Public health genetics focuses on phenotypic disease prevention in populations, not just individual patients and their families. It addresses society's legal, ethical, financial, regulatory, and organizational responsibilities in offering genetic services, and devising environmental and occupational interventions to prevent disease in populations.

Graduates will be able to:

  • Demonstrate essential competencies of public health disciplines, especially use of genetic principles, in a public health practice setting.
  • Apply and communicate knowledge of inheritance, including basic cellular and molecular mechanisms, and risk factors for disease to understanding a variety of rare and common health conditions.
  • Identify interactions among genes, environmental factors, and behaviors and their effects on public health
  • Evaluate how genetic principles/technologies apply to diagnosis, screening, and interventions for disease prevention and health promotion programs, and how they intersect with other public health disciplines.