COVID-19 PANDEMIC UPDATE: This program is offered completely online. All courses are offered online. Students are not required to come to campus for any course in any trimester.
Population health is an emerging field that considers and addresses both health improvements and the elimination of disparities. The Master of Science in Health Promotion will prepare you to play a critical role in this movement and enable you to contribute to the national transformation from disease-focused health care to a wellness-based model predicated on prevention and education. This innovative program will offer you a deep understanding of the theoretical and practical applications of health promotion. MUIH’s program is the only graduate degree in health promotion with an integrative health focus. It features distinctive integrative health-based coursework focused on practices such as mindfulness, movement/physical activity, meditation, healing presence, herbalism and holistic nutrition that are not found in other master’s degrees in health promotion. You learn about the interaction among the psychological, social, and environmental factors affecting health, and design programs to address health from a holistic perspective in both community and workplace settings. In this master’s degree you will learn how to encourage individuals to make positive lifestyle choices and create sustainable behavior changes within the community and within organizations. Depending on your primary career interest, you can choose an area of concentration in either community health education or workplace wellness. This 35-credit online program can be completed 2 years (6 trimesters).
The Master of Science in Health Promotion is designed for individuals who wish to lead, develop, implement, and manage integrative health and wellness programs targeting current health issues. They lead programs in community settings, workplaces, schools and organizations. Their focus in on factors that actively promote health in a more global or holistic sense, in stark contrast to medicine’s primary focus on treating disease.
This program features distinctive integrative health-based coursework focused on practices such as mindfulness, movement/physical activity, and integrative and functional nutrition. It prepares graduates to create programs and interventions that will support health behavior change and health maintenance. It includes a broad and inclusive understanding of integrative health practices, an evidence-based understanding of traditional, complementary, and conventional medicine, as well as self-care practices. The expert faculty that teach and mentor students are leaders and practitioners in the fields of community health education, workplace wellness and integrative health. Students will select one of the following areas of concentration: community health education or workplace wellness.
Community Health Education
Health educators work with groups, organizations, and communities to assess their health challenges and needs and then create and evaluate programs and interventions. These professionals often direct and manage projects and programs, consult with organizations and health departments, give public presentations, write articles and books on a variety of health topics, facilitate workshops and serve as faculty in higher education. Health educators may also specialize in working with specific populations, such as the youth or the elderly, or focus their work on specific chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease, or obesity.
Workplace Wellness
A workplace wellness program is an employment-based activity or employer-sponsored benefit designed to promote health-related behaviors and disease management. These programs are becoming increasingly common, and frequently use health professionals to target and incentivize behavior shifts toward exercise, smoking cessation, stress reduction, and weight loss. Organizations are very interested in these shifts because they see the potential to increase employee production and morale and decrease healthcare costs. The workplace wellness area of concentration allows students to build core competencies around program needs assessment, development, and evaluation, and then focus specifically on the workplace setting for health promotion activities. These competencies and the foundational knowledge of integrative health practices provide MUIH graduates with a competitive advantage in a rapidly growing field.
Can’t decide whether health promotion or health and wellness coaching is the program for you? Review this comparative summary to learn more about these professions.
Students who complete the Master of Science in Health Promotion with the area of concentration in community health education or workplace wellness will be able to:
The program consists of 23 core credits in health promotion and an additional 12 credits specific to the chosen area of concentration.
Core Credits
There are 23 credits of the following required courses for both the community health education and workplace wellness areas of concentration:
Community Health Education Area of Concentration
There are 6 credits of required courses and 6 credits of elective courses in the community health education area of concentration.
Required courses:
A total of six credits chosen from the following (elective offerings vary by trimester):
Workplace Wellness Area of Concentration
There are 6 credits of required courses and 6 credits of elective courses in the workplace wellness area of concentration.
Required courses:
A total of six credits chosen from the following (elective offerings vary by trimester):
Course descriptions are available in the Academic Catalog.
88% of recent graduates of MUIH’s M.S. Health Promotion program were employed or self-employed within one year of graduation. Graduates of MUIH’s health promotion programs are employed in a variety of settings health care systems; hospitals; community, non-profit, and outreach organizations; local, state, and federal health departments and agencies; school systems; wellness
centers; human resources and workplace wellness units within businesses; workplace wellness consulting organizations; and colleges and universities. Many graduates chose to have a portfolio career in which they have multiple positions and employers within one or more profession, rather than one full-time job. A portfolio career provides such individuals with variety in their work life and the opportunity to develop a wide and varied professional network.
The increasing impact of the relative degrees of wellness and disease on public health, society, communities, organizations, and economies has led to a need for well-educated professionals in the field of health promotion. The health-improving and cost-saving impact that these professionals can have will be increasingly important in the changing world of public health, healthcare, and workplaces. The U.S. Department of Labor projects a much faster than average growth rate (11%) for health educators for the period 2018-2028.
This program is offered in the online format. Click here to view MUIH’s definition of online, hybrid, and on-campus course and program formats.
For trimester start and end dates, see the Academic Calendar.
Trimester 1
Trimester 2
Trimester 3
Trimester 4
Trimester 5
Trimester 6
Trimester 1
Trimester 2
Trimester 3
Trimester 4
Trimester 5
Trimester 6
Graduates of the Master of Science in Health Promotion will meet the eligibility requirements to take the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing’s Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) exam. Interested individuals are encouraged to check for the most recent requirements and for more information contact the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing at nchec.org/ches.
Trimester of Entry: | Fall |
Application Priority Deadline: | Application deadline by Trimester |
General Requirements: |
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Program Specific Requirements: | Complete Essay Questions in application:
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Claudia Joy Wingo, M.P.H.
Department Chair
Suzanne Zolnick, M.A.S.
Department Manager
Melissa Huselton,
Academic Advisor