Introduction

Please click here to see Communication Department information.

The Graduate Certificate in Health Communication (CHC) offers learners the opportunity to acquire and demonstrate expertise in health communication. The certificate program will provide students with a theoretically rich and practically relevant education in how health messages are generated, negotiated, assessed, and understood across a wide range of communication contexts, spanning intrapersonal communication to digital and mass media.

The Graduate Certificate in Health Communication seeks to impart the knowledge and skills necessary for creating, analyzing, and assessing health communication in a diverse and global world, where health occupies an increasingly prominent portion of our public life. Specifically, students in our program will be able to:

1. Utilize health communication concepts and theories to solve problems in professional, personal, and community/civic life.
2. Select and use appropriate methods to collect, analyze, and interpret data to answer health communication research questions.
3. Develop ethical and effective health communication messages and campaigns; orally, in writing, and across digital platforms.
4. Identify, critique, and evaluate research from across major areas of health communication research.

Application Procedures and Additional Information

• Students should declare interest in completing the Graduate Certificate in Health Communication by emailing Dr. Tamara Powell at tamara.powell@ucdenver.edu.

• Students who intend to complete the Graduate Certificate in Health Communication must apply here. There is no application fee for currently enrolled students. 

• After completion of the required courses, students must submit the Graduate Certificate Completion Form to Dr. Tamara Powell. Once confirmed, no physical certificate will be mailed to you, but it will be noted on your final transcript.

Additional information about the Graduate Certificate in Health Communication may be obtained from Dr. Tamara Powell, Department of Communication, Student Commons Building, 1201 Larimer Street, Suite 3311, 303-315-0310, tamara.powell@ucdenver.edu.

These program requirements are subject to periodic revision by the academic department, and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences reserves the right to make exceptions and substitutions as judged necessary in individual cases. Therefore, the College strongly urges students to consult regularly with their Health Communication advisor to confirm the best plans of study before finalizing them.

Graduate Education Policies and Procedures apply to this program.

Certificate Requirements

1. Students must complete a minimum of 12 credits from approved courses.
2. Students must complete all courses at the graduate level (5000 or above).
3. Students must earn a minimum grade of B (3.0) in all courses applied to the certificate and must achieve a minimum cumulative certificate GPA of 3.0. Courses taken using P+/P/F or S/U grading cannot apply to certificate requirements.
4. All of the credit hours for the certificate must be earned from faculty at the University of Colorado Denver.

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
Complete the following required courses:		6
COMM 5500	Health Communication
COMM 5575	Designing Health Messages
Complete one of the following Research Methods Courses:		3
COMM 5221	Research Methods: Qualitative
HBSC 7041	Research Design and Methods in the Health and Behavioral Sciences I
HBSC 7051	Qualitative Research Design and Methods
HBSC 7061	Quantitative Methods in the Health and Behavioral Sciences
HBSC 7161	Quantitative Methods in Health&Behavioral Sciences II
SOCY 5024	Seminar: Research Methods I
SOCY 5183	Seminar: Quantitative Data Analysis
SOCY 5193	Seminar: Qualitative Data Analysis
Other research methods classes may be approved by the certificate advisor.
Complete three credit hours from the following Health Communication or Interdisciplinary Health Elective courses:		3
ANTH 5290	Anthropology and Public Health
ANTH 5600	Medical Anthropology
ANTH 5800	Special Topics in Medical Anthropology
COMM 5000	Communication and Sport
COMM 5051	Advanced Strategic Communication
COMM 5240	Organizational Communication
COMM 5282	Environmental Communication
COMM 5550	Rhetorics of Medicine & Health
COMM 5557	Crisis and Emergency Communication
COMM 5558	Digital Health Narratives
COMM 5601	You Are What You Eat: Food as Communication
COMM 5840	Independent Study
COMM 5880	Directed Research
COMM 5939	Internship
ENGL 5745	Humanistic Writing About Medicine and Biology
HBSC 7031	Human Ecology and Environmental Adaptation
HBSC 7071	Social and Behavioral Perspectives in Population Health
PHIL/HUMN/SSCI 5242	Medicine, Health Care, and Justice: Bioethics
PHIL 5430	How to think green: Environmental Ethics
RLST 5460	Death and Concepts of Afterlife
SOCY 5050	Health Disparities
SOCY 5110	Sociology of Health Care
SOCY/WGST 5270	Socl Meanings of Reproduction
SOCY 5650	Sociology of Adulthood and Aging
Other interdisciplinary health elective classes may be approved by the certificate advisor.
Total Hours		12

To learn more about the Student Learning Outcomes for this program, please visit our website.