Contributing to a diverse public health workforce: A model for recruiting minorities to public health careers

As a part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Cooperative Agreement, the Public Health Foundation (PHF) was awarded a grant to work with one college or university with a minority population that has a division/school/program in a health-related field to develop and implement an outreach plan aimed at increasing the number of minority students who pursue a career in public health. Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University (FAMU), a prominent Historically Black College and University (HBCU), collaborated with PHF on this initiative.

PHF is dedicated to achieving healthy communities through innovative research, training, and technical assistance. From conducting research to completing online courses, the computer is a major tool for teaching and learning. TRAIN, the online platform that was used in this initiative, is a unique web-based learning management solution for public health training and an effective mechanism for introducing minority undergraduate students to potential careers in public health. Developed by PHF in 2003 in response to state requests for training that would efficiently prepare workers and track training for emergencies, TRAIN currently serves over 327,000 registered learners with over 15,500 courses provided by over 3,175 course providers.

This session will discuss how PHF, in collaboration with FAMU and CDC, has implemented, marketed and evaluated an outreach plan for undergraduate minority students. Attendees will understand how TRAIN has made it possible to track recruitment success as well as benefiting participants by allowing access to thousands of public health trainings already on TRAIN.