Practice Resources

The SPH Practice Council defines public health practice in SPH, supports and facilitates practice activities within the School and serves as an advisory group to the Dean’s Office, departments, faculty, staff and students on practice issues and opportunities. See SPH Practice Council members. 
 

1. Integrate practice into existing curricula and collaborations.

2. Serve as a resource for practice-based activities across the School.

3. Elevate practice to equal importance relative to research and teaching within SPH.

4. Widen the network of practitioners and organizations serving as long-term research and practice collaborators and training sites for our students.

5. Increase visibility of academic public health practice activities and share our impact through data and examples.

The SPH Office of Public Health Practice (OPHP) was formed to implement recommendations identified by the Practice Council and collaborates with existing SPH and departmental efforts to: 

1. Facilitate practice-based learning and collaborations between students and faculty across SPH and organizations regionally, nationally, and globally; 
2. Serve as a resource for SPH programs providing practice education and applying evidence-based practices to real-world settings; and 
3. Expand opportunities for student training, organizational capacity building, and visibility of public health practice through data and examples. 

Public health practice is manifested in our school through many collaborative experiences between students, faculty, and organizations. More information on these opportunities can be found here. Some degree-oriented opportunities for student practice include:

• Master of Public Health (MPH) Practicum
• Master of Public Health (MPH) and Master of Science (MS) Culminating Experience
• Undergraduate Culminating Experience
• Doctor of Global Health Leadership and Practice (DrGH) Meta Project
• Other graduate and undergraduate field experiences

In 2018, leadership at the University of Washington School of Public Health (UW SPH) and Washington State Department of Health (WA DOH) signed an Academic Health Department charter with the purpose of identifying shared priorities, including student training opportunities, guest lecturing, and joint faculty appointments. This agreement formalizes the relationship and collaboration between UW SPH and WA DOH to form an Academic Health Department, allowing academia and agency to inform each other’s work to better serve the residents of Washington state. 

The specific goals of this Academic Health Department partnership include:

1. Advance public health practice, programs and policies at DOH to better serve the residents of Washington state.
2. Maximize training opportunities for students and DOH staff that advance public health priorities.
3. Assure meaningful linkages and successful collaborations between DOH staff and UW faculty (including student mentors) that fill scholarly academic and public health practice resource needs.
4. Support research and evaluation evidence that advances evidence-based practices and the assurance of an effective public health system.
5. Increase DOH’s ability to recruit and retain skilled professional staff and ensure UW SPH provides a high level of practical relevancy and competence regarding applied public health practice for students and trainees.

External community partners interested in working with us should please email Janice North, SPH manager of experiential learning jlnorth@uw.edu or sphpractice@uw.edu. We are excited to work with new community partners, and would love to connect our faculty and students with you! To learn more about our current partnerships, please visit our partnership organizations finder and our partnership projects finder.