Health Promotion (HEB-HP)
Students with an interest in health promotion complete coursework that prepares for careers in employee-assistance programs and corporate or hospital-based wellness centers. Many companies utilizing large employee populations have noticed a significant decrease in absenteeism and an increase in work productivity for those employees actively participating in an employee wellness program. In addition, insurance rates tend to be lower for those employees thus providing an incentive for employers to offer such programs. Employee wellness programs can include sessions for smoking cessation, nutritional guidelines, stress relief, injury prevention, and might include running an on-site gym.

Health Educators specializing in Health Promotion work for businesses and other agencies developing, implementing, and evaluating programs in nutrition, fitness, weight control, smoking cessation, and stress reduction. You may find Health Promotion Specialists in a number of large corporations such as Johnson and Johnson, Home Depot, Nike, AT&T, and Coca Cola. Health Promotion Specialists may also work in commercial fitness centers conducting fitness testing and counseling as well as in hospital-based wellness programs and for non-profit fitness and rehabilitation facilities.

Students must maintain a minimum 2.0 overall GPA and 2.0 tracking GPA to remain in this specialization.