Public Health is an exciting and dynamic major at Elizabethtown College that prepares students for a wide variety of careers for one purpose—to ensure conditions in which people can live healthy lives. As a highly interdisciplinary major, students take courses in biology, epidemiology, social and behavioral sciences, political science, and communications to learn the skills needed to become changemakers and leaders in their communities. Public health professionals promote health, prevent disease, develop policy, and positively impact the world around them.
Public Health Major
Public Health Major
Public Health at Etown
A degree in Public Health gives you the knowledge and skills to change lives across your community and affect lives around the world. Etown offers two different degrees in Public Health, with two different career path options.
Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Public Health
The BA degree is based in social, behavioral, and political sciences, preparing students for careers in advocacy, policy work, and program administration with community organizations and government agencies. The BA degree teaches students to analyze the social and behavioral factors that influence public health and health decisions. Students interested in pursuing a BA in another major (such as political science, psychology, or sociology) may consider adding the BA in Public Health as a second major.
Bachelor of Science (BS) in Public Health
The BS degree is based in the biological and natural sciences, preparing students for graduate programs in public health and work in research laboratories. The BS degree teaches students to analyze the scientific and biological factors that influence public health and transmission of disease. Students interested in pursuing a BS in another major (such as biology, math, or data science) may consider adding the BS in Public Health as a second major.
Etown currently has The Early Assurance Program with The Penn State University College of Medicine Master of Public Health Program, allowing qualifying students to pursue an advanced degree.
Career Outlook
Nationally, job growth in public health careers is strong. Pennsylvania has a higher than average demand for graduates of public health programs, with average salaries of $68,231. Public Health addresses issues of poverty, nutrition, disease control and prevention, aging and environmental risk. Careers in public health include work at all levels of government, for community organizations, and for health care providers.
- Public Health Program Administrator
- Public Health Educator
- Community Wellness Director
- Infection Preventionist
- Public Health Officer
- Public Health Planner
- Health Promotion Specialist
- Population Health Program Coordinator
- Epidemiologist
- Public Health Representative
- Community Health Coordinator
- Community Health Specialist for Substance Abuse
- Health Policy Analyst
Meet the Program Director
Robert E. Aronson, DrPH, MPH
Dr. Aronson is Director of Public Health and Lecturer at Elizabethtown College. He came into the field of public health from his interest in international community development in Africa and Latin America. His research is conducted in partnership with local communities and respected organizations, and addresses the priorities that arise from those contexts. His work emphasizes the strengthening of local capacities to understand and address the concerns that effect the health and wellbeing of communities. In partnership with MAP International in Ecuador and World Renew in Malawi and Zambia, he has brought students on three month-long learning experiences on issues related to community development principles and practices.
A social scientist and community health development researcher and practitioner, he is known for his ethnographic work on masculine gender ideology and high-risk sexuality, and the use of community-based participatory research strategies to understand and address racial disparities in health status. Much of his work has focused on understanding the causes of health disparities experienced by African American males, and identifying effective intervention strategies for this population across the social ecology. He received a four-year cooperative agreement from the Centers for Disease Control to develop and test a culturally and contextually congruent HIV prevention intervention for heterosexually active African American male college students. He was also a founding member and participant in the Greensboro Health Disparities Collaborative between 2003 and 2013. Dr. Aronson has published more than 50 peer reviewed publications.
Dr. Aronson completed the doctor of public health degree in international health from Johns Hopkins University (1997), and the Master of Public Health in health education from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1986).
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Elizabethtown, PA 17022© 2023 Elizabethtown College
Elizabethtown, PA 17022© 2023 Elizabethtown College
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