This course covers the behavioral, social, and cultural aspects of health and disease. Students identify how behavioral and social theories across levels of the social ecological model are relevant to social and behavioral health issues and interventions. Central to the learning experience is a comprehensive course project, where students conduct an evidence-based literature review, and apply theory to inform interventions to improve health.

This course combines practical, skills-based exercises with strategic thinking approaches to aid the student to master several of the public health cross-cutting competencies objectives related to leadership, communication and professionalism. It has been tailored to focus on personal leadership and communication skill development and is thus of interest to all public health students. Its goals are to clarify each student’s intended professional path; enhance his/her ability to utilize a strategic approach for personal and professional leadership development; and to increase each student’s self-efficacy in utilizing communication, oral and written, to achieve organizational leadership.

This course provides a field study opportunity in Taiwan for the aim of learning global public health practices, cross-culture communication and interaction, and alternative community health strategies. 10 – 12 students from partner Universities in Taiwan (Asia University and China Medical University) are paired with 10-12 students from Tulane University to form cross-cultural teams to research and develop a plan to address community health concerns at the national, provincial, city, provincial and/or community levels. Lectures and discussions will be provided by experienced faculty from university partners, government officials, and field-based practitioners in Taiwan. The cross-cultural student teams are required to make a power point presentation on their identified community health concerns and submit a written field report.

This course is designed to create an interactive and unique learning environment for students, community partners, and Violence Prevention Institute faculty through strengthening the partnerships between academic institutions and community organizations focused on preventing violence as well as mitigating the negative effects of various forms of violence. Seminars will include presentations by community partners and faculty from the Violence Prevention Institute. Community partners will speak about the violence prevention programs and strategies utilized by their organizations. Seminars will also include presentations by Violence Prevention Institute faculty focused on empirical approaches and competencies necessary for effective academic and community partnerships seeking to address the complex issues related to violence.

This course provides students with an introduction to monitoring and evaluation, a widely valued set of skills in both the domestic and international contexts. The course content includes rationales for evaluation; the political, organizational, theoretical aspects of evaluation; and methods for implementing a sound evaluation Students will gain practical experience in translating concepts into the development of an evaluation plan for actual programs.

Students will examine evidence-based population interventions for important child health issues which have been shown to be effective and used by governmental and non-governmental organizations and will practice combining the best available research evidence and knowledge of population preferences with community resources to develop policy and program proposals to address child health issues and build their capacity to become effective public health practitioners. An emphasis will be placed upon integrating public health with primary care services to improve child health outcomes equitably. This course fits into the broader goals of the Maternal & Child Health Area of Specialization by introducing students to important maternal-child health issues and challenges during childhood nationally and globally.

This course examines maternal and child health policy and programs in the U.S. with a focus on the history, organization, delivery, and financing of maternal and child health, and related public health and social services at the national, state, and local levels. The course emphasizes the evolving Maternal and Child Health (MCH) -Title V Block Grant program legislative mandates and federal policies; the national, state, and local structures and roles in delivering MCH services; and how MCH fits into the overall U.S. public and private health systems.

This introductory elective course is designed to give an overview of the problem of violence as viewed from a public health perspective. We will look at the epidemiology of violence (scope, causes, risk factors, and consequences) alongside public health approaches to the problem. The course aims to balance a review of the problem with ideas and evidence for solutions. Local academic and community members in the field will lend their expertise to help students understand and address violence as a public health problem. Students will have opportunities to build skills through violence prevention training, critical analysis of media and film, and final course projects analyzing major violence-related topics.

This course explores evidence-based issues and trends in maternal and child health offering an introduction to MCH-related issues from a public health perspective with an emphasis on the social determinants of health. The purpose of the course is to identify the individual, social, economic and environmental issues currently affecting women, men and families, as well as infants and children using a life course approach. Students will develop written and oral presentations addressing scientific, clinical, social and political aspects of MCH issues.

This course examines community influences on food habits, dietary behaviors, and nutritional outcomes. Socioeconomic and racial/ethnic inequities in access to healthy food are described as are cultural influences on food choice. Examples of applied interventions to address nutrition problems are examined throughout the local food system. New Orleans, with its rich culinary history and active engagement in food and nutrition programming serves as the backdrop for the study of these issues. The course includes field visits to local community organizations working on food and nutrition programming.

This graduate-level course is designed to provide an overview of the foundational elements of public health nutrition. This will include a focus on three essential components: (1) principles of human nutrition, (2) biological mechanisms influencing nutrition in health and disease, and (3) major public health nutrition programs and emerging issues. Specific topics will include essential nutrients with emphasis on their sources, function, and metabolism in the human body; nutrition needs throughout the life course; nutrition in chronic disease; national and global public health nutrition initiatives; current challenges and innovations. An emphasis will be placed on the major nutrition‐related problems in the world today and evidence-based strategies to address them.

This course offers students a toolkit of skills for complex systems thinking, systems-led leadership, and human-centered design (HCD) to prepare graduates to address complex societal problems such as climate change, violence, and poor access to health. Students learn how to map systems, identify entry-points, reframe messy problems into smaller “challenges”, and address them in human-centered, creative, collaborative ways with stakeholders. Training in design thinking is offered via hands-on workshops, complemented by a theoretical framing of design for public good. Examples are drawn from public health, education, and sustainability; they span domestic, international, and global contexts. Students must participate in the Fast 48 workshop at an additional fee.

This course offers a thorough review of the tools used for the assessment of nutritional status of populations. Topics include anthropometric, biochemical, and socioeconomic indicators of nutritional status; methods for the collection, analysis, and interpretation of dietary data; measurement of household food security; and the use of data from nutrition monitoring and surveillance sources. Students will get exposure to major nutrition problems and their causes in variety of country contexts. They will also develop their abilities "to tell a story with numbers." Analyzing data, interpreting the results, and communicating about these results verbally is a necessary part of the planning and programming of nutrition and health interventions.

This course surveys domestic policies and programs that affect nutrition at the population level. Subjects include: dietary policy, including the politics of the food guide pyramid: food labeling policy; food access policy, including the U.S. food assistance programs; food safety and food supplies policy; the obesity epidemic, including the role of the food industry; environmental determinants of nutrition outcomes and efforts to improve them; actors and agencies involved in making policy; and nutrition advocacy.

The purpose of the course is to familiarize students with the current public health nutrition-related issues affecting low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), including the co-existence of under and over nutrition (i.e., double burden of malnutrition), issues with infant feeding behaviors, iron-deficiency anemia and other relevant micronutrient deficiencies, food insecurity and the impact of climate change on diets. Students will learn about the biological, social, and environmental factors influencing these issues as well as the nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive policies designed to address them.

This course is designed to examine research and practice in health communication, with a special focus on how health media campaigns are planned and executed in order to stimulate change in knowledge, attitudes, behavior and subsequent health outcomes. This examination will include the review of the history of health communication campaigns, the theoretical foundation for the design and implementation of campaigns, and selected case studies of campaigns. Practical aspects of designing campaigns and media messages will be covered.

This course is designed to deepen the students’ understanding of public health practice and use of policy to improve population health. There is a strong focus on governmental public health services delivered by federal, state, and local government, along with the services and organization of non-profits that are involved in the delivery of public health services. Students will actively engage in simulations of those roles through real world case studies, team projects, scenarios, and exposure to prominent individuals working and practicing in the field of public health and policy. Students will develop skills related to policy development and advocacy and integration of public health practice, policy development and integration with the clinical sector.

In the context of health sciences, sex workers, people who inject drugs, men who have sex with men, transgender persons, migrants, homeless persons, youth living on the streets and other stigmatized and vulnerable populations, are at higher risk for HIV, TB, hepatitis, and other infections. Measuring the behavioral and biological risks affecting these populations is essential to creating effective prevention programs, allocating funding and modeling future epidemic scenarios. Respondent driven sampling (RDS) is a highly robust and effective method to recruit samples of ‘hard-to-reach’ populations that are connected through social networks. This course will provide participants with practical and relevant up-to-date information about the methodological and theoretical issues and analytical concerns from one of RDS’s world-leading practitioner. It will draw on a variety of lectures, presentations of actual field research, hands-on analysis and practical experience in designing surveys using RDS.

This course focuses on community work as a major approach to social change and highlights community participation as a means to address social determinants of health. The course explores concepts relevant to community engagement and examines how gender, race, ethnicity, power, and structural racism inform community work. The roles of community members, institutions, public health practitioners and others in improving or hindering community work is also examined. The course stresses critical thinking and application of community work skills with an emphasis on participatory approaches, empowerment, intersectionality, community assessment, group process for partnership development, and evaluation of community-level programs. Common strategies for community-level change will be discussed in the context of case study reviews.

Research methods are at the center of our approach to knowledge and understanding in public health. Theories are supported by empirical evidence. This class provides an introduction to this way of thinking, i.e., into methodology or the “science of finding out.” The purpose of this course is to train students in how to collect and analyze data on social and behavioral phenomena in a rigorous and scientific manner. This knowledge requires an understanding of three different components: 1) inquiry and research design, 2) data collection, and 3) data analysis.

This skills-based course examines the application of marketing principles to social and public health problems. Basic and advanced social marketing principles and methods are explored, and a framework for carrying out social marketing is provided. The course covers the features, components, process and methodology of social marketing, and has a focus on real word applications. Skills building exercises are incorporated as both in-class and outside homework assignments. Exam(s) assess student knowledge and application of social marketing principles and elements. Students are required to prepare brief presentations throughout the semester that demonstrate understanding and application of course material. A final project is designed to apply and integrate material from the entire class.

Qualitative methods can be highly useful in the conduct of community-based population health research and evaluation. Students will receive foundational training in the design, implementation, analysis, and synthesis of qualitative methods. Emphasis will be given to the appropriate uses of commonly used methods and analytic procedures in community-based health research and evaluation. This course is for graduate students in SPHTM.

This course – the second in a two-part sequence – builds on Qualitative Methods I (SBPS 7280) to provide students hands-on experience analyzing, interpreting, and writing up the results of qualitative research. The goal of this course is to provide students with skills in qualitative data analysis, interpretation, and writing. In SBPS 7280, students were trained in NVivo. In SBPS 7290, students will apply these skills to a dataset provided in the course to explore different analytical approaches and develop analyses.

In this course students are taught to use a life course perspective to approach important issues of public health. As Neil Halfon put it, “the life course perspective seeks to address the causes of poor health trajectories [which] require addressing the nested social ecology of health development.” Over the semester, basic principles of human development, from preconception to end of life, are explored and examined through the conceptual framework provided by life course theory. Particularly, students will learn about the mechanisms, timing and dynamics of health as a developmental process, which can inform development of early interventions. The course will introduce the rapidly expanding evidence base for life course theory and practice and application.

The health of Black peoples in the U.S. and across the globe has been of interest to scholars since the late 1800s. With slow progress, the field of public health understands race as a social construct and racism as a root cause of racial health inequities. However, without an in-depth analysis of racism and Black peoples’ lived experiences in our society, public health researchers and practitioners will miss the goal of maximizing Black health and eliminating racial health inequities. Students in this course will analyze various social and structural factors that impact Black health in the U.S. Students will assess intersectional identities across gender and sexuality on Black health. Students will learn about Black cultural healing and health promotion practices.

The Tulane Dietetic Internship Program is a graduate-level supervised practice program for students who would like to become Registered Dietitians. It is a full-time non-degree program with a community emphasis. The program provides supervised practice for dietetic intern students who have undergraduate DPD Verification statements. Experiences are provided in food service management, medical nutrition therapy, and community nutrition at various facilities in southeast Louisiana. The mission of the Tulane Dietetic Internship is to prepare entry-level Registered Dietitians for leadership in community health practices through education, research and practice directed at health promotion and disease prevention among individuals and their communities.

The Tulane Dietetic Internship Program is a graduate-level supervised practice program for students who would like to become Registered Dietitians. It is a full-time non-degree program with a community emphasis. The program provides supervised practice for dietetic intern students who have undergraduate DPD Verification statements. Experiences are provided in food service management, medical nutrition therapy, and community nutrition at various facilities in southeast Louisiana. The mission of the Tulane Dietetic Internship is to prepare entry-level Registered Dietitians for leadership in community health practices through education, research and practice directed at health promotion and disease prevention among individuals and their communities.

This is a capstone course, all elements of which are designed to integrate and synthesize competencies in nutrition. As such, this course and its final report satisfies the Integrative Learning Experience for students in the MPH Nutrition Program. Specifically, it will enhance Nutrition Program or Foundational competencies, such as those in programming, evaluation, policy advocacy, communication, team building, ethics, cultural-competence, leadership, and professional development that students have developed throughout the program. Students will describe the challenges they face in the workplace either in their Applied Practice Experience or in another professional setting. They will develop solutions to these challenges in a team-building environment. Students will also learn about professional employment, continuing education, professional associations, and employment resources throughout the field of public health nutrition

This applied course prepares students to develop academic writing and evidence-based teaching skills necessary for well-rounded leadership in social and behavioral sciences. Course activities will advance academic writing through applying library research methods, practicing citation and recognizing plagiarism, and engaging in ethical use of artificial intelligence in public health writing. Students will be prepared to use evidence-based pedagogical strategies to support best practices in public health instruction.

In this doctoral seminar, students will focus on developing and refining the different chapters that make up the Integrative Learning Experience (ILE) including the: Introduction and Statement of the Problem (chapter 1), Background and Existing Evidence (chapter 2), Grant Proposal (chapter 3), and Discussion (chapter 4). The ILE will ultimately serve as the final document demonstrating student integration of foundational and program competencies of the Leadership in Social and Behavioral Sciences DrPH.

This course introduces advanced social and behavioral sciences in public health, emphasizing appraisal of theories and frameworks that explain health behaviors, social processes, and population health outcomes. Although it serves as an entry point to advanced theoretical work, it assumes prior MPH-level exposure to foundational theory and extends beyond it through deeper critical inquiry, theoretical integration, and scholarly application. Students will assess strengths and limitations of major perspectives, consider how theories operate across ecological levels, and evaluate their relevance for advancing health equity. Through applied exercises, case critiques, and policy analyses, students will translate theoretical insights into public health practice and develop the ability to critically evaluate and apply theories to inform the design and refinement of equitable public health interventions.

This course is designed for DrPH students to analyze frameworks and theories to formulate advancements in public health practice toward health equity. Specifically, you will integrate health equity theories and frameworks into public health policies, programs, or interventions. In this course, you will compare various established and emerging health equity frameworks in public health practice. As public health practice evolves to meet the aims of health equity, public health practitioners must be able to understand and revise approaches to align with the unique needs of the communities they serve. As public health practitioners recognize the complex systems and threats to health equity, this course will introduce students to theories that will explain these threats and design approaches to overcome them.

Evaluation theory provides the conceptual framework for assessing the effectiveness of evaluation practice. This course presents theories of evaluation, and the theoretical assumptions that underlie evaluation organized around the five components that Shadish, Cook, and Leviton consider to be important to evaluation theory: theories of knowledge, value, use, social programming and practice. While the course begins with a review of evaluation methods and data sources, the seminar focuses on the key figures in the field and exemplary evaluation designs and uses. This is an active learning course applying evaluation principles. Students will be required to participate actively through preparing seminar papers and participating in class discussions.

This advanced course is intended for DrPH students to develop a scholar-activist approach to public health practice. We will focus on community organizing as a social change strategy, looking to historical and contemporary examples of social movements. Students will read and synthesize literature across disciplines to gain an understanding of community organizing frameworks and strategies. Students will apply the toolkits of leading community organizers such as the Midwest Academy to gain experience in community analysis and planning.

This graduate-level course develops organizational leadership skills for public health professionals. Drawing from multiple disciplines, it equips students with adaptable strategies, models, and frameworks for collaborative consensus building to influence behavior and policy. Case studies challenge students to analyze problems and apply solutions to real-world dilemmas. The course emphasizes creating a personal leadership philosophy for lifelong learning. It operates on the premise that principled leadership fosters organizational effectiveness, adaptability, and goal achievement, enabling leaders to set direction, envision the future, and accomplish goals.

This is an application course that will focus on advanced leadership and advocacy skills essential for successful deployment of public health initiatives. Students will conduct an environmental scan and mixed methods stakeholder assessment, evaluating the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) for an organization or entity. Results of the assessment will produce the analysis from which students will develop a responsive strategic plan to address identified needs in the community. Data-driven plans will include human, fiscal, and other resources required to achieve the strategic goal, as well as strategies to improve health equity and identify advocacy opportunities for all populations.

This course provides foundational theory and practice in developing and managing budgets and financial operational plans. Topics to be covered include budgeting, financial statements, resource allocation, and financial management. Didactic content and case studies will be used as well as applications to different practice settings and situations.

This course prepares students to become public health leaders who understand their critical role as strategic communicators and skilled facilitators of shared decision-making. Students will examine the science of communication, the dynamics of interagency messaging, and the processes of negotiation and consensus-building. Emphasis is placed on the leader's responsibility to shape public discourse, influence policy, and ensure that messages are effectively crafted and delivered to resonate with diverse audiences - from internal staff to community members and policymakers.

This doctoral-level course provides an in-depth exploration of advanced principles and practices in public health program planning, with a strong emphasis on needs assessment and program design. Students will critically examine theoretical frameworks, evidence-based models, and practical tools used to identify community health needs and translate findings into effective, sustainable intervention strategies. Through case studies, applied projects, and scholarly analysis, learners will develop competencies in stakeholder engagement, data-driven decision-making, logic model development, and culturally responsive program design. The course prepares future public health leaders to conceptualize, plan, and evaluate complex programs that address health disparities and improve population health outcomes.

In this course, students will learn about qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods used for public health research and evaluation of public health interventions. Students will learn how to use, and the limitations of, surveillance systems and national surveys for assessing, monitoring and evaluating policies and programs. For the final project, students will design an evaluation to examine the implementation and impact of a public health intervention.

This applied course prepares students to develop competitive grant proposals for evidence-based public health programs serving priority population. Students will engage in the full grant development process—from identifying funding opportunities to crafting proposals, budgets, and evaluation plans. Emphasis is placed on persuasive writing, aligning project aims with funder priorities, and incorporating theory-driven approaches grounded in social and behavioral sciences. Students will explore federal, foundation, and community-based funding mechanisms and build skills in interprofessional collaboration and responding to reviewer feedback. The course also highlights strategies for developing interprofessional or intersectoral partnerships to strengthen proposals and improve program outcomes.

This course develops advanced competencies in designing, implementing, and sustaining multisector collaborations in public health practice. The course focuses on how to synthesize diverse stakeholders across systems such as health care, housing, education, business, and community organizations. Students will learn to analyze power and governance structures, apply equity-centered frameworks, and negotiate strategies that bridge institutional silos. Assignments emphasize applied systems practice, including stakeholder landscape analysis, partnership equity audits and redesign, and the development of a collaborative public health intervention proposal. The course highlights how multisector approaches advance population health, address social determinants of health, and promote equity beyond the scope of single-program or single-organization planning.

This course will cover the use of policies to promote public health. In the course, students will learn policy approaches to promoting health by learning: 1) the policy-making process; 2) the application of scientific evidence, ethical frameworks, stakeholder interests, and cultural values to policy development; and 3) advocacy for policy change. The material will be covered with a combination of readings, recorded lectures, and virtual class and group discussions. Students’ competency with the concepts and material will be assessed with six short written assignments.

The Maternal and Child Health Advanced Methods Seminar will provide a weekly series of presentations that allow students to deepen their understanding of contemporary challenges in empirical, applied and translational maternal and child health research and practice. Broadly, topics will include innovative research areas, emerging methodologies, and effective solutions for advancing maternal and child population health equity. The seminar series is intended to complement and expand knowledge and skill-building in the areas of life course theory, maternal and child population health sciences, and reproductive epidemiology. The goal of the seminar is to assist participants in integration of learning across program curricula.

This course delves into the broad area of social determinants of health from a theoretical perspective. It is geared towards doctoral students, with an emphasis on preparing students to conduct theory-driven research in the social determinants of health. The two overarching goals for the course are for students (1) to develop knowledge about the etiology and theoretical underpinnings of social determinants of health, and (2) to develop skills in crafting a compelling, theory-based rationale for a proposed research study on one social determinant of health. These goals are accomplished through readings, class discussion, two presentations, and a culminating paper. Individual mentorship is also provided to students as they develop their ideas.

The goal of this course is to prepare students for practical applied research on the social determinants of health. The first half of the course will focus on: 1) measurement of key constructs such as inequality and racism and 2) common study designs such as multilevel and natural experiments. The second half of the course will focus on: 1) common biases and limitations to social determinants research and methods used to address limitations, and 2) analytic strategies and interpretation, including linear and non-linear multilevel regression. By the completion of the course, the student will have the skills necessary to design, analyze and present data from a range of studies that consider social determinants of health.

This advanced doctoral level course is designed for students to display competence in the application of social epidemiological methods to analyze and address the relations between social factors and health and health disparities. Practical tools and skills will be introduced to conduct health equity research and translate evidence-based strategies into practice. Students will demonstrate an understanding of the strengths and limitations of various study designs and analyses used in social epidemiology. Experience analyzing and interpreting data surrounding various public health issues from a social epidemiological framework will be provided through classroom sessions and homework assignments. Students will also review and critique empirical applications in the public health field.

This course is required for all doctoral students in the SBPS department for the duration of their tenure as doctoral students. It is intended to increase student's proficiency in 1) analyzing and interpreting current public health research, as represented in peer review journals; 2) determining how to apply research findings to the practice of public health, especially by developing community-based programs for disease prevention; and 3) presenting and discussing research-related topics. These objectives will be attained through a variety of activities, including faculty-and student-led discussions of required readings; faculty and student oral presentations of ongoing research projects (including the prospectus and dissertation research), and small group projects. All doctoral students will be expected to make a research-related oral presentation at least once.

This course will focus on the process of planning, and seeking funding for, the implementation of a culturally-tailored, public health program to address a health inequity. Students will identify and critique existing public health programs and tailor one program to be culturally-responsive to the needs of a target population. Students will propose an implementation framework that includes measures of implementation success for the selected program. Students will also construct a program plan and outcome evaluation, written in a format appropriate for a programmatic funding proposal. This course is intended for DrPH students.

The Doctoral Seminar is conceptualized as a series of content modules that provide a breadth of foundational exposure and training to departmental doctoral students over their doctoral tenure. These modules are intended to complement and expand knowledge in areas of public health and professional development that students might not receive in their current course curricula. The doctoral seminar is required of all students during their program tenure. The Doctoral Seminar serves as a forum where students and faculty can meet regularly to exchange ideas, and discuss foundational areas of public health from multiple perspectives, including empirical, programmatic, systemic, and policy. 2-3 foundational content modules are covered each semester and include 3-5 related seminars offering multiple perspectives on the topic. At the end of the module, there is a session devoted to critical reflection on, and discussion of, the various seminars within the module. Students are required to write a 2-3 page reflection about what they learned across the seminars in the module, and thoughts that it triggered for them. These reflections are shared and discussed. The seminar will consist of several types of presentations: 1) faculty presentations on current research, 2) guest presentations on community-based, governmental, policy-driven, and/or systemic initiatives, 3) student presentations on literature supporting their research project, 4) student presentations on current research in progress, and (5) professional development seminars.

Independent Study