Academics

This department will contain faculty with a range of expertise including applied science, community-based participatory research, intervention research or health disparities research. Disciplines may be broad including, but not limited to, the fields of environmental and occupational health, environmental justice, industrial/occupational hygiene and safety, water and air quality, climate change and health, food safety, agricultural health, environmental risk assessment, environmental engineering or a closely related field.

Department priorities emphasize health in South Texas and our majority-minority Hispanic city, San Antonio. Through a health equity lens, health disparities in cancer, behavioral health and substance use, diabetes and metabolic disorders, sexual health and infectious diseases are emphasized. Scholarly and programmatic activity on structural and social determinants of health, community-based participatory research, implementation science, structural interventions, evaluation and health communication are encouraged.

The Health Policy and Health Services Administration department will have scholars with interests spanning the full range of issues in health policy; access to and disparities in health care; the economics of health care; health insurance and health care financing; global health; health systems administration at federal, state, county and city levels; health care policies and organization of its services addressing current and emergent health care needs, the needs of an aging population and that of under-represented groups infant and children’s health; women’s health; and Hispanic health.

Disciplines within the department may be broad including but not limited to the fields of health economics, health care management, health services administration, and health policy.

The Quantitative and Qualitative Health Sciences curriculum puts epidemiologic concepts and methods into public health practice, contributes to research studies, and interprets scientific evidence relevant to public health. The curriculum in this department covers a variety of fields of study, including biostatistics, epidemiology, environmental health, and social epidemiology, as well as decision sciences, demography, and program evaluation.
 
Qualitative methodologic interests include narrative inquiry, ethnography, grounded theory, observations, focus groups, and interview data collection. Quantitative interests include longitudinal data analyses, psychometrics, structural equation modeling, causal inference, secondary data analysis, systematic reviews, and data visualization. Mixed methods and evaluation methods are also included.