About PHLI
Public health is as complex, as important, and as challenging now as it ever has been. CDC has re-funded the Public Health Leadership Institute to convene the new leaders and new partners who together will confront the new challenges in public health.
| PHLI Calendar | |
|---|---|
| 2008 applications due | January 25, 2008 |
| New class selected | February 2008 |
| Kick-off webinar | April 2008 (on-line) |
| First on-site | May 13-16, 2008, Rizzo Center, Chapel Hill NC |
| Second on-site | October 19-22, 2008, Asilomar, Monterey CA |
| Presentations & graduation | January 2009 (on-line) |
The goal: create new cadres of public health leaders who will help lead change in the public health system.
The new PHLI is a one-year leadership development program for high-potential leaders with a commitment to leading in their own organizations and communities, but also leading system change on the national scene.
Themes
Based on published competency sets, discussions with partners and funders, and our recent 17-year retrospective evaluation, we have developed a set of topic areas for the new PHLI. As it always has, PHLI will continue to be a custom program with a curriculum that evolves with the needs of the field.
Our theme is “New Partners, New Challenges.” That theme applies first to PHLI itself. The new program is being run by four key institutions in public health leadership that have never worked together before: new partners. And the new program we have designed addresses new and emerging challenges in public health in a variety of ways.
The program’s recruiting process is designed to attract new partners from across the public health system: legislative leaders, media leaders, business leaders, leaders in and out of the government sector. Applicants from governmental public health this year are encouraged to recruit a “learning partner” from outside their organization, to build depth and richness into the PHLI network.
The program’s action learning design means PHLI scholars will work together on real challenges, with sponsors from national organizations like ASTHO, NACCHO and CDC.
“New Partners, New Challenges” also reflects the design of the PHLI curriculum around two central areas: leading people and leading system change.
Leading People: Effective leaders inspire trust and confidence. In public health, that means leading people within organizations but also leading community improvement with diverse partners across sectors, across borders, across the country. In keeping with the “New Partners” theme, PHLI incorporates the following curricular areas:
- individual assessment and coaching
- leading teams and collaborations
- authentic leadership
- effective networks
- feeding the leadership pipeline
Leading System Change: Leadership is ultimately measured by outcomes. The set of new challenges for public health leaders is diverse. This theme area represents investigations into the role of leadership in creating positive change that resonates from the local level to the national level.
- systems thinking
- change management
- value chain
- quality and performance
- policy change
Program Design and Principles
The new PHLI is designed to work on several levels to create strong individual leaders and link them to national system change:
Recruit high-potential leaders: Through nominations and open applications, the program seeks individual leaders with experience and interest in working at the national level on systems change.
Foster individual development: PHLI uses state-of-the-art assessment tools and individual coaching led by the internationally renowned Center for Creative Leadership, a non-profit research and training organization based in Greensboro NC. Authentic leadership begins with knowing yourself and charting the changes you will make to lead more effectively.
Build a network of committed leaders: Networking is more than an informal by-product of the program. We know from extensive evaluation that the network is a key way that PHLI contributes to system change, so network development is a formal part of the curriculum and an intentional focus of the program design.
Link with national sponsors: Leadership is an activity, not a knowledge set (that’s why it is so often compared to activities like ballroom dancing, or combat, or extreme sports). PHLI will create “action learning” teams to work on national priority projects, with sponsorship from national organizations like ASTHO, NACCHO, CDC and others. Action learning combines relevant, real-world application with analysis and reflection, combining individual development with tangible outcomes and real networking.
Combine learning methods. Thenew PHLI uses a variety of teaching methods, from sessions with seminal thinkers (in and out of public health) to case study sessions, experiential learning, individual assessment tools, team-based action learning and reflection. With assistance from PHLS the program extends to web-assisted distance learning including webinars and a book club.