The Consortium for WOrkforce Research in Public Health (CWORPH) is a public health workforce research consortium consisting of six universities:

• University of Minnesota (Jonathon P. Leider, PhD and Janette Dill, PhD, MA, MPH)
• Columbia University (Heather Krasna, PhD, MS, EdM)
• East Tennessee State University (Michael Meit, MA, MPH)
• Indiana University (Valerie Yeager, DrPH, MPhil)
• Johns Hopkins University (Beth Resnick, DrPH, MPH)
• University of Washington (Betty Bekemeier, PhD, MPH, MSN)

Each of our nationally-known consortium leaders brings decades of expertise specific to public health workforce in the United States, as well as the research capacity of a highly-ranked university, making CWORPH uniquely qualified to support and evaluate large-scale public health workforce development efforts.

The consortium’s advisory structure includes engagement and collaborative partnerships with 10 national practice-oriented partners, including organizations with members in health departments and public health associations across the United States. This advisory structure leverages decades of public health workforce experience and hundreds of projects, papers, and reports for rigorous evaluation and research. We work to assure a well-trained and diverse public health workforce with capacity to address both chronic and acute public health needs by strengthening public health infrastructure and systems, foundational capabilities, and data infrastructure.

Each member of the consortium demonstrates a deep and longstanding commitment to the mission of public health and the sustainable development of its workforce including diverse public health staff that is representative of communities served; public health staff retention; efficient public health workforce systems and processes; and capabilities to implement public health foundational capabilities. CWORPH is also excited to partner and collaborate in any of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) notice of funding opportunity strategies (CDC-RFA-OE22-2203) to help your organization successfully improve infrastructure, workforce, and data systems.

Practice-based partners:

• Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO)
• National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO)
• Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH)
• Big Cities Health Coalition (BCHC)
• Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB)
• MissionSquare Research Institute
• de Beaumont Foundation (dBF)
• State Associations of County and City Health Officials (SACCHOs)
• Public Health Training Centers (PHTCs)

Areas of expertise and available services:

• Public health evaluation of Region V Public Health Training Center.
• Large-scale survey data collection and analysis, including the design and analysis of PH WINS, the largest survey of public health workforce in the United States, and the ASPPH public health employment outcomes data collection, the largest analysis of public health graduate employment outcomes ever conducted.
• Advanced statistical analysis to make predictions and decisions based on data, including descriptive analyses (measures of central tendency and variability) and inferential analyses (uni-/bi-/multi-variate regression, confidence intervals, chi-square, etc.). Our members routinely perform statistical analyses in much of their work, such as logistic regression for educational attainment and tests of association between local health department services and racial disparities.
• Qualitative research including focus groups and individual interviews to understand public health workforce needs, for example, to inform public health leadership and pathways into governmental public health programs.
• Policy analysis to identify potential policy options or understand effects and implementation of planned or enacted policies, such as health impact assessments and program evaluation and review. This includes work to review states’ laws applicable to Foundational Public Health Services models and impacts of cross-jurisdictional sharing arrangements.
• Economic analysis to understand options for resource allocation and to investigate effectiveness, utility, benefits, minimization, and consequences. Members have performed financial analyses for state and local expenditures and revenues related to economic downturns and with public health modernization projects (i.e., costs associated with implementing Foundational Public Health Services models).
• Health equity research, with a focus on addressing public health systems’ needs in racial and ethnic minority communities, as well as rural communities.
• Extensive subject matter knowledge of, and prior consulting on, relevant national workforce and foundational capabilities assessments including PH WINS, ASTHO and NACCHO Profiles, and PHAB Accreditation.

Prior experience working in health departments and related entities, including at the NACCHO, state departments of health, CDC, and knowledge of public health systems and structures.

Active Projects:

• Triangulated turnover assessment
  • Identify, integrate, and harmonize datasets to assist in workforce assessment and development, specifically related to turnover
• Description of roles of nurses in COVID-19
  • Examine LHD nurses’ roles during this public health crisis and generate evidence regarding the effective use of LHD nursing staff for foundational and emergency services.
• Strategies to create sustainable investments
  • Characterize COVID-19 response and recovery strategies health departments employed to extend staff capacity or transition toward a permanent workforce.
• Variation in workforce composition
  • Describe the governmental public health workforce by characteristics of the communities served (e.g., geography, economic distress, poverty, health resources, measures of need; prioritizing race and ethnicity).
• Comparison of Occupational Factors
  • Compare and contrast characteristics of occupations (e.g., levels of education, certifications, experience, salaries) present in both public and private sectors.
• Workforce development planning insights
  • Identify workforce gaps (e.g., diversity or equity of workforce) and describe strategies to address those gaps.
• Review of state hiring laws
  • Examine state hiring laws and regulations regarding SHA employees.
• Estimating workforce supply
  • Characterize the ‘supply’ of potential public health graduates across the US in relation to health department workforce ‘demand,’ distinguishing deficits or excesses and rates of ‘conversion’ of public health graduates to employees.
• Roles of community health workers
  • Measure and understand the use of community health workers (CHWs) and other community-based occupations in health departments (HDs) across the US.
• Career ladders in recruitment and retention
  • Identify LHDs that have or are planning to implement career ladders for their public health workforce; explore how career ladders promote the recruitment and retention of a diverse workforce, and explore strategies for effective implementation of career ladders.

Accomplishments to date:

• • Establishment of the first national Public Health Workforce Research Center. See our list of active projects above, funded under HRSA awards U81HP47167 and UR2HP47371.
  • A combined total of 100s of journal article publications and cited 1000s of times by other authors.
  • Leadership of high-profile studies in public health including PH WINS, SHO-CASE, Public Health Activities & Services Tracking (PHAST) Study, ASPPH employment outcomes data.
  • Consulting on the PHNCI Staffing Up Study
  • Co-authorship of 101+ Careers in Public Health, 3rd Edition, the only book in print in the United States on public health careers.