The MPH is a very versatile degree, but it really depends on what you want to do. Anyone can work for the CDC — they need epis as much as they need janitors. And they need health admin folks like you to help them with policy development aspects of public health.

I think a MPH would come in handy for you if you want to be able to do research and evaluation. If you study epi in a MPH program, then you can take health data, analyze it and process it into reports to support. Then the reports can be used to guide health care policies in the future.

As for marketability, I think an epidemiology background is most marketable to the CDC, but does that necessitate another degree? not really. I know Epidemiology Intelligence Surveillance (EIS) Officers who don’t have MPH or public health-specific degrees (nurses, nutritionists, etc).

It’s a personal bias, but I think having a MPH is a good thing; so if you want it, go for it. Will it make you more marketable? Not necessarily. But it will make you eligible for more positions at the CDC. It will also diversify your skills. And agian, it’s my bias, but I think epidemiology is WAAAAAY more interesting than health admin.