Description of Public Health Careers

What is a Public Health Career?

Public health professionals are employed in a variety of settings including government federal, state and local public health and human services agencies; community-based and non-profit organizations, public and private health care institutions, and universities.

Individuals who work in public health are often interested in working with particular groups of people, focusing on prevention of specific diseases, or addressing a specific health behavior.

For example, some public health professionals are interested in the prevention of chronic diseases such as diabetes or infectious diseases like HIV-AIDS. Others are interested in vaccine preventable diseases, like measles. Some professionals enjoying working with a particular population - or group of people - like the elderly, mothers and children, or even specific racial and ethnic groups, like Latinos.

Some professionals choose to focus on a "health behavior" area like injury and violence prevention, or promoting physical activity. There is room for almost any special interest in public health. The common bond among public health professionals is a focus on prevention, and an emphasis on looking at a community - or a population - as a whole, instead of providing one-on-one direct service.

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