The epidemiology program addresses health disparities as a crosscutting theme at the local, national, and global levels via didactic training, practicums, and applied hands-on research leading to the written thesis. All students take a sequence of core courses in epidemiology, health disparities research, and introduction to the concentrations. Then the students choose one of the three areas of concentrations offered for their electives and thesis focus. Our curriculum provides an opportunity for students: to develop an understanding of the principles of social justice and health equity, and to recognize the biological, social, and economic determinants of health disparities nationally and globally, through scientifically grounded training in theory, policy and, research in epidemiology to study and apply epidemiological methods to the investigation of health disparities, and to understand role of community-based and community-engaged research in the amelioration of health disparities to recognize existing disparities across common health conditions and specific methods to eliminate such disparities.<br><br>The Cancer Epidemiology concentration provides graduate students with a firm foundation in the application of epidemiological methods to the study of cancer and cancer health disparities. Despite recent progress on the war on cancer on many fronts, the aging of the global population is predicted to result in an ever-increasing burden of cancer on societies that is unequal across different population subgroups, if current trends in incidence and prevalence continue unabated. Epidemiologists will continue to play a central role in the prevention and control of cancer, and reduction in cancer disparities through their participation and leadership roles in cancer registries, population demographic studies, screening programs, developing biomarkers of risk factors and early diagnosis, furthering the understanding of underlying risk factors, and performing impactful research on cancer prevention and survivorship.