Oral

Leadership development is an integral component of a comprehensive system for public health workforce development and critical to strong public health infrastructure. With the increasingly constrained state and local budgets and passage of the Affordable Care Act, innovation and collaboration are crucial to succeed in leading community health improvement initiatives. Recent investments from federal agencies and private foundations provide opportunities for community initiatives to address the challenges of chronic diseases and health disparities. In keeping with the theme of Healthy Communities Promote Healthy Minds and Bodies, this session will explore stories and journeys as told by public health leaders who are committed to building healthy communities by engaging communities to address physical and social environmental injustice. Through the power of personal narrative we will learn about their change initiatives in diverse settings and communities, discover what motivates them, what sustains them over the longer term, what lessons and hard earned secrets to success they have learned, and how being part of leadership development initiatives and programs has helped them to renew their level of commitment and seek new directions to address age old public health concerns. This session is co-sponsored by the National Public Health Leadership Development Network (NLN) and the Public Health Leadership Society (PHLS). NLN is a consortium of organizations and individuals from academic institutions, national and international organizations - including 36 national, regional, state, and trans-border institutes dedicated to advancing the practice of public health leadership. PHLS is a member organization that supports the continued development of public health leadership through life-long learning, linking leaders, sustaining the leadership development system, and serving as a catalyst to promote equitable public health policy.

Session Objectives: Participants will: •Identify opportunities for leadership development in their region and what they offer •Increase their understanding of the role of leadership development programs in strengthening individual skills and abilities and capacity of health systems •Gain insight into leadership challenges in shifting paradigms in public health •Develop a better understanding of the leadership skills, strategies and motivators needed to engage the community, and to drive social change and health system transformation

CE Credits: Medical (CME), Health Education (CHES), Nursing (CNE), Public Health (CPH)