First 2 degree offerings from ASU Health available in fall 2025

The first degree offerings from ASU Health will help students find jobs in the modernized health care system.

The one-year Master of Science in Public Health Technology and the two-year Master of Public Health, both out of ASU’s new School of Technology for Public Health, will be available in the fall of 2025, said Michelle Villegas-Gold, assistant vice president of strategic initiatives at ASU Health.

In the public health technology curricula, students will learn innovative ways to modernize the field of public health by designing new and deploying existing technological solutions.

The Master of Public Health will approach public health and other health fields from the perspective of technology, engineering and design thinking.

"This pioneering school provides a once-in-a-generation opportunity to be at the forefront of addressing major public health challenges ahead with technology solutions," said Dr. Susan Blumenthal, who founded the new field of public health technology and serves as co-chair of the advisory council for ASU's School of Technology for Public Health.

The School of Technology for Public Health will host information sessions about the new graduate degrees at 5 p.m., Dec. 12; noon, Jan. 9; and 5 p.m., Jan. 27. Register here. 

ASU News spoke with Villegas-Gold and Marc Adams, assistant dean of education in the School of Technology for Public Health, about the new degree offerings.

Editor's note: The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Question: Let’s start with the MS in Public Health Technology degree. What is the intent of the degree?

Villegas-Gold: What we find is there are a lot of students who apply for medical school and don’t get in the first time, or medical students who apply for residency and don’t immediately match. We want to provide these people with opportunities that will set them apart and retain them in state as they’re planning to reapply. This will help get more people in Arizona into medical schools and residency programs, increasing the likelihood they will stay and work here. So our hope is this one-year Master of Science degree in Public Health Technology will be really great for those folks who are looking to boost their knowledge and skills and increase their chances of getting into medical school or matching with a residency program in state. 

We also think it will be a great degree for clinicians, medical students and public health officers who want to become innovators but don’t know how because they don’t speak the language of business, or have the basic design, engineering or data science skills.

Q: And what is the focus of the Master of Public Health?

Adams: Because it’s a two-year degree with a concentration in public health technology, it allows students to go a little deeper in public health and technology. They take nine credit hours of electives, which they choose to either go deeper in technology, engineering, design or in public health. So it’s a little bit more robust experience.

Q: What makes these degrees unique?

Villegas-Gold: There are several programs around the country that are starting to incorporate technology into public health education and training. This is the first of its kind, however, that’s truly transdisciplinary, by weaving together elements of technology, engineering and design into the DNA of the public health education. Students in the Master of Science and Public Health Technology program will take engineering and design and artificial intelligence courses that are focused on how to apply these concepts to the field of public health in unique ways. ASU will be the first university in the nation to seek accreditation for a concentration in public health technology within a Master of Public Health program. The goal is to teach the students to be technofluid and bilingual in public health and technology.

Adams: I would add that the intention of both degrees is to basically help modernize the public health ecosystem and infrastructure. We’ve been relying on very old technologies, things in the public health field that have been underfunded chronically for decades. It’s really time to leverage all the advanced technologies that exist.

Q: It seems as if both degrees will attract students who may not have been interested in the public health field before.

Villegas-Gold: I definitely think so. Or students who didn’t see a clear pathway for them to work at the intersection of many of these different fields.

Q: These two degrees are really an extension of the core mission of ASU Health, correct?

Villegas-Gold: Yes. They’re part of our ASU Health ecosystem. The way that we’re measuring our impact for all of these different initiatives within ASU Health is how successful we are at improving the health of Arizonans. If our students are not employable at our public health departments, or if they can’t serve our public health departments — whether that’s through jobs in industry or nonprofits — then we don’t see ourselves as succeeding. So we really want to focus on health equity and how to make accessible and equitable tech- and place-based technologies, understanding that you can’t just throw technology at a problem and expect to solve it. You really have to be intentional about how you’re doing it.

Adams: That’s such an important point because of the digital divide that exists. When you bring up technology, there are inherent biases that we know of. There are disparities in terms of access. So those are all things that we are very much mindful of in the build-out of these two degrees.

Q: Is there anything else prospective students should know about these degrees?

Villegas-Gold: We’ve talked a lot about the engineering and data piece, but there’s also a piece on entrepreneurship and innovation. Really helping students learn how to pitch an idea, how to fundraise, how to take an idea and actualize it, and then turn it into a spinoff company or sell it. I think those are really important skills. Increasingly, there’s less and less traditional funding to support public health. Students are really going to need to learn how to fund these ideas because they may be working more with venture capitalists or philanthropists to get their ideas funded and implemented.

Adams: A great deal of public health is about prevention. So learning how to monetize some of these innovations that our students are going to come up with requires them understanding the entrepreneur, the entrepreneurial methods and approaches to getting their ideas funded.