How to become a public health professor

[teetotaler14]

Is it possible for someone with an MD to become a professor at a school of public health without also having a PhD? If so, would it be helpful to earn an MPH in lieu of a PhD? I'm asking this as a recent med school graduate who will probably become board certified in family medicine, but who has an interest in public health research/teaching.

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[trixmd]

I'm an MD MPH w adjunct status both because of the time my day job demands (mil med) but also because the opportunity presented to me due to my experience from the day job (global health and infectious disease, mostly). If you also train in occ med or prev med (getting your MPH along the way), you could become affiliated with those training programs and subsequently get a teaching position in a school of public health. Depending on what you do with FM and your interests, you could try to enter academe that way too - getting into epidemiology, global health, health care policy, reproductive health, maternal and child nutrition, etc.

Hope that helps.

 

[Stories]

Yes, many professors I had were MD (with or without MPH). The process of getting there is similar as any other professor position--publish papers and have a track record/promise of funding and research plan.