Public health workforce development: Current trends, emerging issues, and successful strategies for addressing challenges

In 2006, Health Affairs published a special issue examining the future of public health. In an article from that issue focusing on the future of the public health workforce, Kristine Gebbie and Bernard Turnock highlighted numerous programs, policies, and funding mechanisms that had been put into place in recent years, providing what they described as “unprecedented opportunities to expand and strengthen the public health workforce” (p. 925). In the relatively limited number of years since that article was published, unanticipated changes—including dramatic demographic, economic, political, and social transformations—have produced a paradigm shift in the field. This presentation will examine the most significant changes that have occurred in recent years and assess their impact on current and future public health workforce development initiatives. Changes discussed will include: the aging of the population; the rapid increase in obesity and obesity-related chronic disease; the global economic downturn; resulting reductions in public and private funding for public health research and programming; and passage of the Accountable Care Act, as well as subsequent political and legal challenges to the law. The second half of the presentation will explore best practices and successful strategies for addressing these changes, as well as for anticipating and adapting to new challenges on the horizon. Case studies from leading individuals and organizations from across the field will be presented and key considerations will be discussed.