Leadership training and building an emergency mass dispensing infrastructure in Cook County, Illinois

As part of a DrPH in leadership program, the authors addressed a serious problem in their local public health system with an action learning project, a defined continuing education tool that pushes students to address real-world problem through action and analyze the outcomes along the way with the help of a more senior coach, in this case the faculty instructors. The problem addressed was the Cook County Department of Public Health's development of mass dispensing plans to reach its population of 2.3 million residents in 125 incorporated municipalities across 700 square miles within 48 hours. Given the county government's inability to staff the operations itself, as well as the difficulty of coordinating so many otherwise independently operating local government units, a new regionalization process has been undertaken. The planning group for this initiative had struggled to define goals, as well as how and when to proceed in the complex organizational and political environment. The authors participated in and augmented this development process, applying leadership and strategic management techniques covered in the doctoral seminar. A central component of the action learning project was participation in and analysis of a multi-site full-scale mass dispensing exercise held in May 2008. Among the many results, the action learning project led to the development of a comprehensive stakeholder analysis, logic model, and increased understanding of relevant organizational and political forces, and guidance on how to proceed with the larger regional coordination system.