
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Ethical Reasoning and Professional Practice
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Health Equity and Social Justice
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Program Management
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Socio-Cultural and Political Awareness
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Strategic Analysis
These competencies were also defined by the ASPH and seek to unify the expectations that can be assumed across programs at different colleges and universities.
YouTube Special Feature
In this video, Dr Greg Martin talk about career opportunities in Global Health, including what organisations you can work for and what skills sets you’ll need. Finding a job in Global Health isn’t always easy but hopefully this video will give you a few useful pointers. See Top Jobs & Careers in Public Health.
Global Health Leadership Scholarships, Fellowships & Training
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AfyaBora Fellowship in Global Health Leadership – Provides 12 month fellowship position to train U.S. and African health professionals to manage international programs in African countries, with the goal of improving delivery of health services to the population of Africa.
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Calvin L Wilson Scholarship – Seeks to encourage and support the global health leaders of tomorrow. This scholarship provides awards to students at the Center for Global Health at the University of Colorado.
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Timmy Global Health Hank Benjamin Memorial Scholarships – This fund provides three types of scholarships to students of global health studies. Money can be used for travel expenses or tuition, as needed for individual projects and goals. Some funds are used in conducting trips designed to expose students to particular issues in global public health.
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The American University Global Leader Scholarship for International Students – This scholarship promotes international diversity within the study of global health at the university. The program seeks to encourage positive social change and to return home to improve the way that public health services are delivered and handled in their home countries.
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Global Ministries World Communion Scholarships – Supports students from institutions that partner with the Global Ministries Organization and encourages those whose studies will relate to mission and to expand global health and leadership development.
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Advancing Public Health Excellence Scholarships – Incoming students to Walden University that have demonstrated an ability to bring about change in their community due in large part to their specific involvement. Scholarships are awarded to a public health advocate, a public health leader, and a public health visionary.
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Global Health Corps Fellowship – Eligible students come from all backgrounds, all experiences, and strive to bring about impactful change and improvement on global health during their careers. Focus on social justice, global collaboration, and global health management and delivery separate fellows from others.
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Frist Global Health Leaders Scholarships – This scholarship fund provides three scholarships to East Tennessee State University students in the College Of Public Health. This provides funding to help the students complete the international field experience required for their global health degrees. Experiences have been in a variety of developing countries.
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ExxonMobil Foundation Scholarships – Oxford University students are eligible for ten scholarship to train future global health leaders from developing countries. This encourages these recipients to return to their home country and apply the things they have learned while completing their graduate degree and put them to use there.
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Rachel Stevens Scholarship for Public Health Leadership – Students enrolled in the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina are eligible, and particularly those interested in a future of leadership in public health. Preference will be given to applicants with five years of public health experience, and financial need will also be considered.
Top Global Health Leadership Journals
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Journal of Healthcare Leadership – This international peer-reviewed journal provides open access to posted articles and research to the interdisciplinary team of healthcare professionals. The importance of leadership is highlighted as an essential element of guiding our current healthcare system through the many forces of change that are ongoing currently.
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The International Journal of Leadership in Public Services – This journal brings together the top research and leadership experiences to create a central forum for addressing all relevant topics in bringing about the most effective, high quality public services. The six main subjects that papers are accepted under are research, models or approaches, case studies, viewpoints, leadership journeys, and interviews.
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The Lancet Global Health – This newer journal includes a location for multi-faceted contributions in the way of articles, comments, correspondence and blog discussions. This provides ways to inquire about various issues in global health leadership and to obtain alternative viewpoints from fellow public health leaders.
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The Journal of Global Health Care Systems – This journal provides a resource that incorporates articles of many different topics in global health care and leadership. The articles can be submitted and are looked into in order to assess their relevance and significance to the industry and their application to current issues. Submissions must include specific examples of how others can benefit from the application of the material covered in their article.
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Global Public Health: An International Journal for Research, Policy and Practice – The emerging issues of global health have centered around the way inequalities in health services have impacted developing populations. This affects how diseases spread and how they are contained and creates many disparities that exist in those countries
Free Online Courses in Global Health Leadership
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Approaches to Managing Health Services Organizations – The course serves to prepare students for the increasing stresses on the health services in providing high levels of quality, reducing the barriers to service, and maintaining a satisfied patient. The ability to do these things requires highly skilled leaders that can maintain control of the operations.
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Health Information Technology Standards and Systems Interoperability – A thorough understanding of existing health information technology standards is the main priority of this course. The application of these standards can be used to assess health systems for all levels, from local to global.
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Pharmaceuticals Management for Underserved Populations – Introduces the student to the pharmaceuticals market for developing countries. The many different forces at play on this include regulations, distribution, rules of international pharmaceutical trade, the World Trade Organization, and various government and non-government organizations.
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Urban Health in Developing Countries – Addresses the many public health issues that arise with rapid growth in developing countries, considering poor urban populations in particular. Analyses of these cases are done through case studies, and opens the minds to the unique problems in these kinds of situations is developing countries.
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Using Summary Measures of Population Health to Improve Health Systems – Teaches a variety of approaches to determining resource allocation for disease control among different populations. The goal is to be better equipped to design equitable health care systems for communities of people across the globe.
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Measuring Health Disparities – The course will teach students how to understand, define and measure health disparity. Much of what is learned can be used directly in the daily activities of a public health professional. The four sections include the entire subject material necessary to comprehend health disparities.
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Global Health Delivery Challenges – For those new to the global element of public health service delivery, this course will provide insight into the cultural factors that exist in those populations. They all emphasize the need for the service providers to gain an understanding of their culture as well as to communicate clearly their intentions in order to produce a positive result.
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Effective Program Development – The importance of programs being evidence-based and tested in the field are emphasized in this course. The modules involved also get into different program types and ways that they can be more effective.
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Ethics, Quality, and Equality – The idea of best practice principles in introduced in this course. The most important way to bring about positive changes in global health is to avoid the harms that can be done by using the wrong principles in determining programs design or delivery. The eleven module course is part of an online training provided by Unite For Sight.
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Cultural Competency – Cultural awareness and training are essential knowledge for any public health professionals. The adjustments that are necessary for a person to make when having to think outside of their own cultural are both necessary and essential. This training provides that extra level of comfort for these workers to acknowledge the ways that cultural differences can impact the delivery of a message or health service.
YouTube Video Resource
Hugh Tilson, M.D., Dr.P.H., interviews Kristine Gebbie, Dr.P.H., RN for Profiles in Public Health Leadership. In the first segment of six, Dr. Gebbie speaks about systems thinking and team-building.
Additional Global Health Leadership Links
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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Center for Global Health Leadership
