Health Policy
Our Mission
To prepare students for advanced careers in health policy through rigorous teaching, research and practice, and to advance health policy scholarship in a cross-cutting, and real context.
A Unique Gateway to a Career in Health Policy
Dedicated to health policy education and research, the Department of Health Policy is home to more than $45 million in funded research and programs. Its core and adjunct faculty include some of the nation’s best known health policy experts as well as leaders from across the public and private health policy sector. The Department’s training includes both stimulating classroom offerings, as well as hands-on experience with the major health policy issues of the day. Our graduates can be found in Congressional offices, federal health agencies, and Washington D.C.’s most prominent professional health societies, trade associations, and health policy consultancies.
The Methods and the Knowledge
Through rigorous teaching and experiential learning, we prepare our students for virtually any career in advanced health policy. Our educational and research programming aims to give our students the tools and methods essential to advanced health policy analysis. Equally important, we aim for graduates who are conversant in the field of health policy, including:
- the key policy drivers of population health and racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, disability-related, and gender-based population health disparities;
- the issues that lie at the nexus of health insurance coverage, health care financing, health care quality, the survival of the health care safety net, and physical and behavioral health outcomes;
- the factors that influence health care access, costs and quality, as well as the broader economic trends that shape the health care system in an era of reform;
- the policymaking process and the legal and regulatory environment for population health, health care access, health safety and preparedness, and system ethics.
Our health policy degree offerings include a Masters of Public Health (MPH), a Masters of Science (MS), doctoral training through the School’s DrPH program or through the University’s PhD program in Public Policy. We specialize in joint degree training for medical and health professionals as well as law candidates and lawyers, on both a degree and certificate basis. Visit us at www.gwhealthpolicy.org for more information about how we can meet your career goals!