School of Health

Fountain in front of Dahlgren Chapel
Christopher King

Dean

Pablo Irusta

Associate Dean

Sarah Shohet

Associate Dean for Academic Affairs

Sumaira Akber

Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs

Brian Floyd

Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs

History and Purpose

The School of Health, launched in 2022, builds on Georgetown’s 170-year commitment to health and medicine, and advances the strong foundation established when its departments were housed in the former School of Nursing & Health Studies. The School of Health provides a home for scholars and students to work collaboratively across disciplines and across the university to address human health and wellbeing from various perspectives — science, health, medicine, policy, law, economics and the humanities — to achieve a deeper understanding of the interconnected threads through the most challenging issues of our time, and to find solutions. The school will reflect the ongoing, urgent need to focus our collective efforts on applied health research and on creating a more equitable, evidence-driven and values-based health care system that can withstand the enormous challenges facing our country.  It is this interdisciplinary spirit of discovery that will best support the need for evolution in health and health care.  

The undergraduate program offers its students a broad liberal arts education balanced with the natural and behavioral sciences through innovative curricula in the Bachelor of Science (BS) with majors in Global Health, Health Care Management & Policy, and Human Science. Students have an opportunity to study and intern at health care facilities and agencies throughout the Washington, D.C. area, such as the National Institutes of Health, the Pan American Health Organization, and abroad in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and South America.

All majors in the School of Health focus on cura personalis—the care and development of the whole person—by educating students for a meaningful life, challenging them intensively, but also supporting them in their learning. The School embraces the Jesuit inspired principles shared by the entire Georgetown community, which emphasize the pursuit of knowledge with a responsibility to contribute to the common good. Students develop into health care professionals who can recognize and respond to the full human experience encountered in the health field. During their first year at Georgetown University, School of Health students participate in the First Year Colloquium. This course is taught by faculty across the interdisciplinary team at the School of Health. All students are exposed to the various arenas of health care with opportunity to dialogue and critique health policy, quality and care.

Graduates of the Health Management and Policy, Human Science, and Global Health Departments at Georgetown receive a strong scientific and liberal arts education that prepares them for a myriad of careers. Students interested in careers such as health education, health policy, public health, medicine, physical therapy, global health, scientific writing, consulting or health management and policy will have a solid curricular foundation and will have focused experiences in seminars, independent research, and internships in the areas of their selected interest. Having taken advantage of the School’s pre-professional advisement program, graduates wishing to pursue graduate or professional studies will have the necessary courses to prepare them for advanced education.