What is Public Health?

While the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted one very specific aspect of public health, it is so much more than that. Public Health is clean water, worker health, bicycle safety, and…well…watch this video featuring some of our students and you’ll get the idea.


Public health is the science of preventing disease and promoting the health of communities.

Public health is all around us.

Public health is the clean air we breathe and the clean water we drink.

It is the policies we pass to keep us healthy.

Public health is building sidewalks to keep us safe while we exercise.

It is vaccinations, and it is educating our communities about the best health practices to prevent disease.

Public health is working to ensure everyone has access to healthy food.

Public health is the people and workers in your community and the world who work tirelessly to make all these things possible, and you can be part of it.

Public health professionals use specialized knowledge and skills to better understand the root causes of diseases and injuries and, whenever possible, develop strategies to prevent them.

Public health is a collaborative, diverse field that attracts people who want to improve human health by applying skills from areas such as behavioral and social science, environmental science, math and statistics, laboratory science, and policy development.