Public health officials in Alabama are taking a proactive approach to tackling the problems that affect the state’s citizens. Through dozens of research programs and initiatives, the state’s policy makers, research scientists and public-facing health professionals are working to do everything from tracking and preventing the spread of infectious disease, to ensuring residents in the state’s many rural areas have adequate access to the public health resources they so desperately need. Public health professionals with a Masters in Public Health (MPH) are in a better position to effect change and advance to higher-paying leadership positions such as public administration.
The Alabama Department of Public Health has a dedicated Epidemiology Division whose job it is to track potential infectious outbreaks in the state. Public health officials monitored forty different types of infectious human diseases in 2014, identifying 3,139 cases.
Cutting-edge public health research in Alabama includes a collaboration between NASA and academic researchers to track factors that could be linked to asthma among inner city children. These environmental health researchers use satellite images to track changes in air quality by block looking for a link between the frequency of asthma and the quality of the air. In an unrelated program, biostatisticians are actively analyzing data from more than 30,000 residents to identify why people in Alabama and surrounding regions have higher rates of fatal strokes than the national average.
Dozens of different specializations come together under the state’s public health organizations to ensure the health and safety of the state’s citizens. Alabama is making great strides in improving the health of its residents – from the research scientists that look for links between environmental factors and the specific health problems affecting state residents, to the environmental health professionals that work to contain and mitigate industrial pollution.
Salaries Advertised for Public Health Jobs with the State of Alabama
The Alabama Department of Public Health and other agencies involved in improving public health in the state employ most of the state’s public health professionals, offering salaries that differ for the respective jobs.
The increase in earnings that result from having an MPH is evident in the salary range between public health educators and senior public health educators, who earned $11,760 more than their lesser-educated counterparts, for example.
Department of Public Health
Health Educators:
- Senior Public Health Educator: $39,290 – $59,517
- Public Health Educator: $31,488 – $47,757
Environmental Health:
- Public Health Environmental Manager: $52,663 – $84,276
Epidemiologist:
- Senior Disease Intervention Specialist: $35,589 – $59,518
Healthcare Social Worker:
- Public Health Care Social Worker IV: $47,758 – $72,686
Microbiologist:
- Microbiology Lab Supervisor: $45,502 – $69,098
Public Administration:
- Health Services Administrator I: $31,488 – $53,995
Department of Rehabilitative Services
Rehabilitation Counselor:
- Rehabilitation Specialist III: $50,119 – $76,349
Department of Environmental Management
Environmental Health:
- Environmental Scientist Senior: $30,290 – $59,517
Various State Agencies
Health and Safety Engineer:
- Senior Environmental Engineering Specialist $50,119 – $76,348
Comparing Salaries Among Alabama’s Public Health Professionals
The Alabama Department of Labor provides the annual salaries for a number of jobs in the public health sector for 2015. Individuals with a Master of Public Health most often represent those with salaries at the higher end of the ranges provided:
For comparison, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics provides a detailed analysis of the salaries for public health professionals in Alabama for 2014:
