- Diversity, equity and inclusion among our faculty, staff and students
- Being accountable and responsible to the communities we serve
- The belief that all people should be treated with civility, dignity and respect
- High standards of excellence, professional ethics and personal integrity in all that we do
- Being anti-racist and disrupting discrimination and oppression when they appear
- A student-centered environment that provides an unsurpassed educational experience with accessible, top-quality faculty and staff
About UNC Gillings
We’re Gillings. We’re On It.
At the University of North Carolina’s Gillings School of Global Public Health, we’re a community impatient for change. Big problems require big solutions, and we believe we can make a world of difference for communities facing public health challenges ranging from poor water quality to disease epidemics to systemic racism.
As the No. 1-ranked public school of public health and No. 2 overall,1 the UNC Gillings School has all the advantages of a large, top-tier university while retaining a small-school feel and an open-door culture.
MPH@UNC, our online Master of Public Health (MPH) program, makes our world-class teaching, pioneering research and experiential learning opportunities available to current and aspiring public health professionals around the world.
Advancing health for all isn’t optional — it’s the fight of our lives.
Our Mission and Values
Our mission is to improve public health, promote individual well-being and eliminate health inequities across North Carolina and around the world.
Our program of collaborative teaching, research and service is designed to support a diverse and inclusive anti-racist community prepared to eliminate 21st-century health inequities.
The work we do is guided by strongly held values. We are committed to the following:
Commitment to Anti-Racism and Inclusive Excellence
The American Public Health Association (APHA) recognizes racism as a public health crisis,2 and we couldn’t agree more.
Gillings has been working toward fostering an inclusive environment since the School was established in 1940, and diversity and inclusion are infused into our research priorities, curricula, student organizations and activities, community partnerships and recruiting efforts.
Learn more about how Gillings is working to eliminate inequities and tackle racism at home and abroad:
Office of Inclusive Excellence
The office provides educational trainings, broadens access to underserved populations and critically examines exclusionary policies and practices.
Inclusive Excellence Action Plan
Read through the current iteration of this living document that maps out how the Gillings community is fostering sustained equity and inclusion.
Started in 1977, this annual student-led health conference raises awareness about health inequities and acts as a catalyst for change.
The Global — and Local — Gillings Community
The Gillings community of practical idealists spans not only all 100 counties in North Carolina, but across 60 countries and six continents. A joint local and global focus is woven throughout all research, teaching and practice activities at the Gillings School.
Get to know some of our people and the influential work they’re doing in communities around the world:
- See how students participate in experiential learning opportunities in North Carolina, across the United States and around the world through the Gillings MPH practicum.
- Read about our MPH@UNC students actively serving in local and global communities, from advocating for health equity in Rockland County, N.Y., to deploying to Wuhan, China, during the pandemic.
- Explore The Pivot, a series of interviews with students, faculty and alumni about their work in public health and how they pivoted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Meet our alumni, who hold influential positions in the U.S. and internationally at academic institutions, government agencies, NGOs, health ministries and more.
Let’s Get to Work
To learn more about MPH@UNC, request information
and an admissions counselor will contact you.
1 Best Public Health Schools, U.S. News and World Report. Retrieved 2024.
2 Racism and Health, American Public Health Association. Retrieved May 2021.