MSPH Guiding Statements
Vision
Healthy rural communities…thriving, empowered, & valued.
Mission
With deep commitments to service learning and action research, the Campbell University Master of Science in Public Health program prepares students to be public health professionals by engaging rural communities as valuable and accessible partners in achieving health equity.
Values
The Department of Public Health at Campbell University fosters the partnership of rigorous scientific knowledge and local expertise in order to further the right of all people to lead healthy lives, to eliminate health inequities and injustice, to involve rural communities in the advancement of their own health, and to develop public health practitioners who serve their communities with professionalism, resolve, and cultural humility.
- Integrity: In all our work, we strive to do the greatest good, regardless of whether this is the easiest or most profitable path.
- Equity: We believe that all people deserve to lead healthy lives, and to have access to the healthcare, time, and resources to do so.
- Justice: Our work is focused where equity is lacking. With a focus on underserved and marginalized populations, we strive to recognize and rectify health inequities in our communities.
- Empowerment: We support communities in developing the tools and resources they need to go on to support themselves. We ask–rather than tell–how we can contribute, with a goal of affecting positive change.
- Excellence: Our teaching, learning, research, and outreach are held to the highest standards of performance to ensure quality, maintain credibility, and engender trust in the community.
- Leadership: We train students to be autonomous thinkers who will seek out partnerships, who will serve as role models, and who can conceive, execute, and direct projects that promote health in their communities.
- Inclusivity: We work to eliminate barriers that prevent full participation of all people in learning, research, and outreach.
- Commitment to students: Out of a sincere desire to foster the success of each and every student, it is our primary goal to be engaged teachers and mentors.
- Applied and responsible research: With a commitment to leaving a positive mark on the people and places that we study, our research questions are informed by the needs and wants of those who are affected by them. It is our goal to not only contribute to the advancement of science, but to utilize it in improving the health of our communities.
Goals
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ADVANCING PUBLIC HEALTH |
PROMOTING STUDENT SUCCESS |
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COMMUNITY |
Center our faculty and student research agendas in the needs and interests of community members in rural eastern NC–particularly in our program’s priority rural populations (military/veterans, people with disabilities, LGBTQ+, and racial/ethnic minorities). |
Integrate community-based service learning throughout the experience of the curriculum to enhance the relevance and practicality of course objectives. |
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GROWTH |
Connect program activities to the development of a culturally competent and trauma-informed public health workforce in rural eastern NC. |
Develop a range of supports for recruitment, retention, and personal growth to create a sense of belonging for a diverse student body. |
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CONFIDENCE |
Enhance our credibility as partners in health through colearning relationships with agency partners, precepting organizations, and local communities. |
Challenge students with active learning and authentic active assessments that invite students to take meaningful risks and expose students to the cyclical and iterative nature of community-based work. |
Purpose
The Master of Science in Public Health at Campbell University program has as its purpose the development of health professionals who are equipped with the necessary skills to combat health disparities and who have cultivated the humble service disposition required for meaningful collaborative work in rural communities. This two-fold expectation of the educative value of the MSPH program unites Campbell University’s commitment to academic excellence, while also underscoring the university’s fundamental commitments to “moral courage, social sensitivity, and ethical responsibility.” Furthermore, the complex biological, psychological, and social factors that combine to shape the health of communities provide students with an incomparably valuable subject with which to apply our university’s missional obligation to encourage “students to think critically and creatively” and to prepare students to fulfill the roles of “servant leaders.”