In Orange County, a health educator teaches students in schools and after-school programs how to eat nutritious foods and be more active, helping lower their risk of obesity and chronic disease. In Pennsylvania, infection preventionists work to contain a measles outbreak by isolating affected patients, ensuring healthcare staff use appropriate protective equipment and tracking new cases. In Indonesia, hospital leaders and public health officials mobilize practitioners, establish clean-air sanctuaries and deliver supplies to communities threatened by wildfire smoke.

These are just a few of the many health challenges being addressed and mitigated around the clock.

“We’re training the people who make sure [public health work] never stops. That’s a badge we wear with pride.” — Michael Rovito, 91�Թ��� MPH program director

Public health professionals plan for them every day. Beginning Fall 2027, 91�Թ���’s new Master of Public Health (MPH) program in the College of Health Professions and Sciences will prepare students to prevent disease, respond to emerging threats and lead efforts to build healthier communities in Central Florida and around the world.

“Public health is the work nobody notices until it stops,” says Michael Rovito, director of the program and associate professor of health sciences at 91�Թ���. “We’re training the people who make sure it never stops: the people who keep our communities healthy, who make sure children understand their own bodies and who help cancer survivors live full lives after treatment. That’s a badge we wear with pride.”

Across the nation, public health departments work to prevent disease and injury, contain outbreaks, monitor community health, provide scientific expertise and respond to emergencies. Meeting those demands requires a skilled workforce. A 2021 analysis by the de Beaumont Foundation and the Public Health National Center for Innovations estimated that state and local public health departments needed at least 80,000 additional full-time positions — an increase of nearly 80% — to provide foundational public health services nationwide.

“91�Թ��� has a really comprehensive focus on … making the world healthier and helping individuals be healthier.” — Catherine Bush, interim coordinator for the MPH program’s Health Policy, Planning and Leadership track

91�Թ���’s program will prepare the next generation of public health professionals to meet that need through research, policy, leadership and collaboration with communities. Central Florida provides a unique training ground where students can confront a range of challenges. Florida ranks among the top 20 states for the number of residents age 65 or older, second for projected new cancer diagnoses, fourth for reported cases of sexually transmitted diseases and third for HIV diagnoses.

“91�Թ��� has a really comprehensive focus on health, both in making the world healthier and helping individuals be healthier,” says Catherine Bush, interim coordinator for the program’s Health Policy, Planning and Leadership track and instructor of health management and informatics. “Public health is a really natural fit with something we’re already doing really well and with great success.”

Researchers in the College of Health Professions and Sciences are already addressing many of those challenges, with work spanning health policy, substance use and more. Rovito and 91�Թ��� Associate Professor Keith Brazendale are leading a study to improve the quality of life of testicular cancer survivors. 91�Թ��� Assistant Professor Jacob Bleasdale is studying the health-related needs of older patients living with HIV. 91�Թ��� Assistant Professor Latarsha Chisholm is working to improve end-of-life care for dementia patients.

“There’s a lot of good work to be done here in Central Florida, and 91�Թ��� is uniquely positioned to lead in public health by collaborating with partners on campus and across the region and drawing on our strength as one of the most innovative universities in the nation,” Rovito says.

Built for the work ahead, the program offers two tracks:

• Health promotion and behavioral science: For students who want to work directly with communities to improve access to health resources, reduce chronic disease risk and strengthen well-being.
• Health policy, planning and leadership: For students who want lead public health organizations, influence policy and turn evidence into solutions for complex health challenges.

Applications are open now through May 1 for the Fall 2027 class. The program will be offered primarily in person on 91�Թ���’s main and downtown campuses, with some courses offering a synchronous online option.

For more information, visit .

A one-hour virtual information session about 91�Թ���’s MPH program will be held Tuesday, Dec. 15, from 5 to 6 p.m.

To reduce these challenges, associate professors of health sciences Michael Rovito and Keith Brazendale in 91�Թ���’s Department of Health Sciences are conducting a 6-month intervention study, which is funded by the Florida Department of Health Cancer Innovation Fund.

The National Cancer Institute estimates survival rates for testicular cancer are high, as about 10,000 men are diagnosed each year and fewer than 5% die from the disease — underscoring the need to improve quality of life for these patients.

“Our focus is on finding ways to improve the quality of life for these survivors, and to improve their mental, emotional and social health,” says Rovito, who has researched testicular cancer and men’s health for nearly two decades.

A New Approach to Survivorship Care

Previous survivorship programs have often focused on high-intensity exercise, which can be difficult for patients managing recovery, work and family demands. To develop a more sustainable path to recovery, Rovito and Brazendale are testing a uniquely designed intervention in Florida, known as the Physical Activity and Connectivity for Testicular Cancer Survivors (PACT) program.

PACT combines low-impact, remote, physical activity with an online support network to help survivors navigate psychosocial challenges. Participants engage in regular low-intensity physical activity, such as walking or taking the stairs, and track their progress using Fitbit devices. The devices provide real-time feedback, allowing researchers to set weekly goals and offer personalized guidance. This feedback loop helps participants stay engaged while building sustainable habits.

“We’re seeking an intervention they can do for the rest of their lives,” Brazendale says. “We want these healthy supports to become habit.”

Support Beyond Physical Recovery

Connected through Zoom sessions, PACT program participants receive personalized counsel and encouragement from the researchers directly. They also take part in virtual peer-support sessions led by a social worker and a survivor advocate trained in trauma-informed care. Monthly sessions include breathwork, meditation and discussions on common concerns such as fertility, relationship changes and fear of recurrence.

“The online support session provides coping strategies and tools for the participants to use during the day, when they can feel anxious or depressed or overwhelmed,” Rovito says.

Outside of the meetings, researchers stay in touch regularly with individual messages to participants, sending tailored motivational text messages.

“Our hope is that we are providing realistic physical activity changes that are sustainable when the monitoring ends,” says Brazendale. “We want these survivors to have adopted habits and skills that result in them being healthier over the long-term.”

The researchers say they hope to expand the program to other cancer survivor groups and integrate it into broader survivorship care across Florida, while securing additional funding for larger-scale trials.

The Feasibility of the Physical Activity and Connectivity for Testicular Cancer Survivors (PACT) program is supported by a grant from the Florida Department of Health Cancer Innovation Fund grant number 25C33. 

91�Թ��� Associate Professor Keith Brazendale believes society is overlooking a simple intervention that could be a major game-changer for kids everywhere, so much so that the National Institutes of Health awarded him a $453,000 funding grant to move forward with his study.

The solution? Free summer camp for kids.

“This won’t require 20 years in a lab,” Brazendale says of his study over the next two summers. “Everything is already in place to impact childhood obesity. I think that’s what raised so much curiosity from my proposal. Can it really be this simple?”

Why Summer Camp?

“My ultimate goal is to shift our mindset about how we improve the health of kids,” Brazendale says from his office in 91�Թ���’s College of Health Professions and Sciences, “because up until now, I believe we’ve gotten it all wrong.”

Getting it right has inspired Brazendale’s research across two decades, including his next project on combatting childhood obesity.

Brazendale’s project will bring together community pediatricians, organizers of summer day camps, and low-income families. Before the summers of 2026 and 2027 begin, the pediatricians will provide camp vouchers to 40 kids who meet certain weight and body mass index (BMI) criteria. Data collected before camp and after camp will build upon Brazendale’s Structured Day Hypothesis.

“It’s clear that structure is enough to mitigate much of the weight gain we’re observing in American children. I’m hopeful a study like this will affect change in public health policy.”
— Keith Brazendale, 91�Թ��� associate professor

“We know what happens when kids have no structure,” says Brazendale, a father of two. “When schools closed during COVID, it became our largest experiment of unstructured days. Children’s obesity levels went through the roof. It’s clear that structure is enough to mitigate much of the weight gain we’re observing in American children. I’m hopeful a study like this will affect change in public health policy.”

If this is true, then it raises the question, “Why have we overlooked a structured summer as a solution to childhood obesity?”

Consider that more than 90% of past studies have taken place during the school year — the most convenient time to find kids for research. The timing has led to a repetitive focus on school lunch programs and physical education. Brazendale, however, draws upon his own experiences with kids from low-income communities and believes that studies on schools may be occurring where a natural intervention is already happening.

“Schools actually do a great job because of structure built into each day” he says. “Meanwhile, we’ve ignored 20 years of evidence showing weight gain and loss of fitness occurring during summer.”

He’s referring to evidence which had become “bricks buried in a brickyard.” It happens with a lot of studies. They’re filed away, waiting for another researcher to come along and dig them up years later. That’s how Brazendale began to learn about the link between summer breaks and childhood obesity.

“Pediatricians have reported for years that children are heavier toward the end of summer,” he says. “People my age think of summer as an active time when it really isn’t, especially for kids whose families can’t afford pricey camps and club sports. So, let’s see what happens when we help them fill those empty weeks with free and fun structured activity.”

Community Buy-In

If Brazendale’s hypothesis is correct, it could cultivate the kind of healthy long-term lifestyle Brazendale experienced while growing up in Scotland. His intrigue about children’s health brought him to study in the U.S., where his research momentum eventually landed at 91�Թ���. Among his first action items upon arriving was to contact pediatricians at Nemours and leaders of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Florida.

“When I mentioned bringing all of us together as a potential health intervention for kids, they said, ‘We’re in,’ ” Brazendale says. “Having them involved means we have trusted people in the community to create bridges rather than hoping families respond to a researcher out of nowhere asking them to sign up for a study.”

The research side will include experts from 91�Թ���’s College of Nursing, a statistician, a pediatrician and consultants from the University of South Carolina. They’ll compare health markers for the 40 kids who attend summer camp with 40 kids who spend summer at home. Then they’ll do it again with two more groups the following summer.

With additional funding, a second research phase would include hundreds of children nationwide. The results’ ripple effects would be monumental.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “in 2019, the estimated annual medical cost of obesity among U.S. children was $1.3 billion. Medical costs for children with obesity were $116 higher per person per year than for children with healthy weight. Medical costs for children with severe obesity were $310 higher per person per year than for children with healthy weight.”

“Imagine where this could lead,” Brazendale says. “Pediatricians would prescribe summer camp as medicine. The health of children would not be limited by family incomes. The research findings would encourage public policy to subsidize camp enrollment the way we do with Head Start. There would be relief on our medical practitioners and on our healthcare system. Childhood obesity rates would decline and long-term health would improve.”