Degrees and Programs

Cargo freighter

Community Health Sciences

The Department of Community Health Sciences is the academic department within the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health concerned with social and behavioral research applied to health, health promotion, and public health practice. Their focus is on programs, policies, and actions that can promote health in the context of social, cultural, political, economic, and environmental factors.

For more information about the department, visit: https://chs.ph.ucla.edu/

Epidemiology

The Department of Epidemiology in the UCLA Fielding School of Public Healthplays a strong role in addressing environmental and occupational effects through research, educational and training efforts. With strong research in injury epidemiology, occupational and environmental epidemiology, molecular and genetic epidemiology, and reproductive and developmental epidemiology, the epidemiology faculty are strong contributors to the work of the UCLA COEH. The main research areas being addressed by the Department of Epidemiology in connection with the COEH are Parkinson’s Disease and Pesticide Exposure, Air Pollution & Goods Movement, and Ergonomics.

For more information about the department, visit: http://epi.ph.ucla.edu/

Environmental Health Sciences

The UCLA COEH’s home department is the Department of Environmental Health Sciences in the Fielding School of Public Health, overseen by Rachael Jones, PhD, CIH, Department Chair, SCERC Director and COEH Director.

The EHS department’s faculty address issues of environmental and occupational health through their research and teaching, in fields such as environmental chemistry, toxicology, industrial hygiene, air pollution, built environment, water quality, psychosocial factors in the workplace, chemical and molecular toxicology and exposure assessment in occupational and environmental health. EHS training develops leaders in environmental and occupational health that go on to work in government, non-profit and private sectors.

For more information about the department, visit: http://ehs.ph.ucla.edu/

Family Medicine

The UCLA Department of Family Medicine, consistent with the tripartite mission of the David Geffen School of Medicine, provides patient care, medical education and research, seeks to improve the health and health care of families and communities in the Los Angeles metropolitan area through the provision of cost effective, accessible, high quality medical care for all. Further, they sponsor an extensive medical education program for medical students, family medicine residents, fellows and other trainees. Finally, our research division addresses the intercept between academia and community through a focus on vulnerable, elderly and underserved populations.

For more information about the department, visit: https://www.uclahealth.org/Family-Medicine/default.cfm

Industrial Hygiene

The primary academic objective of the UCLA Industrial Hygiene Program (IHP) is the training of professional and research industrial hygienists at the Master and Doctoral levels. Industrial hygienists are environmental specialists concerned with the anticipation, recognition, identification, evaluation, control, and prevention of worker exposures. The exposures may involve: chemical agents such as flammable and explosive gases, vapors and aerosols; physical stresses like heat, cold, noise, and radiation; biological agents like anthrax and bioaerosols; mechanical stresses like falling objects that might disable  or blind; psychosocial effects like  poor worker-management relations that may limit worker productivity and comfort; and ergonomic effects like lower back pain caused by carrying heavy objects, or carpal tunnel syndrome in fingers caused by repetitive motion associated with a job segment; and total worker health that explores how work affects the non-workplace environment and vice versa.

For more information about the program, visit: https://ehs.ph.ucla.edu/pages/industrial_hygiene

Molecular Toxicology

The thirty faculty in this interdepartmental program come from sixteen different departments in the Geffen School of Medicine, the Fielding School of Public Health and the College of Letters and Science at UCLA. Faculty members also participate in the activities of the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. A major advantage of UCLA is that the above entities are all in close proximity to one another on campus, providing students with a wide range of educational and research opportunities. Areas of particular strength in the program include chemical carcinogenesis, repair of DNA damage, air pollution toxicology, nanotoxicology, and the environmental causation of Parkinson’s disease. The program is supported by a training grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS).

For more information about the program, visit: http://moltox.ph.ucla.edu/

Occupational Health Nursing

The UCLA School of Nursing offers a two-year course of graduate study leading to the Master of Science in Nursing (M.S.N.). The curriculum is designed for students to obtain theoretical and practical knowledge of the foundations for specialized practice in Occupational and Environmental Health, as well as an opportunity to implement that knowledge through advanced clinical practice.

The research and program within the School of Nursing have been led by the efforts of Dr. Wendie A. Robbins and ranges from training to prepare advanced practice nurses for leadership roles in occupational health and safety to conducting research on the potentially toxic reproductive effects of certain environmental exposures.

For more information visit: https://erc.ucla.edu/occupational-health-nursing-2/

Occupational Medicine

Training in Occupational Medicine is offered through the Southern California Education and Research Center (SCERC). The SCERC is administratively housed in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences in the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. The Center supports graduate degree programs in Occupational Medicine at UC Irvine, and Occupational Health Nursing and Industrial Hygiene at UCLA. For these programs the Center provides student support (fees and stipends for US citizens or permanent residents) and infrastructure support.

For more information, visit: https://erc.ucla.edu/omuci/