The Master of Public Health program at St. Ambrose University has achieved accreditation by the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH), an independent agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education to accredit schools of public health and public health programs.
The full accreditation will extend through July 1, 2027, with the initial accreditation date recorded as June 15, 2019. This extends accredited status to all program graduates.
"Achieving CEPH accreditation is a testament to our high-quality program committed to serving all, including marginalized and vulnerable populations," said Melissa Sharer, PhD, program director and assistant professor. "We will continue nurturing person-centered public health leaders through experiential learning with a global lens."
The fully online St. Ambrose MPH degree was created in support of the Institute for Person-Centered Care at St. Ambrose through funding provided by Tom Higgins '67, whose passion for enhancing healthcare delivery extends to his days working in the administration of President Jimmy Carter.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the MPH program has proven to be a prescient addition to a dozen other health-related graduate and undergraduate degree programs in the St. Ambrose College of Health and Human Services.
A 2009 graduate of the SAU Bachelor of Science in Nursing program, Nick Colwell enrolled in the first cohort of MPH students in 2018, eager to apply the concepts of public health administration to advance his career in becoming a data analyst focused on population health at Genesis Health Systems facilities in the Quad Cities.
As one of the program's first graduates, he earned his MPH degree in Spring 2021 – with the world one year into the COVID pandemic – and emerged with a far greater understanding of the impact public health applications have on the greater community.
"Public health really gives you a broader perspective of how everything is interacting and how all those pieces come together to form a broader community health system," Colwell said. "It was quite a time to be learning these MPH lessons. It's going to be very interesting to see how the field changes in the next decade and what direction health systems want to take with their public health strategies."
Taking advantage of the online program has allowed SAU to recruit students from all over the USA, including Wreetu Sieh from Philadelphia, PA. Sieh was attracted to the program for the global and experiential focus, both very important to her because she was born in Monrovia, Liberia.
"When I read the overview of the SAU MPH program, I loved it," Sieh said. "This program offers a person-centered approach and professors with wonderful backgrounds at a global level. It seemed packed with real world experience, academic learning, and support. I felt confident that the SAU MPH program was exactly what I needed to develop professionally."
The St. Ambrose program also partners with the undergraduate public health program at Winona State University in Minnesota, offering students a similar 3+2 pathway, allowing for an BS/MPH in 5 years.
Freedom Martin, who earned his bachelor's degree in public health from Winona, took advantage of that opportunity. He said an SAU master's degree built on "the scaffolding" of his bachelor's degree and has enhanced his work as a donor center coordinator for the American Red Cross in ways large, small, and occasionally, indecipherable.
"The Red Cross is a great organization to both work for and learn from, and although they tell me I'm a strong performer in my position," Martin said, "I often wonder if either they or I are able to comprehend what a large role the MPH program has played in my success. The impact is massive."
The SAU Master of Public Health program emphasizes health equity which reinforces St. Ambrose University's mission of social justice and service. SAU MPH students build their skills in epidemiology, research, and applying evidenced-based interventions to solve global/national/regional/state/community public health issues.
The 43-credit program offers three start-times a year, allowing for flexibility to be full-time or part-time, and features an accelerated 3+2 program where St. Ambrose students from a multitude of majors can begin taking asynchronous online MPH courses as undergrads. Those courses serve as electives toward their undergraduate degree and count toward an MPH degree, allowing achievement of a master's degree in just one year.
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