Courses

Theory & Legal Framework (MPDM-5600-01)

Graduate Level • Spring 2025 • Tim Manning

This course will provide the disaster risk management student with an advanced All-Hazards preparedness view of the complexities of emergency management and disaster response, from local, state, and international/ global perspectives. It grounds students in the historical context and rapidly changing factors impacting Global and U.S. emergency management practices, including theoretical concepts (such as risk, hazard, sustainability, resilience, disaster risk reduction, and climate change adaptation), legal structures, the risk assessment community and their skill sets and core competencies. Students understand the evolution of the emergency management system, environmental public health systems (and opportunity for integration), and public expectations, perceptions, and engagement. By the end of this course, students will demonstrate how to respond to historical and hypothetical scenarios by applying knowledge of hazards, public health considerations, community readiness, and regulations.

Epidemiologic App:Popltn Hlth (STIA-2177-01)

Undergraduate Level • Spring 2025 • Jennifer Bouey and Rebecca Katz

This course introduces the general principles, methods, and applications of epidemiology. Fundamental concepts covered in this course include outbreak investigations, measures of disease frequency, standardization of disease rates, study design, measures of association, hypothesis testing, bias, causal inference, disease screening, and ethical issues in Epidemiology studies. Lecture and case studies include applications of the discipline to infectious disease, chronic disease, social behavioral studies, health services research, and health policy.

Upcoming Course Offerings: Summer 2025

Global Health Security (SEST-6556-10)

Graduate Level • Summer 2025 • Rebecca Katz

This course analyzes the intersection of national security and biological threats, with particular emphasis on public health emergency preparedness and response. Topics covered include the spectrum of biological threats; global health security policy at the international, regional, national and local level; biodefense; and the role of the scientific community in preparedness and disaster response. Particular attention is paid to questions of infrastructure, with the emphasis on the federal government, and international legal frameworks. The course covers a variety of threat themes, including deliberate biological events, naturally occurring infectious diseases, natural disasters, and the associated preparedness and response policy issues.

This course will challenge students to read and interpret health security-related agreements, negotiate a position, and assess the policy context while trying to advance a health agenda.