Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior is an interdisciplinary field of study that can be described as the science and art of improving the public’s health through application of the social and behavioral sciences.
Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior (HPEB) professionals are concerned with improving the public’s health through use of the social and behavioral sciences. Knowledge, theories, methods and skills are used to address learning, motivation and behavior change at all levels; policy development and implementation; and program planning, implementation and evaluation.
HPEB is committed to training individuals to function in leadership roles in improving health at the individual, group, institutional, community, state and national levels. Professional preparation in HPEB includes knowledge, theories, methods and skills that address learning, motivation and behavior change at all levels; policy development and implementation; and program planning, implementation and evaluation.
Career opportunities exist in federal, state and local health departments; managed care organizations; hospitals and physicians’ offices; corporate wellness centers; community-based organizations; school districts; colleges and universities; and international organizations. Jobs in the field include district director of health education, community health educator, behavioral scientist, health communications specialist, public health educator, health promotion consultant, school health coordinator, health scientist, teacher, professor of health education and behavior, and program evaluation director.
In addition to an undergraduate minor, we offer four advanced degrees related to health promotion, education and behavior as well as three graduate certificate programs. Each graduate degree and certificate has specific application deadlines and requirements.
Are you an undergraduate student interested in doing research with an HPEB faculty member? Fill out this contact form for more information.
Suzanne (Young) Hunt, a 2014 graduate of the Master of Public Health in Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior program, has been named the 2019 Emerging Wellness Professional by the National Wellness Institute.
Though HPEB assistant professor Donaldson Conserve’s Arnold School students have been contributing to his STEP Project from UofSC’s campus, he wanted to provide an opportunity for them to engage in the project in Tanzania.
Four years in, the South Carolina SmartState Center for Healthcare Quality continues to raise the bar on its various training efforts for students, particularly its postdoctoral fellows program. Since 2015, eight postdoctoral fellows have become faculty members at academic institutions in South Carolina and beyond.
Bridgewater, Virginia native, Jacqueline Knight Knight Wilt, was already halfway to a career in public health when she was undergrad at James Madison University – she just didn’t know it yet. Knight Wilt was majoring in psychology and minoring at substance abuse intervention when she first encountered the field.
The Arnold School has a long history of conducting research to help improve physical and mental health outcomes for vulnerable populations. The HIV epidemic, for example, is addressed by scientists from a variety of angles and perspectives.
The CDC has announced recipients of the 2019-2024 funding cycle for the Prevention Research Center network. UofSC was among the 25 academic institutions to receive the grants, which provide funding support to conduct applied public health prevention research.