Develop your understanding of the essential leadership and management skills for public health practice.

Invest in your professional development with this self-paced course that teaches you foundational principles of effective public health leadership and management.

Upon successful completion of all course components, you will earn the distinctive Certificate of Specialized Training - Leadership and Management for Public Health issued by North Dakota Public Health Training Network.

 

about this course:

This certificate course equips you with a basic understanding of the leadership and management skills important for public health practice, including:

  • The mission, history, functions and impact of public health

  • Community engagement and capacity building

  • Boundary spanning leadership

  • Basic communications concepts to change risky behaviors

  • Organizing and financing of public health

  • Systems thinking

  • Worksite wellness

  • Public health in disasters

  • Religion/Worldview and public health

  • Public health and housing

  • Social inequities and public health

  • Coalition building, advocacy, negotiation and participatory techniques

Components:

  • 32 on-demand lecture sessions for over 25 hours of instruction

  • PDF downloads of the slides and lecture transcipt for each session

  • 32 quizzes to test your understanding of the material

  • One final written project to apply what you’ve learned about public health leadership and management

  • 55.0 Certified in Public Health continuing education (CPHCE) credits

  • Certificate of Completion for each session

  • Certificate of Specialized Training - Leadership and Management for Public Health upon successful completion of the full course

  • 15 weekly facilitated group discussions (possible upgrade)

Price: $380

  • 12 months to complete course

Access:

  • Access to this course is on the Public Health Foundation’s TRAIN Learning Network.

Format:

Instructor:

Dr. Terry Dwelle is the former North Dakota State Health Officer and the founder and current President and Educational Director of North Dakota Public Health Training Network. He has over 40 years of clinical and public health experience in the United States, Eastern Europe, Latin and South America, and Central and East Africa.

You will be directed to TRAIN. Follow the prompts to pay. Orders are processed within 24 hours, after which we will email you a registration code and access instructions.

Course Syllabus:

CLICK HERE to view session titles and learning objectives

1) COURSE INSTRUCTOR INTRODUCTION. Meet Dr. Terry Dwelle, the creator of our Leadership and Management for Public Health specialized certificate course.

2) WHAT IS PUBLIC HEALTH? Review the definition of public health.Review primary, secondary and tertiary prevention and how primary prevention is the primary mission of public health. Review the six eras of public health history. Discuss the health promotion, disease prevention model.Discuss the need to couple individual responsibility with community and population health. Review the five public health values. Review the three core public health functions. Review the ten essential services of public health. Discuss the life span impact of public health in the 20th century.

3) LEADERSHIP INTRODUCTION. Define leadership. Explain why adaptive leadership is important for public health.Define the difference between social marketing and community engagement. Discuss some basic concepts of extreme leadership.

4) PUBLIC HEALTH AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT INTRODUCTION. Understand the importance of community engagement in changing risky behaviors. Understand the importance of various kinds of data and analysis in developing strategies to address risky behaviors. Understand the role of public health in changing risky behaviors.

5) COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT AND CAPACITY BUILDING BASIC CONCEPTS. Understand basic attributes of successful public health programs. Understand the difference between community engagement and community coercion. Understand the relationship of community engagement to process, development and external funding. Define community.

6) MANAGEMENT AND PUBLIC HEALTH LEADERSHIP INTRODUCTION. Review the definition of public health management. Discuss the four management elements. Emphasize the importance of organizational values and how leaders can influence those values. Introduce the six management functions. Briefly review adaptive and technical leadership. Discuss the skills, competencies and roles of managers. Discuss the attributes associated with senior managers and leaders. Review the four management styles and the contingency theory.

7) MANAGING FUNCTIONS. Review the five management functions of planning, organizing, staffing, directing and controlling. Discuss the difference between goals and objectives. Discuss the attributes of SMART objectives and goals. Review the concept of integration and how this relates to effective management. Emphasize the importance of staffing. Discuss the importance of casting vision for adequate directing. Review formative, process and outcome evaluation and how that relates to the functions of planning and controlling. Discuss the seven steps of problem solving. Emphasize the importance of evaluation for effective problem solving. Review life orientations, appeals to change, and cultural aspects of decision making as they relate to management in cross-cultural situations.

8) PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES OF PUBLIC HEALTH MANAGEMENT. Review Fayol’s 14 principles of management. Discuss how the 4 leadership styles relate to centralization and decentralization. Briefly introduce and discuss informal groups, the quality improvement process, organizational planning, negotiations, dispute resolution, and measuring a manager’s performance.

9) TEAM BUILDING. Discuss the importance of team building. Review the difference between informal and formal teams. Discuss the team effectiveness model and how team processes, characteristics, nature of tasks, and external environmental factors relate to overall team effectiveness. Discuss the importance of integration as it relates to team building. Review common group ground rules. Discuss the 4 major leadership styles and how they relate to team building. Review how adaptive and technical problems and leadership relate to team goals. Review the 5 stages of team development. Discuss how outrage management and incident command relate to complex team goals.

10) STRATEGIC PLANNING. Review attributes of strategic leaders. Define strategic planning. Review the attributes of strategic planning for high-performance groups. Review SWOT analysis and the SWOT matrix. Review the definitions of vision, mission, strategy, and values and their relation to strategic planning. Discuss the importance of the harmonization of organizational culture and strategy. Discuss the five steps, outputs and benefits of strategy formulation. Discuss the technique of strategic mapping. Review the pre-retreat, retreat and follow-up steps of strategic planning.

11) BOUNDARY SPANNING LEADERSHIP AND PUBLIC HEALTH: OVERVIEW. Review the concept of boundaries as borders and gateways to new frontiers. Review the five boundaries that are often associated with the “Great Divide” between groups and organizations. Review the role of boundary spanning leaders. Describe the nexus . Review the six skills of boundary spanning leaders and how they relate to the tasks of managing boundaries, forging common goals, and discovering new frontiers. Describe the relationship between community engagement, adaptive leadership and boundary spanning.

12) BOUNDARY SPANNING LEADERSHIP: BOUNDARIES. Review the concept of boundaries as doors to new frontiers versus borders. Define the five boundaries: vertical, horizontal, stakeholder, demographic and geographic. Describe the concept of the “Great Divide.” Discuss the relationship of adaptive skills to boundary spanning leadership skills. Describe the main tasks of leaders in spanning the 5 major boundaries faced by organizations.

13) BOUNDARY SPANNING LEADERSHIP: IDENTITY. Discuss the importance of group identity in the boundary spanning process. Review the role of cultural dimensions, class, status and roles, and community memberships as related to identity. Discuss how perceptions of dominant and non-dominant groups influence identity and divides. Review the importance of relationship strength in boundary spanning work. Discuss basic intergroup relationship building techniques. Emphasize the importance of balance between differentiation and integration for effective boundary spanning.

14) BOUNDARY SPANNING LEADERSHIP: GREAT DIVIDE. Review a few research studies that inform the concept of “Great Divides” between groups. Discuss the importance of allowing group processes to succeed or fail. Discuss the importance of cultural diversity training for boundary spanning groups. Review the negative impact of “Great Divides” on inter-group interactions. Discuss the four major triggers of “Great Divides." Review why leaders fail to act to prevent “Great Divides." Review a trigger heat index tool. Emphasize the importance of leader mentoring to enhance a boundary spanning leader’s judgment.

15) BOUNDARY SPANNING LEADERSHIP: BUFFERING. Briefly review how boundaries create borders and “Great Divides” but also how a boundary spanning approach can transform boundaries into opportunities for innovation. Review the six skills of boundary spanning leadership. Define “Buffering” as it relates to boundary spanning. Discuss the five “Buffering” tactics used in boundary spanning. Review the role of a boundary spanning leader in “Buffering”.

16) BOUNDARY SPANNING LEADERSHIP: REFLECTING. Briefly review key boundary spanning topics. Define the boundary spanning skill of reflecting. Review the importance of cultural competence and active listening in reflecting. Review the 5 reflecting tactics of boundary spanning. Discuss the importance of developing and maintaining relationship strength as a base for boundary spanning work. Review the importance of identifying and accepting differences and similarities between groups. Define the difference and similarity between boundary spanning and community engagement. Define the difference between proselytizing and true community engagement.

17) BOUNDARY SPANNING LEADERSHIP: CONNECTING. Understand how connecting links to the other 5 skills of the boundary spanning process. Review the four connecting tactics. Discuss how cross-cultural concepts of immersion, tolerance, enculturation and culture shock relate to the boundary spanning skill of connecting. Review the boundary spanning leader’s role in connecting.

18) BOUNDARY SPANNING LEADERSHIP: MOBILIZING. Review how mobilizing helps forge common ground in the boundary spanning process. Define the difference between connecting and mobilizing. Review the 2 major steps and 5 tactics in mobilizing. Emphasize the importance of casting vision. Discuss the two steps in creating a new community and culture. Review cultural concepts as they relate to mobilizing. Review the leader’s and group’s roles in mobilizing.

19) BOUNDARY SPANNING LEADERSHIP: WEAVING & TRANSFORMING. Review the basic concepts of boundary spanning. Define the skills of weaving and transforming. Discuss the 6 tactics of weaving and transforming. Review the basic ground rules of meetings. Emphasize the importance of maintaining a focus on the vision. Review the basic human needs for differentiation and integration and how important group differentiation is in boundary spanning work. Review the three steps to identify and address adaptive problem. Review the nominal group process and strategic mapping technique.

20) BASIC COMMUNICATIONS CONCEPTS TO CHANGE RISKY BEHAVIORS. Understand the importance of meaning transfer. Understand the basic differences between outrage, crisis and apathy communications strategies. Discuss general strategies to increase awareness and concern to deal with public apathy. Describe the importance of community engagement in changing risky behaviors. Understand the major components of the communication model. Discuss the role of horizontal communicators in community engagement. Understand the different uses of social marketing and community engagement in public health messaging. Describe the importance of informal messaging in changing risky behaviors.

21) ORGANIZATION AND FINANCING OF PUBLIC HEALTH. Review the role of federal, state and local public health. Review examples of the organization of state and local public health. Review federal, state and local financing of public health.

22) SYSTEMS THINKING INTRODUCTION. Define systems thinking. Review the importance of systems thinking in public health. Discuss the four fundamentals of systems thinking. Review the role of adaptive leadership skills and boundary spanning leadership concepts as they relate to systems thinking. Discuss the importance of relationships and patience in the adaptive group process. Provide examples of systems modeling. Emphasize the importance of evaluation in the quality improvement process.

23) CONCEPTS IN WORKSITE WELLNESS. Review the negative impacts of poor employee health on the productivity of businesses. Understand the importance of absenteeism and presenteeism on the business bottom line. Review the impact of worksite wellness programs on business performance and healthcare costs. Understand the role of the integration of public health and primary care in a worksite wellness program. Review the potential role for public health in facilitating worksite wellness.

24) PUBLIC HEALTH IN DISASTERS. Understand the difference between relief and development. Be able to describe the 4 phases of disasters. List the role of public health in each or the 4 phases of disasters. Describe the public health response in the emergency and relief phase of disasters. Understand the myths and realities of disasters. Understand the important role of the incident command system and incident commander in effective disaster response. Be able to list the general duration of each phase of the disaster cycle. Describe the relationship of community engagement and resilience. Describe the 5 portions of resilience-based assessment.

25) COMMUNICATIONS MODEL. Understand culture shock and how it relates to public health messaging. Understand the difference between messaging and transfer of meaning. Discuss the basic concepts of a communications model. Understand the importance of being respondent oriented. Discuss the role of contextualization in messaging. Review attributes of successful behavior change programs. Understand how Maslow’s pyramid relates to community message receptivity.

26) COALITION BUILDING CONCEPTS. Review how coalition building relates to the community engagement continuum. Review key team building, boundary spanning, and community engagement concepts as they apply to coalition building. Discuss how coalition building is related integration. Discuss the importance of cultural competence for effective coalition building. Review how to build coalition cohesion. Review the 6 attributes of coalition effectiveness. Discuss how coalition building relates to the 10 essential public health services.

27) INTRODUCTION TO WORLDVIEW AND PUBLIC HEALTH. Understand how worldview impacts cultural distance. Understand that a majority of people have strong supernatural beliefs that can be used to change risky behaviors. Describe the basic beliefs of naturalism, monotheism, tribal cultures, monism, and traditional Chinese cultures. Understand the benefits and challenges of the concept of primary prevention with different cultural worldviews. Review a few examples of how religiosity impacts healthy behavior. Review key results of a SWOT survey of faith-based leaders. Describe the importance of horizontal communicators. Discuss the importance of addressing perceived needs in faith-based engagement. Discuss the importance of first dealing with spiritual fatalism before engagement. Review leadership skills for faith-based engagement.

28) PUBLIC HEALTH AND HOUSING. Define “Health.” Discuss the importance of adequate housing for community engagement. Understand that investment in resource-poor communities improves health. Understand the impacts of poor housing on health. Understand the potential roles for public health in housing issues.

29) BASIC BUDGETING CONCEPTS. Define budgeting and discuss budgeting attributes for organizations. Briefly review the difference between a strategic and operational plan and where budgeting fits in the overall strategic planning process. Review the four basic budget rules. Review the benefits of effective budgeting. Discuss the five types of budgets. Emphasize the importance of accurate program budgets as an essential base for organization-wide budgets. Review the role of the chief executive officer and chief financial officer in the budget process. Discuss the four major strategies for organization-wide budgeting. Review the basic funding sources for public health.

30) LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT PARTICIPATORY TECHNIQUES LePSA(S). Review the basic LePSA(S) process. Discuss how SMART criteria relate to LePSA(S) action planning. Discuss basic concepts of supernatural beliefs and how they relate to changing risky behaviors. Review the concepts of silence and proxemics in the LePSA(S) group process. Briefly introduce Open Space Technology.

31) PUBLIC HEALTH ADVOCACY. Define advocacy and why it’s an important tool for public health. Discuss pre-advocacy work. Review the four steps of initiating an advocacy effort. Emphasize the importance of casting a compelling vision. Review the eight planning steps for developing an advocacy group. Briefly introduce the concept of strategic mapping.

32) BASIC NEGOTIATION CONCEPTS. Understand the definition of negotiation. Review the four basic negotiation strategies. Review the five stages of the negotiation process. Understand WATNA, BATNA, WAP and ZOPA and their role in negotiations. Review how bargaining, discussion and clarification lead to an agreement.

33) PROGRAM PLANNING FUNDAMENTALS. Define program planning and its importance in public health. Review the six program planning cornerstones. Briefly review basic strategic planning concepts and how they relate to program planning. Emphasize the importance of program plans supporting the vision and mission of the organization. Review the six guidelines to keep program planning on track. Discuss the advantages of a performance improvement process. Review the six basic sections for writing a program plan.

34) FINAL PROJECT. Demonstrate your ability to apply the leadership and management concepts covered during this certificate course to public health practice in a written assignment. You have the choice to EITHER answer a series of short essay questions on key takeaways from each session and why these are important in public health practice OR conduct an assessment of a public health department. The estimated time to complete the final project is 8 - 32 hours.

 

Who this course is for:

This training material focuses on essential leadership and management skills that are important in public health practice. Given the universal need to work across boundaries, build coalitions, and maximize resources, this material is best suited to those working to improve the public’s health, including:

  • Public health professionals

  • Students in public health or medical academic programs.

  • Professionals working in the social services and nonprofit sectors

The North Dakota Public Health Training Network (NDPHTN) offers on-demand training in public health leadership, management, and community engagement to the public health workforce and academic institutions. (6).png

public health professionals

Enroll in this course for your own professional improvement and to earn CPH contact hours.

The North Dakota Public Health Training Network (NDPHTN) offers on-demand training in public health leadership, management, and community engagement to the public health workforce and academic institutions. (7).png

local and state health departments

Use this material to address workforce development needs and provide your staff members with leadership development opportunities.

The North Dakota Public Health Training Network (NDPHTN) offers on-demand training in public health leadership, management, and community engagement to the public health workforce and academic institutions. (8).png

academic programs*

Use this curricula to equip your students with the competencies to translate their technical knowledge into effective day-to-day practice.

*Contract required. Contact us to discuss options.

“This was a great Leadership and Management basics course with practical tools for application in the field. I highly recommend it.”
— Course Participant

Continuing Education Credit: 55.0

This curricula is approved by the National Board of Public Health Examiners (NBPHE) for Certified in Public Health (CPH) recertification credit.

 

Final project:

As part of this course, you are required to demonstrate your ability to apply the concepts covered during this certificate course in a final written assignment. The estimated time to complete the final project is 8 - 32 hours.

You have the choice to EITHER:

1) Answer a series of short answer questions on key takeaways from each session and why these are important in public health practice.

OR

2) Conduct an assessment of a public health department.

 

certificate of Specialized Training:

After you successfully complete all sessions in this course, pass all post-assessments, and submit your final project for a satisfactory rating, you will earn the distinctive Certificate of Specialized Training - Leadership and Management for Public Health issued by North Dakota Public Health Training Network.

This assessment-based certificate acknowledges that you successfully learned the course objectives and applied your understanding of the subject matter through a final project.

 

GRoup Use:

If you would like to use this curricula in a public health department, academic program, or work setting, you need a contract. Please contact us so we can work out the best arrangement and approach for your needs, including facilitated discussions.

We are also happy to provide you references of other programs who are using our material. For example, we provide this curriculum to Turtle Mountain Community College as part of an expanded Basic Public Health Practice Certificate course of study.

 

Facilitated Discussion Group - Any interest?

We are exploring an option to add a one-hour weekly facilitated discussion group that would meet virtually for 15 weeks. This would give students an opportunity to talk through what they are learning in this course, and think about how they can practically apply this knowledge as developing leaders in public health practice.

We provide facilitated discussions for group trainings we do. And because this discussion experience is so beneficial, we’d like to also offer this component to individual students who sign up for this course.

To take part in this, we need a minimum number of interested students. There could also be an additional fee for this, on top of the $380 course fee.

If interested, please click here to fill out a short form. You are not committing yourself; we are just determining the interest level in this learning component.

 

questions:

If you have any questions about this certificate course, please contact us.

You will be directed to TRAIN. Follow the prompts to pay. Orders are processed within 24 hours, after which we will email you a registration code and access instructions.