Celebrating National Public Health Week: Academic Health Department program is a way forward for the public health workforce pipeline

As we celebrate National Public Health Week, it’s impossible to ignore one of the most pressing challenges facing our field: a rapidly changing workforce landscape. With many public health workers retiring and local health departments (LHDs) navigating shrinking budgets, California is anticipating a public health workforce gap. Strengthening and sustaining the next generation of public health professionals is more critical than ever.

To meet this moment, the Public Health Institute’s Center for Health Leadership and Impact (CHLI) created the California Academic Health Department (CAHD) program, as part of its broader public health workforce pathways initiative. CAHD helps LHDs build stronger, more sustainable workforce pipelines by connecting them with emerging public health professionals. Since 2023, the program placed and supported 20 public health students and recent graduates in LHDs across six counties, filling important roles while cultivating long-term public health career pathways.

For the past 3 years, CCHE has partnered with CHLI to evaluate the effectiveness of CAHD. Findings highlight the program’s strong contributions to workforce development:

CAHD created career pathways: 100% of participants said CAHD contributed to their professional development and influenced their career goals. CAHD strengthened public health skills: 100% of participants improved skills to work across sectors, address social determinants of health, and engage community representative voices. CAHD positively impacted LHDs: 100% of LHDs said participants made a positive impact in their areas of work. Program satisfaction was high: 94% of participants and 100% of LHDs were satisfied with the program and would recommend it to others.

Throughout implementation, CHLI adapted to local realities by iterating on the program’s design to ensure satisfaction and effectiveness. One example includes working with a third-party employment partner to streamline hiring. This flexible, replicable approach offers a promising pathway for strengthening the public health workforce statewide. By leveraging the proven academic health department model, CHLI is fostering deeper collaboration between academia and public health practice, ensuring that training aligns with real-world challenges.

As we celebrate National Public Health Week and recognize the essential role of the public health workforce, programs like CAHD demonstrate what is possible when we invest in people and partnerships to support long-term capacity. 

Learn More! Read a 2-pager about the CAHD program here or dive into more detail on CHLI’s website. For more information, contact Maggie Jones: maggie.e.jones@kp.org