876: PH Workforce Lessons, Interagency Leadership Convening

JANSON SILVERS: 

This is the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition for Wednesday, April 2, 2025. I'm Janson Silvers. Now, today's news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

RYAN JURY: 

What I've learned from ALI in this moment, in relation to trauma-informed leadership, is recognizing that the dose, intensity, and pace of stress and how we use that as a leadership tool can have a huge impact on how staff feel burnt out.

SILVERS: 

Ryan Jury is with the Department of Health and Human Services in North Carolina. We recently caught up with him in D.C. during ASTHO's Spring Leadership Forum, where he shared lessons learned from the Forum and from ASTHO's Leadership Institute.

JURY: 

Thinking about how we can make sure that we are truly identifying where our opportunities and risks are, doing an assessment of really understanding what's behind those perceptions of risks or opportunities, and then from there, creating a plan.

SILVERS: 

Jury adds that public health should address workforce needs from multiple angles.

JURY: 

When we think about our workforce needs, training can solve education, but training can't solve experience, right? We're more of like a cohort model, or other types of interventions might help expertise in relation to experience, training only solves education, not experience.

SILVERS: 

Learn more about ASTHO's Leadership Institute by clicking the link in the show notes.

Also, during the D.C. Spring Leadership Forum, we caught up with US Virgin Islands Health Commissioner, Justa Encarnacion. As with many of the island areas, Medicaid is near the top of the list of concerns.

JUSTA ENCARNACION: 

If we are able to utilize Medicaid funding to bring the workforce to the territory, you know, much money that would actually be saving us, saving the federal government. So, we kind of need to look at it in a different manner. Then again, if we have those specialists within a territory, they also work with providing the care of the ones who already have chronic disease.

SILVERS: 

Encarnacion also spoke about a recent interagency leadership team convened by ASTHO. It includes the US Virgin Islands, the CDC, and additional federal partners.

ENCARNACION: 

The outcome of the business process improvement is actually very evident. So, we're able to cut down on the length of time that we process grants, the collaboration between the entities. When does it go to OMB? When do we get the figures and the numbers in terms of the grant cycle that we need? Those kind of things are being taken care of.

SILVERS: 

Encarnacion knows showcasing process improvement is more important than ever.

ENCARNACION: 

If we could show the federal government we have the data available, then, of course, we prove to ourselves that not only are we spending the money, but the operational portion of that grant is just as important.

SILVERS: 

Also, on Thursday, April 3, you can learn more about how AmeriCorps is shaping public health in the states in an ASTHO webinar. Leaders from Indiana and the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors will share their experience on the program from both a state and national perspective. Sign up today in the show notes.

Finally, this morning, don't miss any legislation or policy movements that affect public health. Sign up for ASTHO's Legislative Alerts. That way you'll always stay informed on the latest. The link is in the show notes.

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.