SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH
UCLA
16-071 Center for the Health Sciences
Box 951772
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1772
(310) 825-5524
http://www.ph.ucla.edu
Now is a great time to be studying public health. Federal investment in public health has increased, and a strong global economy has brought additional resources and attention to the field. Furthermore, public and media interest in public health topics have created many opportunities for the field and UCLA graduates.
The field of public health strives to create healthier communities. Where medicine treats the individual, public health looks to the larger community. Those working in public health focus on efforts to assess the health of people and their environments and develop policies and programs to protect people and help them lead healthier lives.
To achieve these goals, public health crosses many of the traditional boundaries of academic disciplines, drawing from medicine, law, public policy, economics, and biology to name a few. Making water safe to drink and air safe to breathe, controlling toxic waste, halting the spread of infectious disease, promoting the advantages of healthy lifestyles, and minimizing violence in our communities are all examples of public health in action. Increasingly public health is called on to help determine which clinical approaches to an individual health problem are best (outcomes research), and to assess and identify disparities in access to health care, quality of health care, and health status.
The UCLA School of Public Health is among the top public health schools in the country. Offering superior public health training and real-world experience, the school's classrooms and laboratories are under the same roof as the world-renowned UCLA hospital and its medical, dental, and nursing schools. It also shares access to the University's science facilities and schools for engineering, law, management, and public policy.
The school is enriched by its setting in Los Angeles, where diverse cultures, industries, environmental situations, and urban issues provide unparalleled opportunities for research, teaching, and service. Its location provides students and faculty with a unique opportunity to be involved with cutting-edge health care issues as many of the health system changes currently sweeping the country have origins in Southern California.
students can look forward to working with acclaimed public health experts and innovators. Of the school's 180 faculty members, six are members of the prestigious Institute of Medicine, three are past presidents of the American Public Health Association, and two are former presidents of the International Epidemiological Association.
The school's 600 students are among the most talented and promising in the nation. Culturally diverse, they represent more than 35 countries and nearly every region of the U.S. UCLA School of Public Health graduates are at the forefront of all major public health efforts.
The School of Public Health offers graduate programs leading to both academic and professional degrees in five departments. The Department of Biostatistics develops statistical and analytical techniques for public health use. The Department of Community Health Sciences deals with five areas of study and program implementation, including behaviors which prevent disease and enhance health, health problems of high-risk groups (women, children, the aged, the poor, the disadvantaged, and racial and ethnic minorities), health education and promotion, public health policy, community nutrition, and international health. The Department of Environmental Health Sciences elucidates health hazards in the general environment and in the workplace. The Department of Epidemiology is concerned with the nature, extent, and distribution of disease and health in populations. The Department of Health Services deals with the organization, financing, delivery, quality, and distribution of health care services. The school also administers interdepartmental degree programs in environmental science and engineering and in molecular toxicology.
The school offers the following degrees:
Environmental Health Sciences (M.S., Ph.D.)
Environmental Science and Engineering (D.Env.)
Preventive Medicine and Public Health (M.S.)
Public Health (M.P.H., M.S., Dr.P.H., Ph.D.)
The M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Public Health are offered through the Department of Community Health Sciences. New students are not being admitted to the M.S. in Preventive Medicine and Public Health at this time.
Certain degrees within the School of Public Health are not offered by the individual departments but are administered on a schoolwide level: the Master of Public Health, the Doctor of Public Health, and three concurrent degree programs-- M.B.A./M.P.H. with the John E. Anderson Graduate School of Management and M.A./M.P.H. with Asian American Studies and with Islamic Studies. Three articulated degree programs--M.D./M.P.H. with the School of Medicine and M.A./M.P.H. with African Studies and with Latin American Studies--are also schoolwide programs.
Admission criteria established by the UCLA Graduate Division require a bachelor's degree from a regionally accredited institution comparable in standard and content to a bachelor's degree from the University of California. A scholastic average of B (3.0 on a 4.0 scale) or better is required--or its equivalent if the letter grade system is not used--for the last 60 semester units or last 90 quarter units of undergraduate study and in any postbaccalaureate study. Further requirements for international students are explained in the Graduate Study section. See http://www.gdnet.ucla.edu/gasaa/admissions.
Departments in the school may set additional admission requirements that are explained in the Curricula and Courses section of this catalog.
School of Public Health degree requirements vary according to the department and program. See Curricula and Courses for details or refer to Program Requirements for UCLA Graduate Degrees at http://www.gdnet.ucla.edu/publications.html.
Center for Health Policy Research
The Center for Health Policy Research applies the expertise of UCLA faculty and researchers to meet national, state, and local community needs to accomplish three missions: (1) to conduct research on national, state, and local health policy issues, (2) to provide public service to policymakers and community leaders, and (3) to offer educational opportunities for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.
Sponsored by the School of Public Health and the School of Public Policy and Social Research, the center provides a collaborative health policy research environment where faculty from the Schools of Public Health, Public Policy and Social Research, and Medicine participate in center research projects and in public service and educational activities. One major project is the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS), one of the largest health surveys in the nation.
The center publishes findings in a series of Policy Briefs and Policy Research Reports that make policy information accessible to policymakers, public health and health care leaders, the media, and the public. The center also sponsors lectures and seminars on health policy as well as major public service programs supported by extramural grants.
The center is directed by Professor E. Richard Brown, with Professor Gerald Kominski as associate director, Roberta Wyn as associate director for research, Steven P. Wallace as associate director for public programs, Hongjian Yu as associate director for statistical support, Charles Disogra as associate director for CHIS, and Bernie Dempsey as associate director for finance and administration. See http://www.healthpolicy.ucla.edu. 
310-794-0909
Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention
The Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention is operated jointly by the School of Public Health--which engages in teaching and research activities such as studies on the quality of life for men with prostate cancer, manpower requirements for the care of those with HIV, community interventions for asthma control in Latino children, and systems for smoking cessation used by physicians caring for Latino patients--and the School of Medicine--which is involved in clinical activities and teaching.
Five full-time faculty members have primary appointments in School of Medicine clinical departments such as obstetrics, surgery, family medicine, medicine, or pediatrics. They have joint appointments in School of Public Health departments such as community health sciences, health services, or epidemiology.
The center has ties with local and national managed care organizations, as well as with the Veterans Administration and other hospitals and professional organizations. It is the UCLA site for the Pacific AIDS Education and Training Center. The center, directed by Professor Charles E. Lewis, is also responsible for overseeing the Preventive Medicine Residency Program. Dr. Karen Duvall, an assistant clinical professor of family medicine, is the associate director of the residency program.
Center for Health Services Management
The Center for Health Services Management was established by the School of Public Health and the John E. Anderson Graduate School of Management as UCLA's response to California's challenging environment for health care management. It brings together the best in university-based research and education with cutting-edge management practices in the health care community, for the benefit of both.
As a laboratory that identifies new challenges and tests new solutions, the center improves management training not only in the degree and certificate programs at the University, but also in management development programs within health care organizations.
The center operates under the direction of a joint University/community guidance committee, and all activities, whether research, teaching, or consultation, involve intense collaboration between health care practitioners and University faculty and students.
Located in the most active and rapidly changing health care environment in the U.S., the center draws on renowned UCLA scholars and teachers--experts in both the organization of health services and in the latest approaches to modern management--and on a dynamic group of alumni, friends, and colleagues in the Southern California health care community who teach, advise, support, and counsel the development of the center.
Codirected by Professors Paul R. Torrens and Victor C. Tabbush, the center conducts activities in three major areas: applied health services management research; education and teaching in a variety of settings and on a variety of levels; and consultation to organizations and individuals about health services management issues. See http://www.
ph.ucla.edu/hs/hsmgt.html
. 310- 206-3435
Center for Healthier Children, Families, and Communities
The Center for Healthier Children, Families, and Communities addresses the challenging health and social problems that face children and families and seeks to improve society's ability to provide children with the best opportunities for health, well-being, and the chance to assume productive roles within families and communities.
This unique interdisciplinary partnership unites UCLA departments, schools, and affiliated institutions, including the schools of Public Health, Medicine, Nursing, Education, Law, and Public Policy and Social Research and the Department of Psychology, as well as providers, community agencies, and affiliated institutions. Their combined expertise has been assembled to conduct activities in five major areas: (1) child health and social services, (2) applied research, (3) training of health and social service providers, (4) public policy research and analysis, and (5) technical assistance and support to community providers, agencies, and policymakers. The center is led by three codirectors, Professors Neal Halfon, Jonathan E. Fielding, and Neal Kaufman. See http://
healthychild.ucla.edu.
310- 206-1898
A joint endeavor of the schools of Public Health and Medicine, the Center for Human Nutrition brings together faculty, postdoctoral research fellows, graduate students, and medical students to focus on the roles of nutrition and food in human health and disease. It is closely affiliated with UCLA's Clinical Nutrition Research Unit, which focuses on nutrition and cancer prevention.
Programs include basic biological research; nutrition education for medical, graduate, undergraduate, and postgraduate students; participation in multicenter clinical trials for primary and secondary disease prevention through dietary intervention; and public health and international nutrition. The center maintains core laboratory and research facilities in body composition, dietary assessment and intervention, micronutrient analysis, lipid and hormone analyses, and stable isotope techniques.
Public health and international aspects of the programs include focus on nutrition surveillance of populations, nutritional status and food supply in developing and transitional countries, and nutrition and food policy. The center provides research and field experience for students from UCLA and elsewhere and has several international visiting scholars in residence at most times.
Participating faculty have their academic appointments in Medicine and/or Public Health.310-206-8444 or 825-3738
Center for Occupational and Environmental Health
The state of California mandated that the Center for Occupational and Environmental Health (COEH) be formed after 1977, when a group of chemical workers became sterile from exposure to the pesticide DBCP, a known carcinogen and reproductive toxin. With branches in the north and south of the state, COEH trains occupational and environmental health professionals, conducts research, and provides services through consultation, education, and outreach. It is the first state-supported institution to provide occupational and environmental health leadership in the U.S.
The COEH branch at UCLA is housed in the Center for the Health Sciences and involves the schools of Public Health, Medicine, Nursing, and Public Policy and Social Research, as well as the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science.
Specific COEH programs within the School of Public Health include:
Environmental Chemistry . The environmental chemistry program is concerned with the sampling, analysis, and fate/transport of chemicals in the environment. It interprets data on environmental chemicals and hazardous wastes. Environmental chemists are employed in research, government, and industry associated with environmental management, industrial hygiene chemistry, environmental toxicology, air pollution, water quality treatment, and other related areas.
Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology . Occupational and environmental epidemiologists conduct research to establish causal links between environmental exposure and adverse health outcomes. The study of exposure-response relationship is central to the role of the epidemiologists.
Occupational and Environmental Medicine . An occupational medicine residency provides specialty training for physicians in occupational medicine. The program leads to a master's degree in public health and board eligibility in occupational medicine. In the first year of the program, students take courses in the School of Public Health that lead to the M.P.H. degree. In the second year, they participate in clinical and field rotations under the supervision of the Department of Family Medicine in the School of Medicine. A joint residency program in occupational medicine is offered with the UC Irvine COEH.
Occupational Ergonomics . Occupational ergonomics is the science of designing a work environment compatible with the capabilities and needs of the workforce. The primary goal of the program is to improve the design of the work environment for the prevention of occupational illnesses and injuries. Current research areas include static and dynamic strength modeling, task analysis, and identification and qualification of risk factors for cumulative trauma disorders.
Occupational Hygiene . Occupational hygienists are environmental specialists concerned with evaluation and control of the workplace environment for exposure to potentially dangerous agents, physical stresses, biologic agents, and ergonomic effects. Occupational hygienists provide insight into these problems based on their knowledge of the health effects of exposure to the substances involved and the physics and chemistry of the environment. These specialists work as part of interdisciplinary teams with epidemiologists, physicians, nurses, and toxicologists.
Service Outreach to the Community . The center has the task of providing expertise in occupational and environmental health to the community. Available services and opportunity for student activities include (1) consultative assistance to physicians, nurses, and occupational hygienists, (2) faculty evaluation of the work environment with potential occupational health hazards and surveillance of industrial workers exposed to hazardous substances, and (3) continuing education opportunities for professionals and educational programs for workers exposed to potential occupational health hazards. See http://www.coeh.ucla.edu.
Toxicology . Toxicology is the study of the adverse effects of chemicals and physical agents on living organisms. The goal of the discipline is to understand what agents provide a threat to organisms and how they function in order to minimize their impact. Toxicologists work collaboratively with physicians, nurses, industrial hygienists, and epidemiologists to determine the causes of occupational and environmental disease.
Center for Public Health and Disaster Relief
The Center for Public Health and Disaster Relief addresses the critical issues faced when a disaster impacts a community. The center provides a curricular focus and research agenda to examine how natural and human-generated disasters affect the public's health. Staff and faculty have multidisciplinary backgrounds that include emergency medicine, environmental health sciences, epidemiology, gerontology, health services, social work, sociology, urban planning, and public health.
Based in the Community Health Sciences department, the center is the first such program in the U.S. to offer multiple graduate-level courses in public health and natural disasters. Center faculty teach such courses as introduction to public health and disasters, program planning and evaluation of disaster preparedness programs, cooperative interagency management from a public health perspective, post-disaster community health, disaster epidemiology, and public health disasters caused by bioterrorism.
Such courses--also available by concurrent enrollment through UCLA Extension--bring together students who have a strong theoretical and research background with individuals who are experienced in disaster management. The synergy between theory and practice provides lively classroom discussions, and enriches the future pool of public health disaster experts. To expose future professionals to the rigorous challenges of this field, graduate student interns may be placed within emergency and disasters units of the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, the California Emergency Medical Services Authority, the American Red Cross, local government emergency management agencies, and the World Health Organization.
Center staff and colleagues have studied earthquakes in California since the early 1970s. Recent research contributes to the knowledge of human behavior and disaster preparedness before and after earthquakes, emotional and physical injuries, as well as utilization of both medical and disaster services. Similar factors are under study as a follow up to the 1997-98 el niño season. The center research agenda also includes a cooperative study of earthquake impacts on the U.S. and Japan, and the projected impact of seismic early warning systems on human behavior and injury. The center also develops training designed to prepare public health professionals for potential emergencies including bioterrorism.
A visiting scholars program allows qualified public health and emergency management professionals to spend from one to three quarters studying in the center and working with faculty in areas of disaster public health and research methods.
The center is directed by Professor Steven Rottman, with Professor Linda Bourque as associate director. Professor Kimberley Shoaf is the center's director of research. See
http://www.ph.ucla.edu/cphdr.
310-794-0864.
Office of Public Health Practice
The School of Public Health plays a unique role in community-based health promotion and disease prevention. To coordinate this important function, the school established the Office of Public Health Practice in 1992. The goals of the office are to (1) establish firm practice links with local and state departments, (2) strengthen the curriculum with innovative community-based public health practice experience, (3) assist policy development affecting public health, (4) develop model interventions to address the leading public health problems of our diverse and multiethnic communities, and (5) develop continuing education programs, including an M.P.H. degree for working professionals. See http://www.
ph.ucla.edu/php
. 310-794-7028
Pollution Prevention Education and Research Center
The Pollution Prevention Education and Research Center (PPERC) was established by the schools of Public Health, Engineering and Applied Science, and Public Policy and Social Research to conserve resources, reduce or eliminate the use of toxic substances, and improve human and environmental health through an interdisciplinary program of education, research, and outreach. Faculty and associates offer classes, develop curricula, conduct research, and sponsor outreach activities to promote the principles of pollution prevention across disciplines and institutions.
The center ranks as a leading academic pollution prevention program with impressive accomplishments. Faculty members and associates collaboratively teach innovative multidisciplinary courses that examine pollution prevention opportunities in a variety of industry sectors; develop curricula, case studies, and problem sets for students and professionals in diverse fields; sponsor public seminars and conferences to share pollution prevention information and stimulate discussion; publish books and articles on technology, health, and policy issues associated with pollution prevention; and participate in workshops and roundtables on the problems associated with toxics use. See http://www.
oxy.edu/departments/pperc.
For more information, contact Professor John R. Froines. 310-206-6141
Southern California Environmental Health Sciences Center
The Southern California Environmental Health Sciences Center (SCEHSC) was established through funding from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). Researchers and professionals from UCLA, University of Southern California, and California Institute of Technology have collaborated to create an interdisciplinary approach to the study and advancement of research in environmental health. As one of the newest of 19 centers across the nation, the SCEHSC primarily focuses on using epidemiologic methods to study effects of the environment on human health, especially with regard to the multiethnic populations of California and the Pacific Rim.
The SCEHSC is organized into an administrative core, five research cores, and four service cores, with the overall goal to understand how environmental factors affect health and how personal factors modify response. Research cores include exposure assessment, respiratory effects, childhood cancer, adult cancer, and statistical methods, while the service cores include analytical chemistry, molecular biology, biological sample processing, and biostatistics.
The center supports an Environmental Health Research Pilot Projects Program to advance research in environmental health by expanding opportunities to pursue larger-scale projects. It also maintains a Community Outreach and Education Program to develop models for community outreach and school curricula to educate the public on how to control, reduce, or eliminate the threat of living with environmental hazards. Dissemination of research findings to the health care, corporate, and policy-making communities and the public at large enables the SCEHSC to facilitate an informed public debate and, ultimately, improved public policies, making it a regional and national resource on environmental health research. For information, contact Professor John R. Froines at (310) 206-6141 or Professor William C. Hinds at (310) 825-7152. See http://www.usc.edu/schools/medicine/academic_departments/preventive_med/occ_environmental/scehsc.
Southern California Injury Prevention Research Center
Injuries kill more people under the age of 45 than all other causes of death combined. The Southern California Injury Prevention Research Center (SCIPRC) is one of 10 centers in the U.S. that focus on the problem of intentional (homicide, suicide, abuse) and unintentional (motor vehicle crash, drowning, falls) injuries through three phases of injury control--prevention, acute care, and rehabilitation--addressed through its research, training, and community service components.
The theme of SCIPRC is to research intentional and unintentional injuries among disadvantaged persons and other underserved populations. Highly focused, multidisciplinary community-based research projects are undertaken in collaboration with professionals from public health, medicine, the social sciences, law, and biomechanics affiliated with UCLA, the University of Southern California, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Sharp Memorial Hospital, Rancho Los Amigos Medical Center, California State University (Los Angeles), the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, the Los Angeles County Department of the Coroner, the California State Department of Health Services, the California Office of Traffic Safety, Cal/OSHA, and the California State Coroners' Association.
Graduate students can affiliate with SCIPRC through academic coursework in injury and research experience with ongoing investigations and can apply for support for independent graduate student research. See http://www.
ph.ucla.edu/sciprc/sciprc1.htm
. 310-794-2706
Southern California NIOSH Education and Research Center
The Southern California NIOSH Education and Research Center is one of 15 multidisciplinary centers in the U.S. supported by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health for education and research in the field of occupational health. The Southern California center is administratively housed in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences. The center supports academic programs in occupational medicine at UCLA and UCI, occupational health nursing, and industrial hygiene at UCLA. For these programs the center provides student support (fees and stipends for U.S. citizens or permanent residents) and infrastructure support. The center supports approximately 40 graduate students in the field of occupational health. It also supports a continuing education and outreach program, hazardous substances training for hazardous waste workers and industrial hygiene students, and a Pilot Project Research Training Program for ERC trainees. The continuing education program is primarily for professionals in the occupational health field and covers many topics in industrial hygiene, occupational health nursing, occupational medicine, occupational safety, ergonomics, and environmental areas. The center director is Professor William C. Hinds. For more information, e-mail niosherc@ucla.edu. 310-206-2304
Southern California Particle Center and Supersite
The Southern California Particle Center and Supersite (SCPCS) was established in 1999 through funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and California Air Resources Board (ARB) to study the nature and health effects of airborne particulate matter (PM). The SCPCS is one of five particulate research centers awarded grants as part of an EPA effort to learn more about the health problems caused by exposure to particle pollution. Based in the UCLA School of Public Health, the center includes faculty from throughout UCLA, as well as researchers from the University of Southern California, University of California campuses at Riverside and Irvine, California Institute of Technology, and Rancho Los Amigos Medical Center.
The major objective of the SCPCS is to identify and conduct the highest priority research for PM to ensure protection of the public health. The center seeks to better determine the sources of particulate pollution, probe the chemical nature of particles, and investigate the health effects of breathing particulates. The SCPCS has created a structure to ensure integration of research and to create a research dynamic where findings facilitate new research that deepens understanding of the mechanisms of particle-related toxicity.
Particulates in the South Coast Air Basin include organic compounds from fuel combustion, heavy metals created by erosion, and materials called bioaerosols such as pollen and fungi. By applying new tools, researchers hope to learn about the relative health hazards posed by the different pollutants. SCPCS projects are done in association with the University of Southern California's Children's Health Study, which is following 3,600 school children in 12 local communities to study the chronic health effects caused by air pollution. See http://www.scpcs.ucla.edu 310-206-1229
Current Students | Prospective Students | | Faculty and Staff | Alumni