UC San Diego Launches Bold New Doctoral Degree in Public Health

New courses include Introduction to Community-Engaged Health Research, Advanced Methods in Health Services Research, and Advanced Methods in Implementation Science.

Advanced Methods in Health Services Research introduces students to artificial intelligence methods, including large language models and machine learning, for identifying service needs and designing and evaluating policies and practices. Advanced Methods in Implementation Science covers research designs for randomized controlled trials of health services programs, policies, and practices, as well as strategies for implementing and sustaining them.

This initial community-engaged health research series is followed by two quarters of a community-engaged research practicum, providing students hands-on learning outside the classroom and further honing their research interests and expertise.

Practicums train students to partner with community-based organizations to address public health challenges while working within existing systems to collect and analyze data. They also provide organizations with access to student expertise to conduct needs assessments, evaluate program effectiveness and inform evidence-based decision-making.

Students may also participate in public health practice units focused on topics such as primary care and prevention or child, youth and family health equity, bringing together faculty, students, community-based organizations and government agencies to identify and address public health priorities.

As graduate student researchers, students will gain additional hands-on research experience under faculty mentorship. Plans are currently in development to place students as graduate student researchers within UC San Diego Health or as pre-dissertation fellows within federally supported T32 training programs — National Institutes of Health institutional grants that fund predoctoral and postdoctoral research training and career development in biomedical, behavioral and clinical research.

Faculty teaching in the program are cross-departmental, including instructors who currently teach at the graduate level to doctoral students – Yuyan Shi, Ph.D., professor, Sara McMenamin, Ph.D., M.P.H., associate professor, Jingjing Zou, Ph.D., associate professor, Sonia Jain, Ph.D., M.Sc., professor, and Pooyan Kazemian, Ph.D., M.S., assistant professor.

Also joining to help support students on their academic journey is Jenny Espiritu, MA, Doctor of Philosophy in Public Health program coordinator, who joined the school during the 2024-2025 academic year and has already begun helping students in the program succeed.