Focus on the protection and improvement of health for individuals, communities and populations at risk for injury and disease through interdisciplinary study.
Public health prioritizes a focus on the protection and improvement of health for individuals, communities and populations at risk for injury and disease. Muhlenberg's Public Health program includes study in the natural sciences, mathematics, social sciences and humanities to educate and empower students about health-related issues from varying points of view.
Students who major in public health will gain an understanding of behavioral, economic, historical, political and social determinants of health, and of the important relationships that statistics and science have on the design of public health interventions. A core class, Issues in Public Health, introduces students to a wide variety of public health topics and includes historical perspectives, epidemiological principles and health intervention practices, health promotion and health communication and global issues of health.
The major prepares students for graduate work and professional careers in public health. Students are encouraged to participate in public health-related experiences including independent research study, service learning or internships. The minor offers students the flexibility to choose electives appropriate to their interests in public health that also complement their respective majors.
The public health faculty are active in community-engaged scholarship and draw from a wide range of disciplines.
Public health students have opportunities to conduct research and pursue internships to gain invaluable field experience before graduation.
Muhlenberg's public health students have gone on to graduate study at prestigious institutions and have secured jobs within healthcare, research, nonprofits, government and more.
Public Health at Muhlenberg
“Under pressure, I had to think critically, make rapid decisions and coordinate multiple teams and resources. For the first time, I was able to apply these skills beyond a training environment.”— Gabe Kanter-Goodell '25 , Public Health Major
“I think the opportunity to study public health in undergrad at a liberal arts school is still rare... Muhlenberg has really been on the cutting edge.”— Brittany Dube '17 , Specialist at the Department of Health in Stamford, Conn.
“I’m looking to deepen my passion for health and my ability to innovate and problem-solve on the issues that I care about most, which are based in community health and medicine.”— Kevan Shah '22 , Knight-Hennessy Scholar at Stanford University
“The opportunity to take diverse classes played a significant role in helping me narrow down my options to public health and environmental science.”— Christina Dalton '24 , Public Health Major, Environmental Science Minor
Sabeen Safi ’26, a pre-dental public health major, shares her experience of presenting the work she’s done on vaping and the oral microbiome in the lab of Muhlenberg Associate Professor of Biology Giancarlo Cuadra.
Roughly two years after Astbury, a student-athlete on the soccer team, first took part in Major League Baseball’s Take the Field program, she landed a position with the league as a replay administrator.
The 2025 Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion report examines opinions on a variety of Pennsylvania health issues including the perceived quality of health care, safety of immunizations, levels of stress related to politics and current events, and marijuana legalization.
Julia Rocereta ’19, a pharmacology Ph.D. candidate at the University of Pennsylvania, used cryo-electron microscopy to discover how a proposed cardiovascular drug binds to a protein in the heart.
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