Understanding that complex interrelated forces combine to affect people's health and well-being, the students of the Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health conduct, synthesize, and apply service-based research to improve both public health practice and policy. The HDPFH provides students with grounded perspectives, driven by communities' needs and assets, so that together they create solutions to critical public health concerns.

Specializing in one track, (Forced Migration, Global Health, Reproductive and Family Health, and Sexuality and Health) HDPFH students pursue curricula designed to convey essential knowledge – along with key public health competencies – through coursework, practica and internships, and writing to address especially complicated topics, including:

The sexual and reproductive health of individuals across the spectra of gender, sexuality, and age;
The physical and mental health of displaced people living during or following emergencies;
The health and well-being of children and adolescents (including normative development, causes of disease, and the social and
   environmental conditions that place children and adolescents at risk).

The Department emphasizes competency in research and programmatic skills for students in every track (as detailed in its learning objectives). By providing comprehensive training that highlights the importance of balancing research with direct experience, the Department empowers students to build their careers upon solid foundations of Public Health practice and knowledge. Having acquired the skills they need to develop, implement, and evaluate public health interventions in their specialty area, graduates of the Department continue on as effective – and reflective – public health professionals, confident of their abilities to serve as researchers, practitioners, and policy advocates.