New Nationwide Leadership Program to Foster Innovative Multi-Sectoral Collaboration to Improve Community Health

OAKLAND, Calif., March 5, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Center for Health Leadership and Practice (CHLP) at the Public Health Institute (PHI) is proud to announce the launch of the new National Leadership Academy for the Public's Health (NLAPH). Funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Office for State, Tribal, Local, and Territorial Support (OSTLTS), NLAPH will advance a new model of public health leadership by developing teams of leaders from across health, government, business, education and other sectors to tackle critical community health issues.

The inaugural group of 20 multi-sectoral leadership teams – selected from across the country by CHLP with OSTLTS through an open and competitive process – recently began the program. For the next year, teams will be trained in a team-based, collaborative leadership development model while they work on an applied learning project that addresses a specific community health issue. 

"This program will empower community health teams with the skills to lead across a variety of sectors to solve community health problems through collaboration and innovation," said Carmen Rita Nevarez, M.D., MPH, Vice President for External Relations at PHI and Director of CHLP. "Development of collaborative leaders is critical to effectively solving today's complex public health problems in ways that have a lasting impact on health outcomes."

NLAPH will provide training and support to assist the teams in successfully addressing a wide range of critical health issues, including chronic disease prevention, drug and alcohol abuse and emergency preparedness. The selected teams represent 15 states from across the U.S. and projects range in scale from single community to statewide initiatives.

Training and support will be delivered through on-site and distance learning venues with a focus on four levels of leadership including personal leadership, collaborative leadership, systems leadership and community health improvement leadership. NLAPH is provided at no cost to the participants or the community.

About PHI
PHI, an independent nonprofit organization based in Oakland, California, is dedicated to promoting health, well-being, and an improved quality of life for people throughout California, across the nation and around the world. PHI's primary methods for achieving these goals include: sharing evidence developed through quality research and evaluation; providing training and technical assistance; and promoting successful prevention strategies to policymakers, communities, and individuals.

SOURCE Public Health Institute