Public Health Policy & Advocacy

Catalog description

This course will allow students to explore the roles health advocates assume how individuals working in public health settings might participate in advocacy strategies to affect policy. The focus is on frameworks for conceptualizing and promoting the right to health as well as strategies to give consumers more power in making decisions, defining issues, designing programs, and developing policies. Also, this course incorporates public health leadership theory and practices that are grounded in social science and sanctioned by public law. Students will also learn about the politics of communities and organizations. Advocacy is emphasized as a key tool to secure funding and to help assure that local, state, and federal policymakers will adopt, implement, and sustain important public health regulations, policies, and programs. The American Public Health Association is used as a source for identifying current legislative priorities for public health professionals. This course will include 50 hours of practical immersion experience.