Micro-Credential in Strategies for Eliminating Health Inequities

The micro-credential provides a means to develop skills and a knowledge base for addressing health inequities. Developed for the non-profit and for-profit communities and open to anyone who has completed an undergraduate degree (including all UB graduate students), this program consists of two courses and a portfolio-building experience.

The courses will help you to gain content expertise on the origins of health inequities and tools for intervening to eliminate health disparities. The additional portfolio-building experience lets you demonstrate your ability to design a strategy for reducing health disparities such as a program, policy initiative or other intervention. You can complete the micro-credential online in one or two semesters. 

After completing the micro-credential, you will be able to:

  • Analyze how social determinants underlie health inequities.
  • Infer ways in which historical, political and economic forces have contributed to present-day health inequities.
  • Critically analyze the scholarly literature to identify and/or conceptualize program and policy solutions to health inequities.
  • Apply and teach skills for collaborating with community partners that will reduce health inequities.
  • Use formative research to develop an intervention to address health inequities.
  • Understand the ways in which evidence-based programs are created, adapted and implemented by community organizations.

Who is eligible to participate in the micro-credential?

Micro-credential badge.
  • Applicants who are not currently enrolled in a UB graduate program who have earned a four-year degree from an accredited college are eligible to join the micro-credential.
  • UB graduate students who have earned a four-year degree from an accredited college or who have graduate-student status in a combined undergraduate/graduate degree program may earn the micro-credential badge.

How can the micro-credential advance my career?

  • Completing the micro-credential can help people in the non-profit sector serve marginalized communities.
  • It can help health care providers and health systems leaders understand the causes of health inequities and identify and implement strategies for eliminating health care inequities as well as leverage resources and soft power to improve social determinants of health.
  • The micro-credential will help professionals become health equity leaders within their organizations.

What are the requirements?

To earn the micro-credential, you must complete the following requirements:

  • Complete two of the six courses listed below. 
    You must earn a B or higher in both courses to receive the micro-credential badge.
  • After completing the two courses, you will plan a novel strategy for reducing a health inequity and prepare a slide deck for presenting the strategy. This strategy can be a program, policy proposal, systems change process or other initiative. You do not need to present the strategy; however, ideally, you would present it in a community setting.

How do I apply?

What if I have questions about the micro-credential?

For all questions, please contact Paige C. Miller, Academic and Business Services Coordinator at pcm6@buffalo.edu.

Required Course Descriptions

CHB 513: A Public Health Perspective on Aging

3 Credits, Summer Semester

Prerequisite: None

This course provides you with a survey of topics related to aging and health in contemporary society. We cover how interactions of biological, psychological, emotional, spiritual, socioeconomic and environmental factors effect older adults. Readings and discussion include a review of the epidemiology and demographic trends of aging, theoretical and developmental models in aging, health policies, intergenerational relationships, retirement preparation and support resources related to illness and end of life. The course also presents an overview of health behaviors and morbidities related to aging in U.S. society.

This course completes some of the requirements for the Strategies in Eliminating Health Inequities Micro-Credential.

Format: Online

CHB 523 Introduction to Program Planning and Evaluation

3 Credits, Fall Semester

Prerequisite: None

Models and principles of program planning and evaluation are presented and contrasted. Data gathering techniques, design considerations and implementation strategies are covered. Other topics include systems theory applications, strategic planning methods, proposal development and report writing.

This course can be used to satisfy some of the requirements for the Strategies in Eliminating Health Inequities Micro-Credential.

Format: Seated and Online

CHB 525/CHB 625 Health Equity

3 Credits, Fall Semester

Health Equity is designed to give students an in-depth understanding of the social determinants of health and how their ills and benefits are unequally distributed across society. We will cover differences in health status associated with race, ethnicity, immigrant status, education, income, disability, geographic location, gender, sexual orientation and gender identity. We will examine the multiple pathways through which these inequities are produced and reinforced, including structural and interpersonal discrimination and stigma. The course will provide historical and theoretical perspectives on health disparities and provide a critical examination of empiric research on explanatory pathways. We will also discuss methods for conducting research and intervening in disadvantaged communities. Students will have an opportunity to engage in work on a health disparities topic of their choosing.

Instructor: Orom

Format: Remote

CHB 535 Indigenous Health Disparities

3 Credits, Spring Semester

Prerequisite: None

Indigenous populations experience lower life expectancy, lower quality of life, and a higher prevalence of several chronic and infectious diseases in comparison to other populations within their respective regions, counties, states and countries. Using an evidence-based approach, this course will provide an overview of the many health issues impacting Indigenous populations today and into the future. This course is designed to embrace the concepts of the social determinants of health, intergenerational trauma, health equity, and racism and health. Students will examine the real histories of Indigenous peoples, cultural norms and adaptations, traditional healing and the impacts of colonization at the advancement of westernization. This course is intended to raise awareness and support future public health leaders who become experts in promoting better health worldwide.

This course can be used to satisfy some of the requirements for the Strategies in Eliminating Health Inequities Micro-Credential.

Format: Hybrid; in-person and remote offering

CHB 522 Refugee Health

3 Credits, Spring Semester

This course provides an introduction to both the global and local health issues related to refugee populations. Health, cultural issues, barriers to care, and services for refugee populations in the United States will be featured, with an emphasis on Western New York's (WNY) refugee groups. Global historical and policy issues related to refugees and refugee health also will be studied.

Format: Remote

CHB 524 A Public Health Approach to Understanding and Reducing Sexual Risk Behaviors

3 Credits, Spring Semester

The course will introduce students to historical trends in the population burden of sexual risk behaviors, the social ecology of these risks, and current controversies in practice and policy. We will also examine surveillance systems and nationally representative samples used to monitor trends in high-risk sexual behaviors and related consequences. Students will critically examine the logic and impact of current domestic standards for sexual health policy and practice through a comparative look at sexual health needs (e.g., contraceptive use, STI prevention and treatment, and HIV-related services) in a range of diverse clinical and social settings with different populations (adolescents, young adults, older adults). Using a variety of teaching methods, students will receive an overview of the dynamics of high-risk sexual activity among individuals, communities, and populations. Topics will include an assessment of current peer-reviewed research and professional guidelines for effective sexual risk reduction; federal and state policies related to sexuality, pregnancy, contraception and HIV/STI prevention; and current curricula at the national and state level for sexuality education.

Instructor: Przybyla

Format: Seated

URP/END 508 Race, Class, Gender and the City

3 Credits, Spring Semester

This course uses a systemic structural racism framework to explore the role of race, class, and gender in the American city-building process. The course seeks to understand market forces' role in etching race and class into the residential landscape and its implications for the racialization of residential space for different racial and ethnic groups. URP/END centers "the neighborhood" in its exploration of race, class, gender, and the city. It places the "neighborhood" within the broader context of the urban metropolis. For this course's purpose, the "urban metropolis" refers to the county where the central city is located.

Format: Seated