Students at the Drexel University Dornsife School of Public Health develop the skills and experience needed to start a successful career or pivot to a new career in public health.

What Is Public Health and Is It Interdisciplinary?

Public health professionals work to keep communities healthy. They work on issues such as disease prevention, substance use, maternal and child health, social justice, health policy, and occupational safety. Public health addresses the conditions that lead to poor health and strives to improve those conditions for the whole population.

Public health is interdisciplinary, which means that it merges multiple different fields in order to maximize impact and effectively solve health problems.

Firsthand experiences are often a powerful motivator for entering the field of public health. "I had a student who had been involved in the Flint water crisis," Dean Gina Lovasi told the Philadelphia Inquirer. "We have students who have com,e from clinical practice, who have come from social work. Coming in and wanting to address inequities is a theme that I hear really strongly from our students."

What Are the Different Types of Public Health Career Paths

Public health offers diverse career paths in fields including:

• Epidemiology, where professionals track and analyze disease patterns to prevent outbreaks.
• Health policy and management, where experts develop and implement policies to improve healthcare systems and public health programs.
• Environmental and occupational health professionals focus on issues like air quality, water safety, and exposure to harmful substances to protect communities.
• Community health professionals work on local, national, and international health challenges like infectious disease prevention and healthcare access in low-resource settings.
• Biostatistics, which focuses on clinical study design, data management, and statistical analysis.

For a more complete list, check out ten ideas for what you can do with a public health degree.

Do you have experience managing projects or programs, serving your community, analyzing data, evaluating client needs as a social worker, or working in the health care field as a nurse or nursing assistant? You can build on those skills and talents to launch a successful public health career.

How to Transition Into Public Health

Switching to public health can be relatively smooth, depending on your background, skills, and the specific area of public health that interests you.

If you’re coming from an unrelated field (e.g., marketing, finance, arts), then entering public health may take more time and effort. Transferable skills like communication, project management, and data analysis will help.

Here are some key steps to include in your transition to a public health career:

Research different types of careers and career paths

Public health is a large umbrella. The first step to enter public health is to research different public health careers to figure out what areas draw you in.

Pursue the right education

Different careers require different educational backgrounds. Some positions will ask for an undergraduate degree like a Bachelors in Public Health while others will ask for a graduate degree like a Masters of Public Health.

Gain practical experience

Practical experience is crucial for landing a job in public health because it bridges the gap between what you learn in class and what you'll do in a job. 

Be sure to leverage your own background. For example, you many have transferable skills like community outreach or program management, and you may have gained experience during a gap year or volunteer role.

While in school, Drexel Dornsife students build their resumes in the form of practicums, integrated learning, Drexel co-op, student organizations, case competitions, conferences, and more.

Look for a new job

Follow our useful guide to applying to public health careers. If you have any unique or relevant skills, highlight them on your resume and in interviews.

Start your career in public health

Congratulate yourself on launching a career in public health! Continuing professional education, ongoing certifications, mentors, and training can help support your growth in your new career path.

How Can Drexel Dornsife Support My Career Change to Public Health?

At Drexel Dornsife, student success (academic, professional, and personal) is our top priority. Every student is paired with a dedicated academic advisor, and graduate students also receive guidance from a faculty mentor.

Our school support students throughout their program with comprehensive career services and fulfilling practice experiences that can solidify your instincts about a certain field (like MPH student Mridula Ghotane with maternal health) or expose you to a new field (like MPH grad Ashley Diamond with infectious disease).

Our students graduate equipped with a competitive resume, a supportive network, and a clear sense of purpose in public health.

Enroll in a Public Health Master’s Degree

The Drexel Dornsife master’s curriculum allows students to design highly personalized academic programs across a variety of disciplines.

• Earn a master’s degree in as little as 12 months with our accelerated MPH program
• Choose from on campus and online options
• No GRE required to apply
• Award-winning faculty focused on research and practice in urban, community, and global public health
• Real-world immersion and hands-on practice experiences are key program components
• Options for working professionals including online public health degrees in infection prevention, epidemiology, an Executive MPH, and more.

Currently more than 95% of full-time on campus master’s students receive some type of funding.

Learn more about our master’s degrees

Enhance Your Knowledge By Completing Public Health Certificates

Learn more about our online graduate certificates

Leverage Job-Searching Support, Career Counseling and Public Health Workshops

Drexel Dornsife’s Office of Education provides personalized career services and resources to support students and alumni during the job search process, including career counseling, professional development workshops, and guest lectures.

You also have the resources of Drexel University's Steinbright Career Development Center, which manages Handshake, a job board of internships and full-time positions for current students, graduating students and recent alums.

You will be well-positioned to launch your public health career after Drexel Dornsife.

Interested In Learning More About the Public Health Curriculum?

Enroll In a Free Introduction to Public Health Course

Are you interested in studying public health but want to know more before you make an investment?

Try one of these free classes:

1) The Dornsife School of Public Health’s non-credit test module is a self-paced class taught by Dornsife faculty. The class covers essential public health topics. Learn more about our free online Foundations of Public Health module.

2) Drexel Dornsife developed this Online Micro-Credential on Health and Human Rights Advocacy.

Are you ready to work towards a better, safer, and healthier world with a career in public health? Enhance your career and open yourself to opportunities with Drexel Dornsife.

Request more information

Apply today