Public health agencies across the country face a growing workforce shortage—but Missouri is tackling the challenge head-on. On today's installment of the PHIG Impact Report, we explore how Missouri internship programs are building a diverse, skilled pipeline of future public health professionals while strengthening partnerships between state and local agencies. Scott Allen, an administrator and health officer of the Webster County Health Unit, shares how hands-on internships are giving students real-world experience in areas like accreditation, emergency preparedness, food safety, and wastewater policy while delivering immediate value to rural communities. We’re also joined by Brenna Davidson, an operational excellence leader with the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, who explains how strategic investments through the Public Health Infrastructure Grant funding helped launch and scale the program. She highlights the importance of removing barriers with paid internships, broadening recruitment beyond traditional public health fields, and strengthening leadership development through innovative initiatives like the Leadership Challenge.
This work is supported by funds made available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), National Center for STLT Public Health Infrastructure and Workforce, through OE22-2203: Strengthening U.S. Public Health Infrastructure, Workforce, and Data Systems grant. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by CDC/HHS, or the U.S. Government.
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This is Public Health Review
Morning edition for Tuesday,
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March 3rd, 2026.
I'm John Sheehan for the
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Association of State and
Territorial Health Officials
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with another edition of the FIG
Impact Report.
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Today, we explore how Missouri
internship programs are building
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a diverse, skilled pipeline of
future public health
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professionals while
strengthening partnerships
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between state and local
agencies.
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Scott Allen, an administrator
and health officer of the
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Webster County Health Unit,
shares how hands on internships
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are giving students real world
experience in areas like
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accreditation, emergency
preparedness, food safety and
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wastewater policy while
delivering immediate value to
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rural communities.
Later.
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Brenna Davidson, an operational
excellence leader with the
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Missouri Department of Health
and Senior Services.
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We'll explain how strategic
investments through the Public
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Health Infrastructure Grant
helped launch and scale their
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internship program and develop
initiatives like the Leadership
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Challenge.
First, here's Scott Allen on the
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Webster County, Missouri
internship program.
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Our partnership with Missouri
State University and their
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internship program goes back
many years.
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Actually, interestingly enough,
our first master's in public
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health intern is now in medical
school.
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We're really proud of her.
So the university reached out to
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us and asked if we would be
interested in partnering with
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them in a master's in public
health internship program.
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And I was very fortunate that
our health education supervisor,
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who coordinates that program for
us, is actually a former nursing
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professor from Missouri State
University.
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So she was familiar with their
program and it was an easy fit
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for us.
So we had two interns that
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started here before the Pathways
program, which is a partnership
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between the Missouri State
Department of Health and Senior
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Services, local health
departments and the different
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universities in the state to
provide kind of, as the name
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says, a pathway to a career for
these masters in public health
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students.
And what has the relationship
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been like between you?
You touched on this a little
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bit, but between your internship
program and the state level.
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We work very closely.
We actually the, the first round
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of pathway students that we, we
had, I knew it was going to be a
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lot of work, but I, they really
wanted to place some students.
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So I, I begged and pleaded my
case and our health education
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supervisor agreed to take on
five pathways students.
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And it, it, it was a lot.
But we actually have had those
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students up to the state capital
with us.
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It's been a, a great
partnership.
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They've met with senior
leadership of the state health
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department.
And the, the goal is wanting
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them to understand that public
health is, is more than sitting
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in an office doing epidemiology
or that kind of thing.
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We really want them to get a
good rounded experience during
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their time with us.
And what kind of projects do you
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have them working on?
So a lot of what they've been
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doing has been working on our
recently on accreditation, so
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helping come up with policies,
procedures, that sort of thing.
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Actually the, our first intern
that I mentioned was before the
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Pathways program and she
actually created a emergency
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preparedness assessment for us.
So it it's called a frat public
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health resource assessment tool,
I think.
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And she found that somewhere
back east kind of adopted it for
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us and then the state actually
picked that up.
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So they've created now a MO frat
because of the work that one of
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our interns did.
So we've done, we've had an
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intern who's done that.
We've had an intern who worked
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on creating a wastewater
ordinance for the county.
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Our intern last semester worked
on creating a food safety
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ordinance.
I actually just met with our
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intern for this semester and
she's going to be working on a,
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a part of our FEP for public
health emergency preparedness
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contract.
That will require us to create a
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procedure, if you will, for how
we disseminate information
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between partners and, and
everybody from at a local level,
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other providers, the, the
coroner, the fire departments,
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that sort of thing.
And then all the way up to the
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national level through the state
national, so CDC and that sort
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of thing.
So she'll be working between now
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and May to get that together for
us.
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That's great.
And you mentioned your first
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intern who is now in medical
school, and that's great.
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Do you find that you're you're
staying in contact with past
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interns and that the program has
you?
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Do yeah, yeah, actually one of
our interns is heading up the
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FEP program for New Mexico's
Department of Public Health for
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the State Department of Public
Health.
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So we're very, very proud of
them and they've all done some
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great things and we've been
fortunate.
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I mean, the, the, the talent
that we've had through this
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program that's come through our
building has been amazing.
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Our intern this semester is a
pharmacist from India.
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Last semester we had a
registered nurse from Nepal.
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We've had physicians from
different countries come in, a
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dentist from India that was an
intern with us.
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So hopefully they get a lot out
of the program, but we also get
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a lot out of them spending that
time with us.
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That's great.
Are there any other successes
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you would like to point to and
give a shout out?
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It's really creating a job
pipeline for both the
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international students and the
students here.
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And the the other thing is kind
of shout out wise, one of the
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things that we're really proud
of is when one of our students
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comes here and learns about
public health, learns about and,
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and very rural public health
here in Webster County.
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And then is able to take that
information back to their
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hometown, their home state or
their home country and put that
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that information and what they
learned here into effect.
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And and we know that they're out
making their world a better
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place because of the time they
spent with us here.
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Scott Allen is an administrator
and health officer of the
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Webster County, Missouri Health
Unit.
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Now let's hear from Brenna
Davidson, an operational
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excellence leader with the
Missouri Department of Health
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and Senior Services, about
Missouri's Pathways Internship
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program.
The Pathways Internship program,
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it's such a net positive for
public health in Missouri.
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We've seen more than 700 folks
apply to be an intern when we
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really thought we'd be lucky to
get like 50 people interested.
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So far, over 5 semesters, 86
interns have completed the
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program and feedback has been
very positive from both the
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intern and the host agencies.
The application process is kind
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of like a dating app, so folks
apply to host an intern and
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apply to be an intern, and then
we match them based on their
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interests and their locations.
Any of our 115 local public
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health agencies in our or our
state team members can apply to
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host an intern, and that's by
design.
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We wanted to offer the option to
work in any environment the
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intern's interested in.
Missouri's kind of a microcosm
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of the nation.
We have very urban and very
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rural areas, and those areas
have very different challenges
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for public health agencies.
So it's important to match those
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interns with the best setting
for them and their career
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interests.
The real beauty of the Pathways
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program is that it's available
to more than just public health
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students, too.
We welcome communication,
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accounting, computer science,
that even graduate students to
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apply because we know that
public health is a very broad
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scope of practice, right?
And folks like me tend to fall
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into public health and fall in
love with the work.
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So this is the kind of diverse
skills and mindsets we want to
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build for Missouri's workforce.
That's great.
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What has been the role of FIG
funding in the program?
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FIG is the direct funding
support we needed to get
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pathways off the ground.
So these kinds of pipeline
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programs are proven to boost our
workforce.
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And we've always faced a
shortage of public health
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professionals in Missouri.
So as soon as the funding was
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available, we knew we had to
maximize its impact.
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FIG gives us the ability to
provide competitive siphons to
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interns that's going to remove a
lot of barriers for folks that
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normally would not be able to
gain this kind of valuable
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experience.
And then local public health
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agencies like Webster County may
not have funds on hand to hire
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and pay interns like this.
So we're all about removing
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barriers for our local partners.
And it was a no brainer to use
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FIG to pay the way, especially
when our locals are as
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supportive and as enthusiastic
as our friends in Webster
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County.
And another program.
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That you've been, that you've
had success with is the
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leadership challenge.
What is this and and what is
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the?
What is the purpose?
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Yeah, the leadership challenge
is a a really refreshing
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approach to leadership
development that our friends
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that I lead to facilitate
Missouri.
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This program combines more of
that traditional leadership
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development curriculum with some
hands on and personalized
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coaching and then 360 feedback
from your peers too.
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So leaders at both the state and
local public health agencies get
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to participate in this program
side by side.
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And that was a very intentional
part of our program design.
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We want to always continually
strengthen the relationship
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between the state and the
locals, giving those folks
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opportunities to like get to
know each other, to relate to
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each other, to realize that
we're all part of the public
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health system here in Missouri.
And the leadership Challenge is
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structured in a cohort style
arrangement that really creates
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that connection between
participants.
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The number of times I've heard
people like yell, oh, I know
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that guy, he was in my
leadership challenge cohort in
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the hallways is enough to tell
me that it is building those
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relationships.
But of course, you know, it
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wouldn't be good performance
management if we didn't report
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on some real numbers.
So over 12 sessions, we've
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trained 225 leaders with three
more cohorts planned in 26.
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And when it comes to quality
metrics, we've heard our overall
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experience rating is
consistently over 90%.
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And then 100% of participants
have committed to applying the
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lessons learned in their
day-to-day work.
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And I don't know, last time I
got 100% of people to agree to
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anything.
And we've had people with more
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than 30 years of public health
experience tell us this was the
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best leadership program they've
ever participated in.
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So that's the fuel we need to
keep this momentum up.
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That's amazing.
And you know, you've just listed
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a lot of successes and a lot of
big positives for the programs.
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As you look back on the
successes of both, are there
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things that you're most proud
of?
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For sure, I FIG in general has
been such an impactful resource
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for us in Missouri because it's
given us the ability to think
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FIG and pursue systems level
improvements.
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We knew this was a rare
opportunity to inject
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significant funds where we
needed the most following the
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pandemic.
We also knew something like FIG
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wouldn't be around forever.
So we've invested in long term
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strategies that are going to
systematically increase public
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health funding, build a stronger
workforce, diversify our data
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modernization support, and then
increase the number of
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accredited public health
agencies in Missouri.
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So if I had to pick one topic
I'm most proud of, it's got to
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be our work to support locals
and their journeys to become
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accredited.
This is almost a non answer
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though, because accreditation is
so wide-ranging.
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But we know that improving
operations at the individual
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agency level through the
accreditation framework is going
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to have impacts at the macro
level.
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So we're going to have agencies
that are focused on quality
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improvement, that have the right
policies in place and have
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invested energy into performance
management to really help build
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that armor of sustainability for
our local agencies that's going
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to help them weather any storm.
And that is what FIG is all
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about.
Brenda Davidson is an
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operational excellence leader
with the Missouri Department of
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Health and Senior Services.
Earlier.
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We heard from Scott Allen, an
administrator and health officer
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of the Webster County, Missouri
Health Unit.
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This has been another FIG impact
report from the Public Health
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Review Morning Edition.
I'm John Sheehan for the
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Association of State and
Territorial Health Officials.
