National Leadership Academy for the Public's Health

Overview

CDC strives to empower public health professionals with tools to improve public health practice within their jurisdictions. To further this mission, CDC’s Office for State, Tribal, Local and Territorial Support has provided support and partnership to the Public Health Institute’s Center for Health Leadership and Practice to launch and maintain the National Leadership Academy for the Public’s Health (NLAPH).

NLAPH offers an innovative style of leadership development by bringing together teams of leaders from multiple sectors who actively engage their communities to improve population health and achieve health equity. This one-year program uses blended learning modalities and an action learning process that includes a webinar series, leadership retreat, coaching support, peer networking, an applied health leadership project, and web-based resources. Competencies are embedded within the program curriculum to encourage the advancement of leadership knowledge, attitudes, and practices.

Click on the map below to see a list of NLAPH projects by state.
(links to healthleadership.org)

Program Goals

The goals of NLAPH are to

Educate stakeholders about evidence-based policy options
Drive the adoption of evidence-based practices in communities
Better align medicine and public health
Improve health outcomes in our nation through sustainable systems change

Program Objectives

The objectives of NLAPH are to

Provide ongoing leadership training and support to leaders that work across sectors to address community health issues.
Improve leadership teams’ capacities to apply continuous quality improvement methodologies, measure progress of the projects, and document the impact of leadership development
Build and support the development of communities with multi-sector leadership learners using online technology and social media tools that will contribute to community health improvement goals and inform policy change

Teams

The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the principal agency for protecting the health of all Americans, has regional offices across the country which communities and individual citizens can interact with the department.

Teams were selected through a competitive process that resulted in the selection of 20 teams of four people for each of Cohort 1 and Cohort 2 (80 participants per year). The 2012 and 2013 cohorts are geographically and culturally diverse, with representation from tribal communities, rural areas, and urban areas. Participating states include Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Virginia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Louisiana, Nebraska, Arizona, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Vermont, California, and Idaho.

Teams address a variety of topics, including

Health Literacy
Chronic Disease Prevention
Immunizations and Preventative Services
Maternal and Child Health
Social and Emotional Wellness
Emergency Preparedness
Alcohol and Substance Abuse
Mental Health
Built Environment
Health-related Policy Work
Nutrition and Fitness
Culturally Specific Intervention

Curriculum

Each community-based team receives leadership training and coaching from national experts and through collaboration with other teams via retreats, webinars, networking, an applied health leadership project, and web-based resources.

Competencies: Advance the leadership knowledge, attitude, and practice of individuals and teams to lead systems change efforts including the following components

Individual leadership mastery
Ability to work effectively across sectors & with diverse stakeholders
Community organizing and advocacy
Leveraging resources for collective impact
Policy analysis and development
Commitment to health in all policies, social determinants of health, and advancing equity.

Four work phases of the NLAPH year: