A 'one health' approach
From the food we eat to the air we breathe, our environment can help us thrive, or contribute to illness and early death. By identifying toxic chemicals and infectious microorganisms in the world around us, environmental public health professionals protect individual and community health. Students use methods from biology, chemistry, microbiology, toxicology, epidemiology and more to untangle the relationships between and among humans, animals and the environment and explore how those connections contribute to disease. Students learn how environmental risk factors disproportionately harm vulnerable communities and learn strategies to dismantle inequities. Alumni go on to careers in government — including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Food and Drug Administration and Department of Energy – and throughout private industry, academia and nonprofit organizations.
