The purpose of this institute is to explore strategies for developing a public health leadership program that prepares emerging local health department leaders for emergency response. The professionals in small to mid-size health departments often lack opportunities to develop the full range of leadership skills, especially in emergency response. In many states, newly appointed departmental leaders lack mentorship opportunities.

This CEI will present an approach to the development of a state-level public health leadership program with five components:

1) Robust participant selection process;

2) Deliberate “branding” of the program to increase impact and assure continued success;

3) Creation of a virtual community based upon the typical town or city in the state that includes key demographic and geographic features, health status and vulnerable infrastructure;

4) Detailed case studies that explore different dimensions of public health leadership: “collaborative” for everyday activities and “executive” for times of crisis;

5) A multi-dimensional evaluation rubric that includes pre- and post-evaluations, session assessment, focus interviews and long-term follow-up.

The presenters are the principals behind the Public Health Leadership Initiative for Emergency Response (PHLIER) and its Phlierton virtual community, an innovative program designed to prepare the next generation of New Jersey’s public health leaders.