Aug 25, 2025  
2025-2026 Franklin & Marshall College Catalog 
  
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2025-2026 Franklin & Marshall College Catalog

Public Health Major (Biology Track)

Public Health is an interdisciplinary major that offers a core program of study, and a selection of concentration tracks in Biology, Government, or Sociology. Students in our courses study the health of communities and how it can be affected by community-based action. We study the burden of disease, the principles and history of public health and how to measure health, health in the context of human rights, how to measure and improve health systems, the influence of culture on health, and the organizational actors in local, national, and global public health. We draw on the science underlying health in human communities and examine the use of such knowledge in a political arena that is central to getting things done.

The mission of the Public Health major is to educate F&M students in public health from the perspective of the liberal arts, with particular attention to the analysis of public health problems from multiple perspectives and with tools from multiple disciplines and with emphasis on theory and history. Public health is linked to the formulation and implementation of public policy, thus connecting natural and social sciences and government at its core. Public health incorporates an international perspective. We encourage and guide students to ask broad questions of meaning, to challenge assumptions and structures, to ponder ethical questions, to evaluate the effectiveness of solutions to problems, and to develop a deep moral intelligence surrounding public health.

Public Health Program Faculty

Professor Emily Marshall, Chair
 

Members of the Public Health Program Committee

Kirk Miller
B.F. Fackenthal, Jr. Professor of Biology

Marco Di Giulio
Professor of Hebrew Language and Literature

Clara S. Moore
Professor of Biology

David Ciuk
Associate Professor of Government

Biko Koenig
Associate Professor of Government

Ryan Lacy
Associate Professor of Psychology

Emily Marshall
Associate Professor of Sociology and Public Health

Ashley Rondini
Associate Professor of Sociology

Amy Singer
Associate Professor of Sociology

Zohra Ansari-Thomas
Assistant Professor of Sociology and Public Health

Hollie Tripp
Assistant Professor of Government and Public Health

Christina L. Abbott
Teaching Professor of Psychology

Stephanie Stoehr
Biosafety Officer and Teaching Professor of Biology

Nicholas Bonneau
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Public Health

Heather Hoffmann
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Public Health

Additional faculty not on the program committee also contribute to this program.

Major Requirements:

The program offers a common set of seven core courses for all public health majors, and additional courses in one of three concentration tracks.

Public Health Core:

Biology Track:

Note:

Some additional PBH cross-listed offerings may substitute for requirements in the tracks; consult with your adviser or the chair of the Public Health program. Other statistics courses for the public health major to substitute for BIO 210  include MAT 216 , BOS 250 , or PSY 300  (formerly PSY 230).

Off-Campus Study

Public Health majors, with careful planning in discussion with their advisors, often study abroad or off-campus. The off-campus study programs most frequently attended by students majoring in Public Health are:

School for International Training (SIT)

Danish Institute for Study Abroad/Institute for Study Abroad (DIS)

Institute for Study Abroad (IFSA)

Public Health Program Courses