1147: PHIG Impact Report: How South Carolina Is Building a Stronger Workforce

John Sheehan (0:00): This is Public Health Review Morning Edition for Tuesday, 06/16/2026. I'm John Sheehan with news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. On today's Fig Impact Report, how South Carolina is building a stronger workforce. Carla Baru, Deputy Director of Health Strategy and External Affairs and Chief of Staff for the South Carolina Department of Public Health, discusses the agency's Supplemental Tuition Assistance Program, or S. P, innovative work force development initiative that helps employees pursue nursing and public health degrees while strengthening the department's long term capacity.

John Sheehan (0:34): Carla Baru, welcome to the show.

Unknown Speaker (0:36): Thank you for having me.

John Sheehan (0:37): So Carla, the Supplemental Tuition Assistance Program, or STAP, How has FIG supported it and how has it evolved as an investment?

Unknown Speaker (0:47): Yeah. So S. T. A. P.

Carla Baru (0:48): Began at South Carolina Department of Public Health in 2022 with just two participants. And really in four years, it's transformed from a small trial program into a much more robust agency wide pillar for professional development. So we've had more than 28 staff members participate in the program. The goals were really to expand access to professional development and educational advancement opportunities for our current staff, reduce financial burden and stress associated with pursuing higher education, promote retention by supporting career development and cultivating a workplace culture of value inclusion, and enhance agency expertise so that our staff are gaining new knowledge and skills that directly benefit their current role and support the agency's workforce. So staff specifically targets nursing and public health degrees, bachelor's through doctoral levels, ensuring that DPH has the specialized expertise that we need for modern health challenges.

Carla Baru (1:46): We provide financial assistance for eligible employees in return for a time commitment back to the agency. So for each credit hour reimbursed, the participant incurs a two month service application. And over the course of those years, we've actually improved the program based on feedback that we've gotten. So we expanded access to staff by lowering eligibility to include temporary and grant funded and time limited employees. So it was including those folks.

Unknown Speaker (2:13): Originally, it was just for FTEs, but we broadened it because we got feedback that those staff could also, benefit from it. So after they've had service with us for six months, they're now included in the program.

John Sheehan (2:23): Do you have a sense of the scale of impact from the program, either for for, retention or or how it's been, hitting staff development?

Carla Baru (2:32): We do. So from a financial perspective, DPH has invested a little more than, 9,800 thousand into our workforce. And so the win win for us on that is that's 429 credit hours, which means eight hundred and fifty eight months of service. That is seventy one years of guaranteed service back to our agency, and that is a lot. We're really excited about having those staff.

Carla Baru (2:55): They've been able to grow, themselves and their education, but then they can apply that within our agency. It's also academically driven. Those 28 staff members who've taken those courses, mostly are earning a's. So we are also seeing that they are getting a high quality education from, accredited institutions. But we recognize that working and going to school can be really hard, and so we implemented sort of the six and eighteen rule.

Carla Baru (3:20): So participants can receive reimbursement for up to six credit hours per semester and 18 per year. This really allows them, a steady pace towards degree completion without burnout because we know that they're still working at our agency.

Unknown Speaker (3:33): Yeah. And as you mentioned, you have that time commitment on the back end. That's that's a lot of time.

Carla Baru (3:39): Yeah. We are very excited about that. And I think it's just good because it also allows continuity of service because we know that folks will be able to grow within our agency and then we'll retain that institutional knowledge that they have.

Unknown Speaker (3:51): And from the feedback you've been getting, have you have you seen an impact on morale?

Carla Baru (3:55): We certainly have. I think folks see it, not just as us investing in kind of getting that time service commitment, but really investing in their professional development. So from participants, we've heard back that really the cost of graduate school can be very expensive. So sometimes that can be 500 or $600, a credit hour. So without staff, it would be cost prohibitive for a lot of our employees.

Carla Baru (4:19): And so we've been able to kind of remove that financial ceiling for them. It's also opened up their perspectives. So because online doctoral programs are allowable, it's allowed staff to learn from professionals nationwide and and even internationally and bringing back those big picture strategies to South Carolina. We also find that it's really beyond that service commitment. Right?

Carla Baru (4:41): They're really just genuinely happier. There's that boost in morale. They feel valued and really seen because we as an agency are choosing to invest in their long term future.

John Sheehan (4:53): So the the STAT program is one piece of your of your larger overall workforce strategy. Can you talk about other lessons learned through the process?

Carla Baru (5:03): So we have used our FIG funds to invest in professional development, both through the stat program, but also through our internal leadership program like Leading the Way. And so we find that we are contributing to a more skilled workforce and helping with retention by having programs where they can learn, either internal programs or the external programs like staff. It allows a lot of flexibility for folks who want to grow professionally. And so we even have kind of examples of staff that participated in our Leading the Way program. And then they took on larger leadership roles and moved up within our organization because they were more qualified and better prepared based on what they learned in that program.

Carla Baru (5:44): We also used our PH Wins data to help update our Leading the Way curriculum to ensure that we're meeting the needs of our workforce. So we made a couple of tweaks in what classes we were teaching, and we've gotten great feedback on that so far. Another piece of that is we've been able to expand the number of our staff that we provide the opportunity to get their associate public manager certification. There's a that is a program that is done through the department administration in our state. And we are limited, based on the population of our agency on how many we can send through that program.

Carla Baru (6:16): But through FIG, we've been able to increase the number of staff who are participating in that by having a DPH only cohort. And so we've been able to really exponentially increase the number of our staff who become associate public managers. And that's a certification that they can take with them wherever they go. So we hope that they stay at DPH forever, but we know that sometimes people change jobs or move. And so we wanna make sure that they're also getting something that, continues to help them develop as professionals.

Unknown Speaker (6:42): So this has really helped us to you have a lot of opportunities to recruit and really retain our workforce.

John Sheehan (6:49): That's so nice. And I gotta say, I love these stories that validate, that, yeah, it turns out that investing in your workforce makes everyone happier and everything better.

Unknown Speaker (6:57): That's absolutely how it works.

John Sheehan (6:59): And and could you also sort of connect the dots between this the improvements to your workforce and and the level of service being brought to the community?

Carla Baru (7:07): So because STATPS specifically targets nursing and public health degrees, the information that the participants are learning can directly be applied to the work that they do. So I have a couple of examples on that. So, we had one participant who got a master's degree in human nutrition. And so that individual is able to apply advanced knowledge specifically to the women, infants, and children's program to better serve, South Carolinians. We had another program participant, who they were able to finish their doctoral degree.

Carla Baru (7:38): And so that is a requirement for some, certified lab director positions. And so this person now is able to have that credential that allows them more flexibility in the future. One participant, noted that through their degree program, they've been able to immediately apply public health concepts, especially in the areas of program planning, evaluation, and stakeholder engagement. Directly strengthening their work with the sexual violence services program, supporting the implementation of evidence informed strategies to better serve our communities. Another participant told us that their coursework in health sciences has significantly enhanced their effectiveness as a supervisor by equipping them with a deep understanding of population health principles, research and data methods and techniques.

Carla Baru (8:26): So those are just a couple of examples of where we see that through us helping them to achieve, educational, degrees, they are then able to directly apply it both within DPH and in the communities that they're serving. And so really, we're just making South Carolina better.

John Sheehan (8:42): That's so great. So looking ahead, how are you thinking about sustaining the program?

Carla Baru (8:46): It's a great question. We are really just planning to continue identifying ways to invest in our workforce. So we are figuring out how can we find funding to sustain our Leading the Way program and our STAT program, because we've seen so much success and demand on those programs. And we're also looking at are there ways that we can use internal experts to help train and reduce the cost of these programs, not step, but leading the way. I mean, certain topics or lean on our other agencies.

Carla Baru (9:13): We know that funding is always a challenge, but we're hoping by being able to have the data and tell the stories and show the impact that we can invest funding in these in the future.

Unknown Speaker (9:23): Carla Baru, thanks so much.

Unknown Speaker (9:24): Yeah. Absolutely.

John Sheehan (9:26): Carla Baru is deputy director of health strategy and external affairs and chief of staff for the South Carolina Department of Public Health. This has been another FIG Impact Report, part of Public Health Review Morning Edition. I'm John Sheehan for the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.