Health and Well-Being Management Master of Science Degree

Design and lead wellness programs that help people live healthier lives while boosting organizational productivity.


Overview for Health and Well-Being Management MS


  • Choose from two options in: (1) content development, implementation, and evaluation or (2) health and well-being program management.

Individual and community health, disease prevention, and engaging in healthful habits to promote well-being are at the fore-front of public interest. Health and wellness is a mosaic of nutrition, physical activity, stress management, and environmental features that are critical for a productive, efficient, and healthy society. Corporations, small businesses, government agencies, and institutions are employing health and well-being professionals to help people lead healthier lives and contribute to corporate, agency, and business productivity.

RIT’s Health and Wellness Degree

The MS in health and well-being management is a health and wellness degree that prepares you for a career in health and well-being program design, administration, and research. It is the perfect choice for those interested in going to medical or dental school or pursing doctoral studies in nutrition, health promotion, exercise science, or public health.

To provide high-quality, population-based health care, the future health care workforce needs a skill set that includes the ability to:

  • apply systems thinking,
  • design interventions,
  • practice dissemination and implementation science,
  • engage with communities, and
  • understand and utilize team dynamics, negotiation, and advocacy skills.

RIT's health and wellness degree offers evidence-informed guidance to develop and apply these skills.

Choose From Two Options

The MS in health and well-being management offers two options, both of which prepare you for a career in health and well-being as well as offer research experiences for those interested in pursuing further doctoral and post-graduate studies.

  • Content development, implementation, and evaluation focuses on helping students learn how to design and execute health and well-being programs, focusing on development of content and expertise in a particular area of health or wellness, such as exercise, behavior, and nutrition.
  • Health and well-being program management relates to leading an organization’s health and wellness program or an employee assistance program within corporate setting or in self-employment venues.

Health and Wellness Degree: Educational Outcomes

  1. Demonstrate skills in the design, delivery, and evaluation of individual and group interventions/programs that are consistent with evidence based social and behavioral theories.

    You will learn health education and program evaluation concepts, examine evidence and research-based content and apply learning behavior theory constructs to health and well-being activities.
     
  2. Demonstrate the ability to assist with health, physical, nutrition, behavioral screenings or policy analysis to plan and manage a safe and effective health promotion program for both healthy and health-impaired individuals.

    You will acquire a knowledge base in nutrition, physical activity, and health law including screening and assessment and utilize this knowledge in health and well-being dissemination or implementation science activities.
     
  3. Develop skills and experience necessary to promote program services to appropriate community recipients including the ability to categorize subsets of the worksite/organization population and identify appropriate intervention strategies for each subset.

    You will be able to describe and conduct needs assessments and apply findings appropriately. Also, you will demonstrate the acquisition of marketing concepts to a health and well-being problem.
     
  4. Apply the requisite skills to plan and conduct inquiries into problems and outcomes used to develop and manage health and well-being activities, programs and campaigns.

    You will apply behavior change theory concepts and research and evaluation criteria to examine, critique, and assess health and well-being programs and activities.
     
  5. Collaborate with multiple disciplines to promote and administer health related research, activities, and policy at the organizational, community, state, and federal level.

    You will develop verbal and written communication strategies and skills and apply them to tasks involving collaboration, interpretation, and critical thinking for health and well-being activities. Also, be well versed in health and well-being policy development and strategic application at multiple levels of governments and organizations.
     
  6. Design and execute a comprehensive project or research-based inquiry relevant to the health promotion industry.

    You will integrate your learning in a research, inquiry, or review project on a topic pertinent to designing, planning, implementing, evaluating, managing, or marketing health and well-being.

Careers in Health and Wellness

The health and well-being management program prepares graduates for careers that provide services to enhance employee health and consequent workforce productivity, including:

  • Administrator or manager of a health and well-being program/initiative for government, industry, or organizational entities.
  • Health and well-being educator/communicator, instructional program designer, developer, or implementer.
  • Preparation for future medical and dental education, doctoral training in fields related to nutrition, health promotion, exercise science, and public health.

Learn More

Download our program brochure for more information.

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Careers and Cooperative Education

Typical Job Titles

Director of Wellness Medical or Ph.D. student Health Educator
Health Research Assistant/Coordinator Quality Assurance Technician

Post-Graduation Salary and Career Info for Health and Well-Being Management MS

Cooperative Education

What makes an RIT education exceptional? It’s the ability to complete relevant, hands-on career experience. At the graduate level, and paired with an advanced degree, cooperative education and internships give you the unparalleled credentials that truly set you apart. Learn more about graduate co-op and how it provides you with the career experience employers look for in their next top hires.  

Featured Work and Profiles

Curriculum for 2025-2026 for Health and Well-Being Management MS

Current Students: See Curriculum Requirements

Admissions and Financial Aid

This program is available on-campus only.

Offered Admit Term(s) Application Deadline STEM Designated
Full‑time Fall Rolling No
Part‑time Fall or Spring Rolling No

Full-time study is 9+ semester credit hours. Part-time study is 1‑8 semester credit hours. International students requiring a visa to study at the RIT Rochester campus must study full‑time.

Application Details

To be considered for admission to the Health and Well-Being Management MS program, candidates must fulfill the following requirements:

English Language Test Scores

International applicants whose native language is not English must submit one of the following official English language test scores. Some international applicants may be considered for an English test requirement waiver.

Duolingo (DET): 120

IELTS: 6.5

LanguageCert Academic: 70

PTE Academic: 56

TOEFL: 79

International students below the minimum requirement may be considered for conditional admission. Deaf and hard-of-hearing test takers with significant hearing loss do not need to take the listening and speaking sections for the TOEFL and IELTS. Each program requires balanced sub-scores when determining an applicant’s need for additional English language courses.

How to Apply Start or Manage Your Application

Cost and Financial Aid

An RIT graduate degree is an investment with lifelong returns. Graduate tuition varies by degree, the number of credits taken per semester, and delivery method. View the general cost of attendance or estimate the cost of your graduate degree.

A combination of sources can help fund your graduate degree. Learn how to fund your degree

Additional Information

Prerequisites

Applicants must have completed an accredited college-level nutrition course with a B or better.

Facilities

  • Three students and a faculty member working on laptops around a table.
    Nutrition Assessment Lab

    The Nutrition Assessment Lab is dedicated to evaluating and improving nutritional health through cutting-edge tools and evidence-based methods.

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Contact

Admissions Contact
  • Karen Palmer
  • Interim Director of Graduate Admissions
  • Office of Graduate Admissions
  • Enrollment Management
  • 585‑475‑5656
  • kbpges@rit.edu
Program Contact