Developing Leaders, Building Networks: An Evaluation of the National Public Health Leadership Institute - 1991-2006
Authors:
Karl Umble, PhD, MPH, Sandra Diehl, MPH, Alison Gunn, MPH, and Susan Haws, MPH
The National Public Health Leadership Institute is a leadership development program in the United States sponsored by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The Institute's mission is to strengthen the leadership competencies of senior public health leaders and to build a network of senior leaders who can work together and share knowledge on how to address public health challenges. The CDC founded PHLI in 1990 and remains its sponsor. In 2006-2007, the CDC elected to sponsor an evaluation of the program’s first fifteen years of operation. This comprehensive report presents the results of that evaluation.
Abstract
The National Public Health Leadership Institute was a large CDC commitment to improving infrastructure and systems after the 1988 IOM report, The Future of Public Health. The program developed the capabilities of leaders, strengthened their influence, and encouraged them to lead nationally through associations and task forces. Simultaneously, the program and its sequelae built networks of leaders who knew and trusted one another, reconceptualized infrastructure and systems development, and helped lead the development and implementation of tools that embodied the new concepts, such as through the Performance Standards and Accreditation movements and MAPP. Individual "leader development" and "network development" strengthened one another and system improvements; "leadership development programs" should build both leaders and networks and be tightly linked to real work on improvements outside the "classroom."
Read the Report
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- Complete Report (231 pages)
- Executive Summary (16 pages)
Separate Sections of the Report:
- Brief Table of Contents
- Expanded Table of Contents
- Table of Figures
- Table of Tables
- Acronyms
- Introduction, PHLI History and Description, Evaluation Questions and Methods
- Findings:
- Domain 1. Individual Leader Development
- Domain 2. Leader Actions: Career-Related Outcomes and Voluntary
Leadership Positions Taken - Domain 3. Network Development and Network Actions
- Domain 4. Public Health Systems and Infrastructure Development
- Domain 5. PHLI and the Future Direction of Public Health Leadership
Development
- Summary and Discussion
- References
- Appendix A: PHLI Survey Instrument
- Appendix B: Interview Guide for PHLI Graduates
- Appendix C: Interview Guide for Key Informants
- Stories:
Previous evaluations of the National Public Health Leadership Institute
Scutchfield, F. D., Spain, C., Pointer, D.D., & Hafey, J.M. (1995). The Public Health Leadership Institute: Leadership training for state and local health officers. Journal of Public Health Policy, 16(3), pp. 304-23.
Woltring, C., Constantine, W., & Schwarte, L. (2003). Does leadership training make a difference? The CDC/UC Public Health Leadership Institute: 1991-1999. Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, 9(2), 103-122.
Umble, K., Steffen, D., Porter, J., Miller, D., Hummer-McLaughlin, K., Lowman, A., & Zelt, S. (2005). The National Public Health Leadership Institute: Evaluation of a team-based approach to developing collaborative public health leaders. American Journal of Public Health, 95(4), pp. 641-644.
Miller, D., Umble, K., Dinkin, D., & Frederick, S. (2007). Linking development methods to outcomes in the National Public Health Leadership Institute. Leadership in Health Services, 20(2), 97-123.