How To Become A Health Professor: What It Is and Career Path

What is a health professor and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

Quoted expert

Alex Holte PhD

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a health professor. For example, did you know that they make an average of $47.62 an hour? That's $99,056 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 12% and produce 159,400 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to a health professor?

Alex Holte PhD

Assistant Professor of Psychology, Website

My advice for someone new to the field of academia is to learn time management skills early and learn what type of service work you find interesting and would like to contribute to. From there, learn how to say “no” to opportunities that may not align with your goals as well. I feel a lot of new professors tend to find the need to be involved in everything, which can result in burning out later in their career.

ScoreHealth ProfessorUS Average

Salary

7.6

Avg. Salary $99,056

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.8

Growth rate 12%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.2

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.28%

Asian 11.23%

Black or African American 7.27%

Hispanic or Latino 10.35%

Unknown 4.95%

White 65.92%

Gender

female 64.04%

male 35.96%

Age - 46

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 46

Stress level

6.8

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

6.9

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.0

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a health professor

Explore health professor education requirements

Most common health professor degrees

Bachelor's

45.2 %

Master's

33.3 %

Associate

9.5 %

Start to develop specific health professor skills

Skills	Percentages
Health Education	55.57%
Physiology	18.71%
Clinical Laboratory	13.89%
Ethics	7.41%
Course Materials	4.41%

Complete relevant health professor training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New health professors learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a health professor based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real health professor resumes.

Research health professor duties and responsibilities

Lead outreach to community and statewide stakeholders in the PPCC entrepreneurship program.
Develop contextually sensitive evidence aggregation methods from patient records that consider whole patients over time, rather than just linguistic correctness.
Develop and provide graduate level lecture/support to doctorate candidates in the area of clinical pharmacology and research
Assess the differences in biomarkers of exposure among African-Americans and Caucasians, comparing menthol and non-menthol cigarette smoking.

Apply for health professor jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a health professor job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams