Dr. Gen Meredith, associate professor with the Department of Public and Ecosystem Health at Cornell University, associate director of the Master of Public Health program, and director of Cornell’s Health Impact Score, explains how their new Public Health Strategic Skills Guide can help professionals in public health navigate changes to their roles and build upon their existing skill sets; Nick Jakubowski, chief operating officer at the Connecticut Department of Public Health, shares how his agency used PHIG funding...
Dr. Gen Meredith, associate professor with the Department of Public and Ecosystem Health at Cornell University, associate director of the Master of Public Health program, and director of Cornell’s Health Impact Score, explains how their new Public Health Strategic Skills Guide can help professionals in public health navigate changes to their roles and build upon their existing skill sets; Nick Jakubowski, chief operating officer at the Connecticut Department of Public Health, shares how his agency used PHIG funding to upgrade their procurement and grant management systems and deliver monies to the community more efficiently; on Wed., Oct. 29, ASTHO will hold part one of a two-part series on The Importance of Environmental Health Preparedness and Response; and subscribe to Public Health Review Morning Edition to start each weekday morning with a daily dose of insight from public health leaders across the country.
ASTHO Blog: Tennessee and Connecticut Are Transforming Procurement and Grant Management Systems
Cornell University: Enhancing Public Health Strategic Skills Guide
ASTHO Newscast: Public Health Review Morning Edition
JANSON SILVERS:
This is the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition for Wednesday, October 8, 2025. I'm Janson Silvers. Now, today's news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.
GEN MEREDITH:
Things are changing in the public health space practically every day, and the way that we can stay fresh, the way that we can be best prepared to serve our communities, is to continue to learn from and learn with peers around us.
SILVERS:
It's Workforce Wednesday, and this week, we're talking about a new guide that can support both personal and team development at your agency. Dr. Jen Meredith with Cornell University explains how their Public Health Strategic Skills Guide can help professionals in the public health space navigate changes to their roles.
MEREDITH:
Sometimes, we're called to work on other projects, or sometimes we are able to move into leadership and management roles. And as we are moving into these new spaces, as we are taking on new responsibilities, strategic skills are these cross-cutting elements that allow us to be successful.
SILVERS:
Many in the public health field were looking for trainings that could help them develop their skills, but noted that it could be difficult to find ones that were both accessible and aligned with what they needed to learn.
MEREDITH:
So, what we sought to do with CDC support was pull together some of the most accessible, best quality trainings that we could find, and put them into an easy-to-use guide.
SILVERS:
Meredith says the guide can help individuals reflect on where they want to grow and lay out steps to make it happen.
MEREDITH:
If this is one of my strategic growth priorities, is to invest in self, to invest in my capacity, or to support my team's growth, let's pull this guide out and work through the assessment together to figure out where we might want to prioritize.
SILVERS:
Meredith encourages anyone out there who has created a training that they think would be a good addition to the guide to reach out to her and her team. You can find their email address and download the guide using the link we have in the show notes.
Outdated technology can make procurement and grant management a challenge. Any health departments in the process of upgrading their system should ask themselves a question...
JAKUBOWSKI:
How do we not just redo the software for the 21st Century, but do it in a way that it actually matches the process flow, as well, that's changed over the past 20 years?
SILVERS:
That's Nick Jakubowski, chief operating officer with the Connecticut Department of Public Health. His team is currently in the process of transitioning over to Power Platform, a system that integrates with their Microsoft products to establish a central location for their data, giving them the ability to generate a variety of reports in much less time.
JAKUBOWSKI:
Being able to capture those review reports and execute on those reports, and being able to have them at our fingertips, is super helpful for us. One, for executive leadership. Two, for my frontline staff, but three, for also internal/external auditors that come in and ask me for some reports for us.
SILVERS:
One thing that the department's IT team helped the rest of their colleagues to understand is the importance of being deliberate in the redesign.
JAKUBOWSKI:
One of the things that we did was and our IT guys were very, very helpful making me understand this, don't just recreate what you currently have, recreate what you what you're going to need in the future. Come up in a way and an idea, what you want it to look like. And so, to do that, you actually got to do some- you actually got to do some- some, some deep thought on that.
SILVERS:
Jakubowski says that their system upgrade was made possible by PHIG funding.
JAKUBOWSKI:
And the PHIG grant is basically the backbone that is supporting the consultant effort of this. So, we have a consultant that we pay directly with the PHIG money to actually help us create the vision that we're looking for, actually execute on the ideas that we got, and actually administer this database in a way that's actually gonna make the most sense for us.
SILVERS:
The department's new system allows them to move through procurement and manage grants much more efficiently, saving time and ultimately ensuring that funds are delivered to Connecticut communities faster. To read more about the Connecticut Department of Public Health's experience upgrading their system, check out the link in the show notes.
Happening this month, on Wednesday, October 29, is part one of a two-part series on the importance of environmental health preparedness and response. Join representatives from North and South Carolina and the United States Public Health Service as they dive into how to prepare for and respond to environmental health impacts brought on by extreme weather events. Use the link in the show notes to sign up for the event.
That'll do it for today. We're back tomorrow morning with more ASTHO news and information. I'm Janson Silvers. You're listening to the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition. Have a great day.
Gen Meredith OTR DrPH MPH
Director, Health Impacts Core and Associate Director, Master of Public Health Program, Cornell University
