Your Faculty Advisor is your main advisor throughout your DrPH experience. Profiles of each faculty member and their research and practice interests can be found on the COPH website. Look under Faculty and Staff on each department's home page. You can find the areas of specialization, and if you click on individual faculty, you will find more detailed information.

To change advisors see the Archivum Change Of Advisor process.

Once you are ready to form a dissertation committee (after the second year), you need a Major Professor to lead your committee. This role is typically filled by your Faculty Advisor. Here is USF information about your Major Professor: http://www.grad.usf.edu/policies_Sect8_full.php#drmajorprof

Major Professors must meet the following requirements:

• Be active in scholarly pursuits as evidenced by at least one refereed publication in the last three years.
• Be graduate faculty, as defined by the University, from the student's academic area. Faculty who do not meet this definition may serve as Co-Major Professor with faculty who do.
• Have been approved by the Department Chair (or equivalent) to serve as a Major Professor or Co-Major Professor.

You should form a dissertation committee after your second year, as you approach finishing your coursework. Your dissertation committee must have four members. Three of them must come from the College of Public Health faculty (full-time or joint appointments), and one must be an external member. Here is more information about the dissertation committee: http://www.grad.usf.edu/policies_Sect8_full.php#disscomm

In the DrPH program, we require you to select someone in the field who is a mentor to you to be your external member. That person will have to go through a credentialing process by submitting their CV to the college and graduate school. That person does not have to have a doctoral degree, but must be active in the profession.

DISSERTATION COMMITTEE FORM:

To get your committee approved, you must submit the form located here: http://health.usf.edu/publichealth/pdf/PhD_Committee_Form_2006.doc

If you change your committee after this form is submitted, you need to do that on this form: http://health.usf.edu/publichealth/pdf/PhD_Change_of_Committee_Form_2006.doc

Note: Although these forms reference the PhD, they apply to the DrPH as well.

Due Dates for final Defense of Dissertation
Upon acceptance into candidacy, the doctoral student forms a dissertation committee that is approved by the college. The candidate, major professor and the committee members should meet regularly (at least once per term) to review the candidate’s progress. Minutes of committee meetings including date, who was in attendance, and action items are maintained by the candidate.

When the candidate, major professor and committee members agree that it is time to schedule the final defense of the dissertation, the candidate distributes the final dissertation draft at least 4 weeks before the final defense date. This time period allows the committee to thoroughly review the document and the student to make changes before the final defense. The final defense date must be at least one week prior to the final submission deadline to the Office of Graduate Studies. 

We expect you to develop mentoring relationships throughout your DrPH experience. You will need mentors to act as preceptors for your field study, and you will need a mentor to participate on your dissertation committee. Here are some ideas for how you can develop a mentoring relationship with leaders in the field of Public Health.

Practice-Based Mentor: The role of the mentor is to assist the DrPH student with developing professional and organizational leadership skills, goal setting, access to resources, and connecting the student with an appropriate local and national network of colleagues and resources. Examples of mentoring activities include the following:

• Participating in meetings and/or conference calls with internal and external collaborators
• Observing or participating in program activities
• Exposure to policy-related activities
• Exploring funding sources
• Exploring resources that are most useful to the mentor’s agency, population of interest, and/or leadership style
• Managing teams and projects
• Discussing the mentor’s own leadership style
• Providing leadership opportunities within an agency
• Providing leadership opportunities within the community at local, state, regional, national and/or international levels
• Providing access and time with individuals in various other levels of leadership

Identifying and Selecting a Mentor

Understanding your mentoring needs: Before approaching a potential mentor, you need to identify what you hope to gain from a mentoring relationship and what type of a mentor is best for helping you meet your objectives. The person that best meets your mentoring needs may or may not be in your area of expertise. That said, the best thing to do is to start by identifying your career goals. Where do you see yourself in 5-10 years? What knowledge, skills, and abilities do you need to get there? What key experiences could a mentor provide that would benefit you most?

Choosing a mentor who is right for you: In addition to being able to meet your developmental needs, the best mentors are people who are excited about learning and who are continuing their own development. You'll want to seek out someone who possesses such traits and who also sets high standards for his or her work and can set an example for you. It may be that you could have different mentors at different stages of your career. Once you identify your mentoring needs, meet with your academic and practice-based advisor to discuss potential mentors that match your mentoring needs.  

Approaching your potential mentor: Initiation of the mentoring relationship is, and should be, done by the mentee. You need to have the self-confidence to approach a potential mentor and effectively present the merits of a mentoring relationship. Once you have found an appropriate individual, approach your potential mentor and share your long-term goals, your accomplishments, and your major developmental needs and objectives. Your potential mentor needs to know if he or she will be able to help you acquire the skills or competencies you want to develop. Please note that your potential mentor may feel that he or she is not an appropriate choice for you, or the individual may not have the time to commit right now. If the person agrees to begin a mentoring relationship, you'll want to have a focused conversation about what you both want to accomplish.

The requirements for your degree program are contained in the USF catalog for the year you start your degree. When a new catalog is released subsequently, you have the choice of following the new catalog or the one you started with. The USF Graduate School has current and archived catalogs for all USF degrees and programs, available at this link: http://www.grad.usf.edu/catalog.php.

There is also a College catalog, although the USF Catalog has precedence. Current and archived College catalogs are available here: College of Public Health Catalog

You can find your DrPH program of study form on this page: Program of Study Index. Select your admission year (or a later year) and use that form. You will document which courses you are taking or substituting while admitted to the DrPH program, which courses you are transferring from another degree program, and which courses you can waive because of prior learning or experience. For the processes to document these different categories, please see the section on Prior Learning below.

The USF College of Public Health DrPH degree is completed through distance‐learning (fall, spring, and summer semesters) in addition to on‐campus learning via the 1‐week DrPH Institute. The combination of program delivery formats allows working professionals to broaden their grasp of public health management, practice, and research without interrupting their careers.

We have been offering the DrPH Institute in the Summer semester, but we are going to move it to the Fall semesters. For current students, there will be a transition period from Summer to Fall. Please look for our communications on this subject. Information on the upcoming Institutes will be provided here as we obtain it.

Marcia Conner: "In what is known as the 70/20/10 learning concept, 70% of learning and development takes place from real-life and on-the-job experiences, tasks, and problem solving, 20% of the time development comes from other people through informal or formal feedback, mentoring, or coaching, and10% of learning and development comes from formal training.”  

 Our philosophy in the DrPH program is consistent with this quote. We know that you bring a myriad of knowledge, skills, and experience with you to our program. If you are fully prepared in an area, there is no need for you to take a course covering what you already know and do. However, you must establish this by providing convincing documentation substantiating your knowledge, skills, and experience. Any transfers, substitutions, or waivers must be approved by your Faculty Advisor.