Health Communication Graduate Certificate

About the Certificate

Certificate Overview

The Health Communication Graduate Certificate provides specialized research training in health communication. Students can tailor their coursework based on their interests in health communication. This might include training in media and health, interpersonal or family communication, caregiving, patient-provider communication, message design, or developing health interventions. Students select 4 courses (3 credits each).

Courses are theoretically informed, methodologically rigorous, and include interdisciplinary research from various paradigms. Students will have the opportunity to work with faculty on their research activities. The certificate can be completed in 3-5 semesters. Students must maintain a 3.0 GPA (truncated) with no grades lower than a “C.” Students must apply to enroll in the certificate prior to completing 50% of the coursework required in the certificate.

Why Study Health Communication at UF

Faculty within the College of Journalism and Communications (CJC) include internationally renowned health communication experts who collectively aspire to produce translational or applied research. CJC health communication faculty have attained more than $20 million in research grants in the last fifteen years from esteemed funding agencies including the National Cancer Institute (NCI), National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), National Institute on Aging (NIA), and the National Science Foundation (NSF). CJC faculty actively collaborate with health clinicians and scientists (e.g., oncologists; genetic counselors; family medicine physicians; nurses; psychologists; surgeons; epidemiologists, space scientists; engineers; economists). They also have a long history of teaming with national and global leaders in healthcare practice and research (e.g., Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center; Mayo Clinic; Leukemia & Lymphoma Society).

Faculty are frequently invited grant reviewers for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and provide training in health communication skills to clinicians and professionals working at national and international medical centers and within the government.  In addition to their external collaborative research engagement, CJC faculty are active members and collaborators with the UF Health Cancer Center, Clinical and Translational Science Institute, UF Health Center for Arts in Medicine, UF Health Shands Medical Center and the STEM Translational Communication Center, which is housed within the CJC.