DGHI Welcomes Third MSc-GH Class

Msc-GH Class

Published August 30, 2011, last updated on March 5, 2013 under Education News

The Master of Science in Global Health (MSc-GH) Program welcomes 29 new students this week, which is its third and largest class to date.  The rigorous, research-focused graduate program promotes the interdisciplinary study in global health and has attracted students from around the globe with a variety of backgrounds, interests and career levels. This year is no exception.

The incoming MSc-GH class includes four international students from China and India, a joint JD/MSc-GH, two Internal Medicine residents in the Global Health Residency and Fellowship Pathway Program and a new faculty member in Duke’s Emergency Medicine department.  The students bring an impressive range of academic backgrounds and interests to the program, such as anthropology, pharmacy, economics, engineering, government, international relations, psychology, medicine, interdisciplinary studies and neuroscience.

“We are excited to introduce the largest MSc-GH class yet, who exemplify what the Duke Global Health Institute is all about, which is bringing together passionate minds from many disciplines and backgrounds to focus on the global health issues of today and tomorrow,” said Chris Woods, MSc-GH faculty director and associate professor of medicine and global health. “We are proud of the growth of the program since it began three years ago, and it is filling the need for research-focused graduate study in global health.”

The Duke MSc-GH is among the leading interdisciplinary, university-wide graduate programs in global health in the US. The curriculum is predominantly focused on global health research, with electives in global environmental health, demography, epidemiology, population sciences, disease causation and prevention, and global health policy and management. Students also engage in a minimum of 10-weeks in the field to apply learned research methods and complete a scholarly thesis.

Core teaching faculty include Jennifer Hawkins, Ross McKinney, Manoj Mohanan, Brian Pence, Jen’nan Read, Gopal Sreenivasan and Chris Woods. In addition to his teaching role, Pence was recently named Associate Director of Graduate Studies and will focus primarily on curriculum development this year. More than 50 faculty members around Duke are actively involved in teaching, mentoring and advising MSc-GH students.

Aligning with Duke’s aim to become a global university, DGHI exemplifies the university-wide mission to bring together faculty, students and staff in the interdisciplinary study of global health in order to make a difference in the world.