Capstone Certificate in Consumer Health Advocacy

The UWMadison Center for Patient Partnerships (CPP) provides the online Consumer Health Advocacy Capstone Certificate to educate learners interested in advocacy on behalf of anyone facing barriers to their health care. It is ideal for people who want to help their families get the care they need, change careers, or deepen existing professional practice. It is also for those that want to gain valuable direct patient service before enrolling in graduate or professional school, become professional health care advocates, or explore next steps without a clear view of whats on the horizon.

Within the certificate program, the center offers two tracks focused on either individual-level patient advocacy or system/policy-level health advocacy. Its educational approach encourages hands-on learning by advocating for patients directly through the nations only certificate program with an experiential Patient Advocacy Clinic. Students can complete the entire program from a distance (except a two-day, in-person orientation) or in a blended (in-person + online) format.

Further detail, including current tuition and costs, is available at the certificate's website or contact below:

The Center for Patient Partnerships
University of WisconsinMadison Law School
975 Bascom Mall, Suite 4311
Madison, WI 53706-1399
608-265-6267
[email protected]
Fax 608-265-4332

1. Develop advocacy capacity that emphasizes patient empowerment.
2. Develop critical health advocacy competencies including communication, collaborative decision making, cultural humility, and ethics.
3. Experience the discipline of advocacy from a case-based perspective, and explore how various key advocacy roles can be useful in specific situations.
4. Gain familiarity with the U. S. health care delivery system and the systemic problems that give rise to the need for advocacy at the individual organizational and policy levels.

A bachelor’s degree from a regionally accredited U.S. institution or a comparable degree from an international institution is required. International applicants must have a degree comparable to a regionally accredited U.S. bachelor’s degree. You must have completed your undergraduate degree, or similar, before starting graduate school.

A minimum undergraduate grade-point average (GPA) of 3.00 on the equivalent of the last 60 semester hours (approximately two years of work) or a master’s degree with a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.00 is required. Applicants from an international institution must demonstrate strong academic achievement comparable to a 3.00 for an undergraduate or master’s degree. The Graduate School will use your institution’s grading scale. Do not convert your grades to a 4.00 scale.

Every applicant whose native language is not English, or whose undergraduate instruction was not in English, must provide an English proficiency test score. TOEFL scores must be submitted electronically via ETS. IELTS scores can be submitted electronically or by paper.  Our office address is: UW-Madison Graduate School, Office of Admissions, 232 Bascom Hall, 500 Lincoln Drive, Madison, WI 53706.  Your score will not be accepted if it is more than two years old from the start of your admission term. Country of citizenship does not exempt applicants from this requirement. Language of instruction at the college or university level and how recent the language instruction was taken are the determining factors in meeting this requirement.

Applicants are exempt if: