(Note for Prospective Applicants: Beginning in the Fall 2012, the School is moving to a new Certificate program with more than 20 offerings including: Child, Youth, and Family Health; Public Health and Humanitarian Assistance; Global Health; and Sexuality, Sexual, and Reproductive Health. Visit the Prospective Student/Columbia MPH site for more information.)

 Sexuality plays a major role in most people's lives, and encompasses a range of behaviors and meanings that are shaped by individual, social and cultural factors. Promoting sexual well-being, and preventing sexual health problems (such as HIV and other STI's, sexual violence, unwanted pregnancies, stigmatization and discrimination based on sexual behavior/identity, and violations of sexual and reproductive autonomy) are vital tasks for public health.

Jointly created and delivered by the Departments of Population and Family Health and of Sociomedical Sciences, faculty and students in the Sexuality and Health Track work to improve the well-being of men, women, and adolescents in the area of healthy sexuality. It is the first program of its kind - designed to provide public health students with the conceptual tools and practical skills necessary to identify, analyze, and address health issues connected to sexuality.

Track Overview

The primary purpose of the Sexuality and Health Track is to provide public health students with the conceptual and practical skills necessary to identify, analyze and address health issues connected to sexuality within a global context.  The program is guided by the following assumptions:

• Sexuality encompasses a complex of behaviors and meanings that are shaped by individual, social and cultural factors;

• Sexual health encompasses more than the absence of disease and includes sexual well-being;

• The dynamic relationship between sexuality and gender impacts the sexual health and well-being of individuals and communities;

• Age, race/ethnicity, class, sexual orientation and historical context all have profound effects on the linkages between sexuality, gender and health;

• Sexual health can be promoted via a variety of strategies including policy development, health education programs and interventions, and advocacy.

The Track’s teaching and research components emphasize pragmatic, inter-disciplinary, and human rights-based problem-solving in the health and social sectors, and include attention to policy and health systems frameworks.  In the Sexuality and Health Track, students learn through:

1. Graduate-level training in public health. The Program offers a Masters in Public Health (M.P.H.) from Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. The curriculum includes public health core and departmental cores, as well as required substantive courses.  
2. Research, policy analysis, and partnerships. Track faculty members lead innovative research projects, and participate in local, national, and global partnerships.  Many students find opportunities to become involved. 
3. Direct services to populations in need, and developing innovative health programs.  Faculty members and research officers from both departments participate in a range of settings – such as clinics, schools, city and state governments, and national and international non-governmental organizations – to improve the quality and efficacy of public health service delivery.  Students, through practica and internships, work directly in programs that serve communities. 
4. Human rights and evidence-based advocacy networks that promote sexual and reproductive health in its broadest sense.  Faculty members and research officers are active in a range of settings.