1169: PHIG Impact Report: Building a Stronger Public Health Workforce in New Mexico

JOHN SHEEHAN: 

This is Public Health Review Morning Edition for Tuesday, July 21, 2026. I'm John Sheehan with news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

 

A resilient public health system starts with investing in the people who make it work. In this PHIG Impact Report, director for the Office of Training and Development at the New Mexico Department of Health, Shadee Lauer discusses how Public Health Infrastructure Grant funding is helping the state recruit, retain, and develop its workforce through data-driven strategies and innovative professional development programs. Lauer shares how New Mexico used employee survey data to shape initiatives including paid internships, tuition reimbursement, leadership academies, recruitment and retention toolkits, and a “train the trainer” model that strengthens both the workforce and the communities it serves.

 

SHADEE LAUER: 

We have completed an organizational health survey. We looked at our PH WINS data and identify kind of 10 priorities for the New Mexico Department of Health related to workforce specifically. We've identified professional development opportunities, training specific to leadership roles, and also initiatives around retention activities and recruitment activities. So, those are kind of what we're focusing on and wanting to address, and we base that off survey data that we collected in New Mexico.

 

SHEEHAN: 

Sure, you've also stood up an internship program. What was the idea behind that?

 

LAUER: 

Yes, our internship program has been very successful. We've had hundreds of interns come through the New Mexico Department of Health. I think the biggest key to success in this area was to actually use PHIG funding to bring in a position, rather than sort of a contractor position, who was trying to make connections. A position where this person, her name is Rosanna Suarez Munoz, and she has just been instrumental in expanding our program because of the relationships she has built with so many different people in the Department of Health, because she's on the ground, she understands the culture. She's been able to come up with project ideas because she knows what's going on at the New Mexico Department of Health. So, it's been really successful. We also have an alumni network that we're that we've launched recently, and that has also been really great because we can let our students know when we have job opportunities that are sort of entry level for some of them, and just other opportunities where we're looking to recruit some students who've spent some time with us already. And so, kind of gets us, you know, continues to keep us on the minds of our interns and people in the community, so it's been very successful.

 

SHEEHAN: 

Yeah, and the funding has also allowed you to have a stipend to actually get these students a little money.

 

LAUER: 

Yes, it's been great. Obviously, students sometimes are struggling with finances, and so the PHIG has granted us this permission to give out stipends to students who complete projects and gives them the opportunity to present those projects to the senior leadership at New Mexico Department of Health, and so it makes those connections for them and also provides a structure to their internship program. So, it feels really fluid and also just you know being able to compensate people for the great work that our interns are doing has just been really, really a great recruitment tool for us as well to bring people in as interns.

 

SHEEHAN: 

You've also invested in a leadership academy for managers. What was the reasoning behind that, and what were you looking to address?

 

LAUER: 

Yeah, so the leadership academy sort of stemmed out from our survey results saying that maybe our leaders were, you know, just had some gaps in in knowledge or skills or abilities to, you know, effectively give feedback or, you know, address burnouts when you see symptoms of employees struggling with that, or offering professional development opportunities and sort of doing a growth plan with employees. Some of the areas we wanted to address, and so we've developed, sort of, these four pillars of a leadership academy here. First, being the Aspiring Leadership Academy, which I think we graduated like over 60 people last year. We have the Emerging Leadership Academy, and then we have Management Essentials, which is kind of like those first on the ground, you know, basic skills of needing to be a manager at the New Mexico Department of Health, but also goes over, you know, things like servant leadership and stuff like that frameworks and theory, and then this year we're looking to expand and finally launch our leadership change maker academy, which is basically a mentorship program. So, it's had a huge impact on people, and we've reviewed obviously all of our results from those trainings and our evaluations, and gotten a lot of great positive feedback. And I think. You know, we're really trying to address those things that our employees have identified as just areas in need of development and growth with our leadership team here at the New Mexico Department of Health.

 

SHEEHAN: 

Some other support mechanisms you've put in place have included tuition reimbursement and workforce toolkits. It seems like a good strategy to help your existing workforce grow in their positions.

 

LAUER: 

Yeah, yeah. So, the tuition reimbursement program has just been something that almost feels unreal, like too good to be true. But it's been fantastic, and I know a couple other of my counterparts in other states are doing this as well, where basically we give people who've been at the New Mexico Department of Health for a year are eligible. There's other eligibility requirement requirements, but basically they're eligible to receive up to $10,000 in tuition reimbursement if they want to go back to school, or you know it has to be accredited. But it also can be a certain certification like project management, it just has to be related to public health, and it also helps us with retention because we require a two-year commitment for anyone who gets tuition reimbursement. And the workforce toolkits have just been a surprising thing that have really helped our managers. We've created two so far: one around recruitment, one around retention. So, for recruitment, we just, you know, provide resources like how to create a diverse hiring panel. What sorts of questions should you be asking people to get good public health candidates? Where should you be advertising? Sort of you know more creative ways of advertising and how you should be doing that. So those toolkits have been super helpful, and we shared them with some other people in different states. The retention toolkit also identifies interview templates and questions for people to help managers talk to kind of their highest performing employees, and ask them why are you staying? What are we doing well here? So sometimes we rely on exit interviews to when it's too late. And so in New Mexico, we're trying to get out in front of that and talk to people about why they're staying and why they're here. So, those have been some really great investments that we made using the PHIG, and we just couldn't have done it without that funding.

 

SHEEHAN: 

Another training investment you've made has been internal and across staff, geared towards serving the community itself. What are some examples of that, and why is it important for that to be a priority?

 

LAUER: 

Yeah, I mean, all the training that we do internally for our staff impacts our community because all of our staff are nurses, physicians, health educators, health promotion team, and so we know that you know training our staff and giving them the knowledge and the skills that they need always impacts our community. But our training team has also developed kind of a "train the trainer" model. So, for example, we went and did worked with some of our refugee health team and did a training in the community on safe sleep. We also were able to give out cribets to people, not using the PHIG, but through other funding, it was really great to help serve our community in that way. And we also trained using that "train the trainer" model some of our internal public health staff to be able to do that training in the community as well. So, we're not just relying on our internal training team, and I think that's what the PHIG is really all about: just creating a lasting infrastructure in the department, and not just you know relying on one or two positions that have been created, so we feel like we've had a lot of impact in the community with that sort of model of train the trainer.

 

SHEEHAN: 

And lastly, what has been the response from employees?

 

LAUER: 

You know, it seems like just on the ground, like hearing people be really excited about tuition reimbursement, that's a big one. Hearing people and preceptors being excited about the work that their interns have done and bringing interns to really high-level meetings and letting them present that work. The toolkits is one that people really have expressed appreciating that kind of support and helping with burnout, right? Like if you give people resources, it can help them not feel so overburdened. So, I think anecdotally we have heard that our staff are really liking the interventions that we have made since obtaining this funding. Obviously, now our last sort of main survey was in 2024. I know the PH WINS is coming up, so we'll have to see kind of what that says. And so, we're excited and hopeful to kind of compare our results to that.

 

SHEEHAN: 

Shadee Lauer, thanks so much.

 

LAUER: 

Thank you for having me. I really appreciate the opportunity.

 

SHEEHAN: 

Shadee Lauer is director for the Office of Training and Development at the New Mexico Department of Health.

 

This has been another PHIG Impact Report, part of Public Health Review Morning Edition. I'm John Sheehan for the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.