Penn Vet launches One Health certificate to train cross-disciplinary health leaders

The University of Pennsylvania (Penn) is expanding interdisciplinary health education with a new graduate certificate designed to prepare students to address complex challenges spanning human, animal, plant, and environmental health.¹

The One Campus One Health Certificate Program, launched by Penn’s School of Veterinary Medicine (Penn Vet), brings together graduate and professional students from across the university’s schools. The inaugural cohort includes students from the School of Dental Medicine, School of Nursing, Penn Vet, and Penn Carey Law School, with the program intended to eventually draw participants from disciplines across the university.

Bridging disciplines to improve health

The program is based on the One Health framework, which recognizes the interconnectedness of human, animal, plant, and environmental health. Rather than asking students to become generalists like traditional interdisciplinary programs, the certificate is designed to complement their existing disciplinary expertise with the skills needed to collaborate across professional and academic boundaries.

“Today’s most significant health challenges cannot be solved by any one discipline alone,” said Jennifer A. Punt, VMD, PhD, Penn Vet’s associate dean for One Health.¹

That need for collaboration is particularly important in areas ranging from infectious disease and antimicrobial resistance to food security, environmental change, and community health. The certificate is intended to help students understand how specialists from different fields can work together to design interventions, evaluate outcomes, and address problems that do not fit neatly within a single discipline.

“Whether responding to infectious diseases, food security, environmental change, antimicrobial resistance, or community health, meaningful progress depends on experts who know how to collaborate, codesign interventions, and evaluate outcomes together,” Punt said.

The certificate builds on Penn’s existing One Health educational offerings, including individual courses and the master of public health One Health track. The new program brings those efforts into a university-wide educational experience that emphasizes both foundational knowledge and practical collaboration.¹

Putting collaboration into practice

Students completing the certificate will take a Foundations of One Health course and 3 electives intended to strengthen interdisciplinary problem-solving skills. They will also complete a One Health in Practice experience, working with a faculty mentor whose expertise aligns with their interests.

Students will have the opportunity to present their work at Penn’s annual One Health Symposium, providing a venue to engage with faculty members, researchers, and practitioners working across the One Health field.

Faculty mentorship is another central component of the program. Each student will be paired with a member of Penn’s One Health in Action faculty, who can help guide their academic and career development and connect them with opportunities across Penn’s broader One Health community.

Penn brings together schools and programs spanning medicine, veterinary medicine, public health, nursing, dental medicine, engineering, law, business, and other disciplines on a single campus, giving the program a broad interdisciplinary base. The certificate is intended to use that proximity to give students experience collaborating across fields they may not otherwise encounter during their professional training.

Graduates are expected to be positioned for careers in government, health care, academia, research, nonprofit organizations, international development, and community organizations. In those settings, cross-disciplinary collaboration is increasingly essential to improving health outcomes.

Reference

1. Hackett MJ. New One Campus, One Health Certificate Program will prepare the next generation of One Health leaders. University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine. August 17, 2026. Accessed August 19, 2026. https://tinyurl.com/ys2jt7n6