Certificate of Graduate Studies in Public Health Communication

This 15-hour program focuses on the strategic use of public communication to address health problems, risk issues, as well as to influence individual, community and policy decisions that enhance health. These courses offer a comprehensive study of risk communication, intercultural communication competence, mass communication effects on health message comprehension, persuasion, overcoming limits of influence for behavioral compliance and non-compliance by considering the specific concepts related to communicating complex health and scientific information to the public. Students completing this concentration will be more knowledgeable about and critical of the health communication they encounter and be more mindful about the ways they communicate.