Explore Your Path to a Career in Public Health

Do you want to make a difference and help keep communities safe from public health threats — like COVID-19 — while improving the general health of individuals? If so, a career in public health can set you on the path to affect change and create an impact on people’s lives — today and for generations to come.

Your career in public health begins at the University of Cincinnati Online. Start with our 100% online Associate of Science in Public Health degree and transition into our Bachelor of Science in Public Health program to further your career without ever having to step foot on our campus.

Discover how you can impact the future of public health with a degree from the University of Cincinnati Online. Contact an advisor today to get started.

What is a Public Health Degree?

A public health degree prepares you for a career in the science of preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting the health of people and communities. This is done through organized efforts to educate, develop policy, conduct scientific research, and regulate health systems in a variety of potential public health careers.

UC Online offers both an associate degree in public health and a Bachelor of Science in Public Health to provide the flexibility you want to start your career sooner.

What Can You Do with a Public Health Career?

If you’re still in the exploration phase of your education, you may be wondering what you can do with a degree in public health. This versatile field primarily works to prevent and mitigate health risks for the general population, but can move into specialized concentrations or work with specific populations, as well.  Public health careers fall into three general categories that allow you to:

• Understand why public health threats occur through research careers like:
  • Biostatistician
  • Vaccine researcher
  • Environmental health specialist
  • Data analyst
• Affect change in the public health sector through policy and administration careers such as:
  • Health policy analyst
  • Emergency response specialist
  • Disaster preparedness coordinator
  • Public policy specialist
• Work with people through these public health community wellness careers:
  • Health educator
  • Health communication specialist
  • Infectious disease specialist
  • Director of family health services

With a degree in public health, you can work in healthcare organizations, educational institutions, retail organizations, community service organizations, non-profits, health insurance companies, government roles, or disaster readiness organizations.

Begin Your Journey into the Public Health Profession with an Online Associate Degree in Public Health

Your two-year associate degree in public health from the University of Cincinnati Online prepares you for an impactful career in health promotion, health education, and disease prevention. Public health job opportunities allow you to shape the future of health in communities that you care about by improving access to healthcare, helping to control infectious diseases, reducing environmental hazards, or even working toward decreasing substance abuse.

Starting your public health career with an associate degree from UC Online allows you to begin your career faster and learn with the online flexibility you need to keep up with your busy life. Login to your classes anytime and get into a public health career in as little as two years.

But your journey shouldn’t stop there. UC Online offers a seamless transition to our Bachelor of Science in Public Health program that allows you to further your degree and career options.

Explore Public Health Further with an Online Bachelor of Science Degree in Public Health

Your map to your dream career may start with our associate degree and lead you to UC Online’s Bachelor of Science in Public Health, or even beyond to our on-campus master’s program. We make the transition simple with concentration specialties to help you develop key skills for your future career, including:

• Community health specialist
• Public health administrator
• Prevention specialist
• Research assistant
• Quality improvement coordinator

Your classes are asynchronous, so you can continue working while expanding your skillset. You’ll learn from many of the same professors you met in the associate degree program, using the same class format, so there aren’t any surprises or adjustment periods during your transition. When you complete our program, you are eligible to sit for the national certification exam to become a certified health education specialist (CHES).

Take Your Journey Further

Once you’ve completed the Bachelor of Science in Public Health program, you have the option to expand your journey even further with a Master of Public Health offered by the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.

Prepare for an exciting future in public health in one of seven concentration areas.

• Biostatistics: Usage of statistical methodologies that are tailored to analyze data to determine the cause of illness and injury, detect health trends, analyze risk factors, plan interventions, or evaluate statistical data for clinical trials.
• Environmental Public Health: Anticipate, recognize, evaluate, and design programs and systems to control exposures in the environmental or occupational setting that are causing or may be expected to result in adverse human health effects.
• Epidemiology: Investigate the origins and best treatment of diseases in order to reduce or remove the risk to public health.
• Global Health: Understanding of health care in an international and interdisciplinary framework while focusing on improving health and health care equity for populations worldwide.
• Health Education & Health Promotion: Promote health and prevent disease, disability, and premature death through education-driven voluntary behavior change activities.
• Health Services Management: Focus on health care systems, including organization quality and demand, clinical and financial management, health care reform, health law, and policy analysis.
• Occupational Public Health: Focused on the prevention of work-related illness and injury.

Why Choose University of Cincinnati Online for Your Public Health Degree?

UC online is among the 15 Best Online Bachelor’s in Public Health programs for 2021 as ranked by Best Health Degrees. We offer 100% fully online public health degrees and flexible full-time or part-time scheduling so you can balance your life easier. Choose from one of seven available public health specializations, with more available concentrations coming soon!

Let UC Online guide you on your path to a career in public health.  Contact an advisor today to get started.