Educating and Empowering Emerging Leaders under the National Partnership for Action to End Health Disparities: Lessons Learned and Opportunities for Improvement

Several objectives of the National Partnership for Action to End Health Disparities (NPA) aim to educate youth about health disparities, increase their capacity to participate in efforts to reduce disparities, and increase the diversity of the health care workforce. To attain these objectives, the HHS Office of Minority Health (OMH) created the NPA Emerging Professionals Practicum in 2013 to educate and empower graduate public health students – our nation’s emerging public health professionals – to engage in regional activities to end health disparities. Emerging professionals recruited and placed graduate public health students in Regional Health Equity Councils (RHECs), which are regional NPA partners. Overall, practicum participants were engaged in a wide variety of data collection and analyses activities, and developed policy products such as a health equity report card and regional blueprints for action. Participants in the practicum were assessed to determine the impact of the practicum on their knowledge, technical skills, career goals and direction with respect to health disparities, and experiences related to health disparities. The evaluation showed positive changes in assessed domains for the interns and also highlighted the need for more practicum opportunities to strengthen and broaden leadership on health disparities. The purpose of this presentation is to: provide an overview of the practicum, discuss the evaluation methods and results, share challenges, and highlight opportunities to expand the NPA’s efforts to implement the NPA’s youth-focused objectives.