Your browser is unsupported

We recommend using the latest version of IE11, Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari.

Next information sessions

Nov 12 2025
MHA Info Session: Application Workshop
Wednesday, 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Nov 13 2025
SPH Graduate Programs Information Sessions
Thursday, 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Zoom
Nov 18 2025
SPH Undergraduate Programs Information Session
Tuesday, 4:00 pm - 4:30 pm
Zoom
Nov 20 2025
EOHS Virtual Fair Express - November 2025
Thursday, 12:00 pm - 12:45 pm
View More

Public health degree programs

Centered in the nation's largest urban medical district, our work starts at home in Chicago neighborhoods. Across numerous CDC, NIH and World Health Organization projects and global collaboration spanning 65 countries, our mission remains the same: to confront and mitigate social, economic and political barriers to health through research, teaching, service, and practice.
An aerial view of the Illinois Medical District, with the Chicago skyline and Lake Michigan in the background.

Our latest efforts

Collage of 40 under 40 honoree headshots
Five UIC SPH Students and Alumni Named '40 Under 40'
Wednesday, November 5, 2025
UIC SPH is proud to celebrate five students and alumni being named to the de Beaumont Foundation’s 40 Under 40 in Public Health list. The award recognizes leaders who are advancing health equity, driving innovation, and strengthening communities.
APHA Logo with tagline
Meet SPH’s 2025 APHA Presenters and Awardees
Thursday, October 23, 2025
SPH is proud to be leading 41 presentations, panels, discussions, and awards at the nation's preeminent public health conference, APHA, in Washington, DC.
Group of people stand in front of a National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey mobile truck
Behind the Data: UIC Tours NHANES Mobile Centers
Thursday, October 9, 2025
For 10 weeks, the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) mobile examination center set up in the Illinois Medical District. UIC SPH was able to tour the center and learn about the tests behind this publicly available health data.
An underpass on Chicago's south side contains a mural showing a wide variety of people, with differences in age, size and ethnicities.

Democratizing population health data

We believe citizens should play an active role in improving the public health of their own neighborhoods and communities. SPH's PHAME Center is strengthening access to timely, detailed and understandable health data.

Advancing health justice

All people should have the power and resources to have agency over their health, which requires addressing systems of oppression such as classism, racism, sexism and xenophobia.

Public health isn't an action performed on others

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the need for citizens to be collaborators in public health. We're building capacity for citizen scientists as researchers and contact tracers.

SPH Alum Leads Mile Square Health Center

Karriem Watson, DHSc, MS, MPH ’10, former SPH research assistant professor, has been named the new executive director of UI Health Mile Square Health Center. With previous national experience at the National Institutes of Health and 15+ years of local experience as a community-engaged research scientist and Associate Executive Director at Mile Square Health Center FQHC network, Dr. Watson brings an insightful blend of knowledge to the role.

Read the Announcement

Global health

SPH students, faculty and staff are collaborating in 65 countries around the world. Our global health concentration builds on-the-ground experience for MPH and MS students, and our bidirectional emphasis is strengthening training of public health leaders in other nations, notably Indonesia, Cuba and Mexico.
A health screener meets with a female worker in Kisumu to talk about personal health outcomes.
A streetscape in Cuernavaca, Mexico
An artisanal gold miner sifts through silt combined with mercury as part of a gold mining process.
MPH student Colin Hendrickson poses for a photo holding up two vials of water at a water purification station in Kenya.

SPH Program in Kenya

SPH students travel to Kisumu City each year, working with community partners on HIV/AIDS interventions, sexual and reproductive health, safe water access, interpersonal violence, tobacco cessation and LGBTQ health.

Learn More About SPH Program in Kenya

SPH Program in Mexico

In partnership with Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública, SPH students travel to Cuernavaca, capital of Morelos state, to work with community partners addressing community health challenges in the region and country.

Learn More About SPH Program in Mexico

World Health Organization Collaborating Center

SPH's World Health Organization Collaborating Center focuses primarily on occupational and environmental health and is a global leader in training occupational health practitioners to address the health and safety needs of informal workers around the world.

Learn More About World Health Organization Collaborating Center

Global Health Research Portfolio

SPH leads the way in developing and testing interventions and programs to investigate causes of disease, improve health and deliver acceptable, feasible and affordable services. Underlying our efforts, we prioritize equity, compassion and idealism as we address health equities and human rights worldwide.

Learn More About Global Health Research Portfolio

Making the Places We Live and Work Healthy

At SPH, we are committed to strengthening environmental health, which includes the principle that all people should be protected from environmental pollution and have the right to a clean and healthy environment. This means that everyone who is able should have safe and healthy workplaces, free of hazards and harms that put health at risk, and that everyone can be healthier when we address the impacts of extreme weather, particularly air and water quality.
An SPH water quality expert holds up a bottle of water holding a sample of Lake Michigan water to be tested for bacteria.
Cars travel down Hasted street at night past UIC's campus.

Take the next step

Home page image credits include:

Richard Hurd © Creative Commons
Peter Dahlgren © Creative Commons
Randy von Liski © Creative Commons