Bria Dunham

Department of Health Sciences

Boston University

 

Baccalaureate public health programs in the United States have rapidly proliferated under a cluster of program titles including health science, global health, community health, and more. At the undergraduate level, public health programs are highly diverse in size, scope, and articulation with larger schools of medicine or public health. Within these diverse contexts, baccalaureate public health programs present distinct opportunities for scholars of evolutionary medicine to contribute to the early training of future practitioners who will embark upon careers in many different health-related fields. By integrating an ecological and evolutionary view of health within comparatively more flexible baccalaureate curricula, evolutionary scholars can chart an alternate and complementary path to enhancing future practitioner knowledge despite obstacles to increasing the evolutionary content taught in medical schools or graduate programs in public health. Drawing from personal experience teaching within two baccalaureate global health programs, this presentation will highlight specific opportunities for integrating evolutionary perspectives within a liberal arts context, within a pre-professional context, through interdisciplinary collaboration, and in consideration of CEPH accreditation requirements.