Tara Sabo-Attwood, Dean
Lee Pearson, Executive Director of Operations and Accreditation
Susan Steck, Interim Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and Curriculum
Toni Torres-McGehee, Associate Dean for the Office of Access and Collective Engagement
Bridget Miller, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Student Affairs
Jean Neils-Strunjas, Chair, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders
Geoff Scott, Chair, Department of Environmental Health Sciences
Anthony Alberg Chair, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Shawn M. Arent, Chair, Department of Exercise Science
Daniela Friedman, Chair, Department of Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior and Interim Associate Dean for Research
Brad Wright, Chair, Department of Health Services Policy and Management

Public Health is an exciting and growing field of study. The field challenges its professionals to confront complex health issues, such as improving access to health care, controlling infectious disease, and reducing environmental hazards, violence, substance abuse, and injury. Professionals in Public Health come from varying educational backgrounds and can specialize in an array of fields. A host of specialists, including teachers, journalists, researchers, administrators, environmentalists, demographers, social workers, laboratory scientists, physicians, and attorneys, work to protect the health of the public. This is a field geared toward serving local, national, and international communities. Public Health professionals are leaders who meet the many exciting challenges in protecting the public’s health today and in the future. The Arnold School of Public Health was established by legislative action in 1974 and has been fully accredited by the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH) since 1979.

The mission of the Arnold School of Public Health is to improve population health and well-being by fostering innovative education and research that promotes health and healthy environments and will use that knowledge to prevent and effectively respond to disease, disability, and environmental degradation in diverse communities.. An integral part of the training of students at the school is participation in research activities. Since the state is experiencing rapid demographic and industrial changes, health problems range from those of a traditional rural setting (infectious diseases, infant mortality, access to health care) to those of a modern industrial setting (impact of new industries on air and water quality and the safety of the workplace). The school has been committed to “action research” since its inception. The importance of dealing with operating programs and defined problems has led to close working relationships with human service programs, health care facilities, and governmental agencies throughout the state and region.

The school contains the Prevention Research Center, the Core for Applied Research and Evaluation, the Nutrition Consortium, the Cancer Prevention and Control Program, the Office for the Study of Aging, the Rural and Minority Health Research Center, the Consortium for the Latino Immigration Studies, the Center for Community Health Alignment, the PASOs Program, the Community Health Worker Institute and the Montgomery Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic.

Degrees Offered

The Arnold School of Public Health offers graduate programs of study leading to the degrees of Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Master of Public Health (M.P.H.), and Master of Science (M.S.). The Department of Exercise Science also offers the Doctor of Physical Therapy (D.P.T.); the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders offers study that leads to the Master of Science (M.S.) in Speech-Language Pathology in two modalities, full-time face-to-face/residential (MS-Res) and part-time via distance-education (MS-DE); and the Department of Health Services Policy and Management also offers a Master of Health Administration (M.H.A.).

A Master of Social Work/M.P.H. dual degree is offered in cooperation with the College of Social Work. A dual Juris Doctor/M.H.A. is offered in cooperation with the School of Law. The Certificate of Graduate Study in Health Communication is administered by the Department of Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior; the School of Journalism and Mass Communications; and the School of Library and Information Science.  The Department of Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior also offers graduate certificates in Global Health and in Aging. The Department of Environmental Health Sciences offers a graduate certificate in Environmental Nanoscience and Risk. 

Admission Requirements

Requirements for admission conform to the general regulations of The Graduate School of the University of South Carolina including satisfactory scores on the Graduate Record Examination, unless otherwise indicated in the program documentation. In addition, applicants must submit official transcripts of their entire academic record, evidence of academic performance at a B or better level, a curriculum vitae or resume, a brief statement of professional goals and objectives, and at least two letters of recommendation. Programs may have additional admission requirements.

Departments