Public Health Educator Job Duties
A public health educator teaches people about how to engage in behaviors in their daily lives that promote wellness. Their main job is to come up with programs and supporting materials that encourage populations of people to live healthy lives and make good health decisions.
For example, with your master’s degree in public health as a public health educator, you may:
- Create innovative programs and materials to educate people about important health topics
- Design and hand out marketing materials that promote public health
- Analyze the effectiveness of current public health programs and materials
- Assist the local population in locating needed health services and information
- Provide supervision to staff who are implementing important health education programs
- Perform the collection and analysis of data to learn about how to best educate the public on health issues
Your exact duties as a public health educator will vary, based upon your work location. You may work in a medical care facility, college, a department of public health, private business, or a government agency here or abroad. If you were to work in a public health department, you might assist in campaigns on public health, including good nutrition. You would develop programs and materials to educate the public on how to stay healthy by eating the proper diet. During a crisis or an emergency, you may give critical safety and health information to the general public.
Public Health Educator Career & Salary Outlook
Public health educators with a master’s degree in public health can expect to have very strong job demand for the next 10 years. It is expected that there will be a whopping 37% increase in demand in that time, which is much faster than average compared with other professions. Much of the demand in the field is coming from the government efforts around the world to cut health care costs by educating people about how to live a healthy life. For example, smart health habit changes can really cut the chance of contracting many expensive, deadly diseases, such as cancer of the lung, heart disease, HIV and also skin cancer.
The median wage for health educators in 2010 was $46,000, and the top 10% earned $81,300. Professionals with more than 5 years of experience and master’s degree in public health can expect to earn at the top of the pay scale.
Generally, hospitals pay the highest median salary: $58,400; government agencies’ median salary is $48,900.
Job Outlook for Public Health Educators
There were 63,400 public health educators employed in 2010, and there will be 86,600 in 2020, for a total increase of 23,200. Some of the top employers in the field in terms of annual growth are:
- Religious, grant, civic organizations: 60%
- Social assistance agencies: 60%
- Health care: 38%
- Educational services: 36%
- Government: 9%
The top employers in this field are:
- Health care: 37%
- Government: 21%
- Religious, grant, civic organizations: 15%
- Social assistance: 12%
- Educational services: 9%
Public Health Educator Education and Training
For the strongest job possibilities, a bachelor’s degree in health education and a master’s degree in public health is strongly preferred. In fact, many of the best paying positions with the most responsibility in the state and federal governments require a master’s degree, such as in public health. See our extensive list of online mph programs.
