Education

Education

The Center teaches courses that bring together insights from many disciplines, and encourages research and engagement projects aimed at solving real-world health problems, from the local to the global level.

Pitchfork Approach to Education

The Center teaches courses that bring together insights from many disciplines and encourages research and engagement projects aimed at solving real-world health problems, from the local to the global level. The Center believes that the use of a Pitchfork (three-prong) approach to evolutionary medicine education – with university curriculum, continuing professional education, and massive open online courses – maximizes the opportunities for impacting health. It situates the Center at the forefront of three major audiences in health science: academia, health care professionals, and the general public.

university curriculum

Certificate in Evolutionary Medicine

The currently proposed undergraduate and graduate certificates in Evolutionary Medicine teach students to use evolutionary medicine as a foundation for approaching problems within fields like public health, medicine, anthropology, and evolutionary biology.

For those who plan on moving into careers involving medicine or public policy, they will gain an understanding of how evolutionary thinking influences medical and public health interventions. Students will set themselves apart from their peers by asking better and different questions about today's and future health challenges.

Explore our courses Explore our certificate


Distribution of student majors in flagship core class for evolutionary medicine certificate (Spring 2018-Spring 2019)

massive open online course

Public-facing Education

The Center for Evolution and Medicine at Arizona State University will be the first to offer an evolutionary medicine course on the Coursera public platform. A Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) removes barriers of entry by allowing individuals, including those with financial limitations, the ability to take coursework in evolutionary medicine training without having to enroll in full-time study at the university. The Center believes the impact of evolutionary medicine education can only be actualized if it is accessible globally.

continuing professional education

Continuing Professional Development

The creation of Continuing Professional Education (CPE) courses through Arizona State University's CPE platform allows the Center to create targeted classes aimed at health professionals in various areas and will be tailored to those distinct specialties. The program will leverage ASU's developing the continuing medical education credit (CME) capabilities.

The Center also aims to host on-ground, in-person professional education courses that allow local medical professionals to attend for CME credit, and also network closely with our faculty and researchers.

Mentorship

Education is not simply the product of the classroom but also takes place through undergraduate, post-baccalaureate, graduate, medical, and postdoctoral mentorship. CEM faculty are committed to training the next generation of evolutionary medicine scientists.