Commitment to Social Justice & Racial Equity

The UW Master of Community-Oriented Public Health Practice program is committed to training highly skilled public health practitioners who identify, analyze and respond to real-world public health issues through means that promote social justice and racial equity.

We recognize that many forms of oppression, perpetuated by imbalances of power and privilege, undermine health. Societal structures in the United States concentrate wealth, social capital and material resources to the benefit of some, while limiting economic and social mobility for others. This “structural violence” serves those in power.

Through the problem-based learning process and other collaborative endeavors, our program aims to equip graduates to effectively challenge health inequities and other inequality rooted in race, ethnicity, ability, citizenship status, class, gender, national origin, place, religion, sex, sexual orientation and veteran status.

At the same time, we recognize that our program itself exists within oppressive structures. We acknowledge that our faculty and students possess disparate experience with and understanding of oppression and how it affects personal, interpersonal and community health and well-being. Nonetheless, COPHP staff, faculty and students work in solidarity to develop and advance strategies to diminish oppression in the classroom and beyond.