Georgetown’s Master of Science in Climate, Environment & Health (MS-CEH) is a full-time,12-month interdisciplinary program based in Washington, DC launching Fall 2026. The program is the first of its kind to educate students as change agents to lead the resolution of complex public problems stemming from environmental change and impacting human health.
“A ruined planet cannot sustain human lives in good health. A healthy planet and healthy people are two sides of the same coin.”
A trash-picker makes his livelihood at a dump site in Las Terrenas, Samana in the Dominican Republic, near one of the biggest tourist sites in the region. This dump site frequently burns, especially in the summer, which worsens air pollution rates. Taken as part of the Clean Cities, Blue Oceans USAID Project: Closing Toxic Dump Site.
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Wyatt Williams participates in a Nature Conservancy and Chesapeake Bay Foundation initiative recycling oyster shells to repopulate oyster populations—vital filter feeders that help keep the bay’s waters clean.
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Kayayei (female head porters) in Accra, Ghana, face environmental, social, and health challenges—including harassment, poor living conditions, and limited healthcare access. This image highlights one of the populations central to MS-CEH Professor Jessica Kritz’s research on collaborative governance addressing social determinants of health. Photo: Still from “Women of Burden” by Case Creative.
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Dr. Gina Green surveying a dump site in Samana, Dominican Republic. Taken as part of the Clean Cities, Blue Oceans USAID Project (conducted surveys in collaboration with Tetra Tech in 10 countries to determine pollutant sources in order to reduce plastic pollution in ocean ecosystems).
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The 2018 Camp Fire, California’s deadliest wildfire, displaced over 52,000 residents and left long-lasting health and social impacts. Since 2021, Professor Jessica Kritz has supported local partners in Paradise Ridge with evidence-based consultation to strengthen community-led recovery and homelessness response efforts.
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Cura personalis, cura planeta
As humans respond to a changing climate, these challenges increasingly occur at the intersection of the environment and human health. The driving force for this program design is the recognition that our future calls for leaders with foundational knowledge to understand these challenges and lead their resolution—grounded in Georgetown’s Jesuit values of service, social justice, and care for the whole person and planet.
At Georgetown, students benefit from world-class faculty, a deep commitment to social justice, and unmatched access to global institutions, federal agencies, NGOs, and thought leaders based in Washington, D.C.—placing them at the heart of where environmental and health decisions are made and solutions are shaped. The program is jointly led by Georgetown’s School of Health and the Earth Commons Institute for Environment & Sustainability, bringing together expertise across health, science, policy, and systems-level change.
MS-CEH is an interdisciplinary program focused on cross-cutting themes, and is the first of its kind to fully synthesize scientific, policy, and process methods across environment and health-related subject areas. Students will:
Science + SolutionsCombine rigorous environmental and health science with evidence-based process design so you can lead real-world interventions, not just analyze problems
Interdisciplinary TrainingIntegrate methods from science, public health, policy, economics, and design so you can solve complex problems across climate, environment, and health systems.
Leadership Grounded in EquityLearn to lead across sectors and work directly with communities on the frontlines of climate and health challenges so your solutions are inclusive, just, and impactful.
Accelerated & AppliedComplete an intensive, one-year program that equips you with practical skills and real-world experience so you can make an immediate impact.
The complex challenges that lie at the intersection of environmental change and human health necessitate a versatile group of professionals. Backed by cutting-edge research and committed social engagement, this program equips students with scientific, process, policy, finance and project planning evidence and skills that are synthesized across the Environment & Health fields, with a lens of resolving complex public problems driven by a changing climate. Students are expected to finish this program equipped with the theoretical foundation and practical skills to address the detrimental health impacts of environmental change, with a particular focus on impacts to vulnerable frontline and frontline communities.
The essential and differentiating hallmark woven throughout the MS-CEH program is the deliberate focus on evidence-based process design, which brings together multi-stakeholder perspectives and coalesces a diverse array of viewpoints across sectors and disciplines. Students will be taught to lead stakeholders in designing collaborative, inclusive, and multifaceted solutions that take into account the multitude of viewpoints necessary to adapt and mitigate. By capitalizing on the synergies between the School of Health and the Earth Commons Institute for Environment & Sustainability, this program builds on a shared commitment to improving the human condition at the local, national, and global levels.
Core Competencies
The Master of Science in Climate, Environment & Health has five program-wide core competencies that students are expected to master over the course of the degree. Each competency is broken down into learning outcomes, which in turn involve mastery of knowledge, skills, and values in order to achieve a competency.
ENVIRONMENT, CLIMATE & HEALTH FOUNDATIONS
Build a foundational and integrated understanding of the core knowledge in the fields of environment, climate, and health in order to engage in critical and interdisciplinary analysis of interconnected human, animal and ecological systems
Develop the knowledge and skills to design interventions to resolve local, national and global complex challenges at the intersection of climate, environment and health.
Develop mindsets and practices for responding to environmental problems through direct and sustained engagement with impacted communities, with humility and respect.
Develop and practice the capacities to collaborate and lead replicable initiatives that address climate, environment, and health challenges, leveraging appropriate research and technology.
Develop a sense of personal agency and purpose grounded in knowledge and skills to resolve complex challenges that impact human and environmental health.
The School of Health addresses human health and well-being to understand the interconnections among the most challenging issues of our time, and to find solutions.
