435: Training Fearless Leaders, PH Authority Dashboard

ROBERT JOHNSON: 

This is Public Health Review Morning Edition for Tuesday, June 6, 2023. I'm Robert Johnson. Now, today's news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

MARISSA LEVINE: 

If you're trying to think of how you can be not only a better leader, but more creative, innovative and connected, I think this is the opportunity for you.

ROBERT JOHNSON: 

Dr. Marissa Levine is director of the Center for Leadership in public health practice at the University of South Florida. She's talking about a new leadership program for public health and community professionals that begins accepting applications today.

MARISSA LEVINE: 

So, what we're trying to do is bring public health and their community leaders together to learn how to not only improve their individual leadership, but their collaborative leadership, which is going to be very necessary to do the work on these complex issues.

ROBERT JOHNSON: 

The PHEARLESS program is a one-year experiential learning opportunity. Levine says the goal is to develop leaders who will serve the well being of everyone in their jurisdiction.

MARISSA LEVINE: 

But I would say any group that has a collaborative effort that's already ongoing, regardless of the stage of that collaborative effort, could consider applying. And the nice thing is that the 15, selected communities will all receive $100,000 from the Kresge Foundation to support their ongoing collaborative work. And in that process, they'll have access to mentors and subject matter experts and other resources.

ROBERT JOHNSON: 

Applications are due July 5. The program starts in late September. Read more information about the PHEARLESS initiative using the link in the show notes.

A new dashboard tracking laws impacting public health authority is now online. Maggie Davis says it includes data provided by ASTHO.

MAGGIE DAVIS: 

The Act for Public Health took our kind of raw legislative tracking, and then created into this visual data set where you can actually look in this interactive map to see which states have enacted laws that either restrict public health authority but also laws that strengthen public health authority.

ROBERT JOHNSON: 

Davis is ASTHO's Director of State Health Policy. She says the dashboard can help ASTHO members monitor trends and changes in laws governing public health authority made over the last year.

MAGGIE DAVIS: 

Public health practitioners can really just get a sense of what has the movement been in that period of time, and can really sort to see where have there been restrictions and certain categories of the laws or elements of the laws that relate to these fundamental public health powers.

ROBERT JOHNSON: 

Temple University built the database with ASTHO as part of the Act for Public Health initiative.

MAGGIE DAVIS: 

To our knowledge, this is probably the most robust data set where you're really able to get into different elements of the law, and it also provides links directly to the legislation that was enacted that we're referring to.

ROBERT JOHNSON: 

You can visit the dashboard using the link in the show notes.

Also today, public health needs better data to improve the health and safety of American Indian and Alaskan Native mothers and their babies. Dr. Ed Ehlinger is the former state health officer in Minnesota and a former past president of ASTHO. He says there are many challenges to data collection.

ED EHLINGER: 

So there's no real concentration of populations. Also, over half of the American Indians, Alaska Natives don't live on reservations. So, they're in the broader community. They're in urban areas, and they're in rural communities. So, they often don't get counted. They blend into the background. And so that's why I say it's often they're kind of viewed as an asterisk, you know, they're out there somewhere, but we don't have enough to count on.

ROBERT JOHNSON: 

The Federal Advisory Committee on Infant and Maternal Mortality has issued a groundbreaking report, the first ever to consider these concerns and issue recommendations that many hope will save lives. Ehlinger oversaw the committee's work as chairman of the panel. Here more of his conversation in a new episode of the Public Health Review Podcast coming soon everywhere you stream audio.

Finally, this morning, stay current on changes in public health policy by getting on ASTHO's Legislative Alerts email list. You can find the link in the show notes.

That'll do it for today's newscast. We're back tomorrow morning with more ASTHO news and information. I'm Robert Johnson. You're listening to Public Health Review Morning Edition. Have a great day.