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Illinois Public Health Preparedness Center
Penn State Homeland Security

Illinois Public Health Preparedness Center

The following free online courses are now available from the Illinois Public Health Preparedness Center. All courses run in a continuously available, completely online, instructor-led, self-paced format at no cost to registrants. You can visit http://www.uic.edu/sph/prepare and follow instructions on the left to register.

• The Public Health 101 curriculum (PH 411-414) covers the basics of what public health is and how it works and is intended for front line public health workers who have had no previous formal education or training in public health.
• The Bioterrorism Preparedness 101 curriculum (PH 461 and PH 462) addresses public health roles in emergency preparedness and response activities, with an emphasis on bioterrorism preparedness and response. This curriculum also targets front line public heath workers.

There are now nine course series up and running:

• Public Health Practice (PH 410 Series; 7 courses)
• Community Health Assessment (PH 420 Series; 7 courses)
• Public Health Law, Advocacy and Policy Development (PH 430 Series; 7 courses)
• Program Development and Evaluation (PH 440 Series; 7 courses)
• Public Health Administration (PH 450 Series; 7 courses)
• Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response (PH 460 Series; courses)
• Environmental Health (PH 470 Series; 7 courses)
• Applied Epidemiology (PH 490 Series; 6 courses)
• Infectious Disease Preparedness (PH 500 Series; 6 courses)

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Penn State Homeland Security

The three on-line programs are focused in homeland security and disaster management.  

Master of Homeland Security in Public Health Preparedness (http://www.worldcampus.psu.edu/wc/homeland/succeed) is the first master's degree of its kind to focus on public health preparedness.

Certificate in Bioterrorism Preparedness (http://www.worldcampus.psu.edu/wc/homeland2/succeed) is focused in the area of terrorism specific to agricultural safety and biosecurity.

Certificate in Disaster Readiness (http://www.worldcampus.psu.edu/wc/homeland3/succeed)  is designed to improve your understanding of planning and coordination for natural disasters and terrorist attacks.

These programs are available completely online from Penn State 's College of Medicine and include the only homeland security degree offered by a medical school in the United States .  They are designed for professionals in:

Government and Public Health Care--homeland security officials; counterterrorism task force members; federal, state, and local public health care officials; agriculture-related professionals including cooperative extension

First Responders--emergency management agency personnel, fire and rescue team leaders, hazardous material response team members, law enforcement and military personnel including the National Guard

Consultants--training and consulting professionals in the field of health care and homeland security

The curriculum is designed for professionals who protect and serve the local, state, and national interests with respect to the threat of terrorism and natural disaster.

Course topics include:

• Disaster planning and coordination

• Agricultural safety and biosecurity

• Critical infrastructure protection against disaster and terrorist emergencies

• The political, legal, psychological, and social aspects of terrorism and natural disasters

• The principles of hazard analysis and incident management with respect to natural disasters, as well as chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear incidents

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