Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior (HPEB) is an interdisciplinary department that applies the social and behavioral sciences to improve public health.
HPEB conducts innovative research and prepares future leaders to improve public health locally, nationally, and globally. Our faculty and students address how interventions, social context, health care systems, and physical environments influence health behaviors and health status, with an emphasis on disadvantaged populations.
Departmental strengths include:
In addition to an undergraduate minor, we offer four advanced degrees related to health promotion, education and behavior as well as three graduate certificate programs. Each graduate degree and certificate has specific application deadlines and requirements.
Are you an undergraduate student interested in doing research with an HPEB faculty member? Fill out this contact form for more information.
The Office of the Vice President for Research has announced the recipients of the 2025 Advanced Support for Innovative Research Excellence (ASPIRE) and ASPIRE AI awards to fund 27 scholarly projects.
Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior alum (MPH, '94; DrPH, '11) Edena Guimaraes has been a faculty member in the department for nearly a decade and a part of the Consortium for Latino Health for even longer.
Roger Sargent may have a background in biology, but he found his passion in public health. His Ph.D. program first introduced him to the field - a focus on human parasitology that brought him to USC's biology department in 1968.
Salomé-Joëlle Gass (Ph.D. in Health Services Policy and Management student) and Berthe Abi Zeid (Ph.D. in Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior student) have been awarded Trustee Fellowships.
These awards are designed to recognize alumni, faculty, staff and students (graduate and undergraduate) who have made exceptional contributions to advancing access and collective engagement.
Fahmida Akter graduates in May with a Ph.D. in Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior and her priorities clear: a lifelong connection to USC and an unwavering commitment to improving health, particularly for women and children, in low-resource settings.