What is Public Health & Society (PH&S)?

Public Health & Society (PH&S) is the newest undergraduate program at WashU. Nested within the College of Arts & Sciences, it’s an innovative approach to understanding the problems of health and wellbeing in St. Louis, in America, and around the world.

We’re building this program through a unique collaboration between Arts & Sciences, the Brown School, and the planned School for Public Health, which is set to launch in the fall of 2026. We’re delivering a curriculum that is focused on the basics of public health, while also teaching students the historical, cultural, ethical, biological, and social context in which health develops. That’s what makes this program unique.

We’re looking to help students develop careers in all kinds of health-related fields including going on to public health, medicine, business, law, nonprofit, and government.

What sets Public Health & Society apart from similar undergraduate programs across the country?

What’s really interesting about Public Health & Society is that we are developing a program where all of our core courses are being taught by both a public health practitioner and an Arts & Sciences faculty member[AG1] . They’re all being taught together in this collaborative way.

This framework allows students in the PH&S program to learn from distinguished faculty from the Brown School and the new School of Public Health, providing an interdisciplinary perspective on public health issues.

We’re also developing a 3-2 Program, which will allow students to go into a Master of Public Health (MPH) program and get it completed in five years. This both accelerates the time frame and reduces the costs of attaining a graduate degree. This innovative program is not only the first-of-its-kind here at WashU, but in the country.

What does the Public Health & Society curriculum entail?

The Public Health & Society major will be built around five required courses. The final course of the required sequence is called A.P.E.X, which will allow students to get into the field with communities, laboratories, and researchers — providing them with a guided opportunity to apply their classroom learning.

In addition to these five required courses, we have a “Choose Your Own Adventure” set of electives. These might be courses in biology, in women, gender, and sexuality studies (WGSS), history, or even foreign languages. These courses are designed to round out a broad education, to give students an understanding of the history, the ethics, and the physical challenges built around health.

Students who are interested in health inequality can find a concentration of classes that take them in that direction. A student who is interested in going on to medical school can take courses in biology, chemistry, or physiology, as an example.

What we’re trying to do is identify what our students are excited about and tailor opportunities for them.

What was the most rewarding part of developing this program?

The fun thing, for me at least, is that building this major allowed us to really rethink the educational model at WashU. We’re trying to open up an opportunity for students to cross disciplines and move between these undergraduate programs and the emerging School of Public Health.

We haven’t built or developed a school in over a hundred years at WashU, and this is a tremendous opportunity to work with new faculty and to think differently.

Another thing we’re excited about is that we’re working with the WashU Center for Career Engagement (CCE) to help students develop public health career pathways and to identify opportunities, beginning even in their first year and carrying throughout their undergraduate career and, ideally, into their professional career.

Why does public health matter?

Public health affects everyone. Public health is health for everybody. It’s community health, and when the community is healthy, we’re all healthy.

Addressing things like inequality, racial disparities, ethical challenges, business decisions, medical practices – these are all things that touch on public health.

When can students begin enrolling in the Public Health & Society major?

The minor in Public Health & Society is currently enrolling. The major will begin in the fall of 2025. Students who need to choose a major during Spring 2025, can choose Public Health & Society as their major this Spring.

Students interested in exploring current course offerings should visit publichealthandsociety.wustl.edu/courses.

Editor’s Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity