Nontraditional Careers for Doctoral-Level Practitioners

The doctoral degree has traditionally been considered the path to teaching and research careers. The degree also provides a strong set of skills that can be applied in leadership roles in public, private, and nonprofit sectors. Numerous career options exist for public health education professionals with doctoral degrees outside of the teaching and research fields. This commentary discusses nontraditional career paths for professionals with doctoral degrees in public health. Three public health professionals describe why they chose to pursue a doctoral degree and how they applied their respective degrees to their work outside of the traditional academic and research areas.