YOUR ASSOCIATION
NEHA NEWS
Workforce Incite By David Dyjack, DrPH, CIH (ddyjack@neha.org)
3. Partnership Development and Engagement: Facilitate rural, frontier, and tribal communities of practice and support strategic planning e orts in the Pacific and Caribbean regions, including collaboration with the Northern Pacific Environmental Health Association and the U.S. Virgin Islands. “The activities will enhance decision-making skills and the application of best practices among environmental health profes- sionals, as well as increase the capacity for data-driven, evidence- based practices, and improved disaster readiness,” said Dr. Dyjack. Recent history suggests that environmental public health professionals should “go where things are going.” I possess two graduate degrees in public health, and at no time in my educa- tion did we discuss heat stress in the general public, nosoco- mial infections, mental health, opioids, harmful algal blooms, Naegleria , Valley fever, lifestyle diseases, artificial intelligence, wildfires, flooding, and the myriad of other public health issues that dominate the contemporary public health agenda. To wit, the next generation should be maximally equipped with criti- cal thinking skills to thrive in a dynamic, unpredictable public health profession. While most of us are fatigued with the cliché of data- informed decision-making, I feel our workforce has lost its way. Molding, forming, and shaping the environmental public health workforce pathway is our association’s central responsibility. This issue has migrated from important to urgent when consid- ering the decision of the Association of Environmental Health Academic Programs (AEHAP) to sunset in July 2024. In the spirit of Winston Churchill’s sentiments to “never let a good cri- sis go to waste,” we charge ourselves with a sense of immediacy. What attributes and characteristics should the emerging work- force possess, and what is our association’s role in the assurance function associated with that endeavor? I am initially confronted by the idea of the “who” versus the “what.” In other words, who are we trying to attract and retain in our workforce? While this label may be dicult to assign, please allow me to dispense with a few thoughts. First, our profession is predicated on the notion that we are the chief science ocers for our communities. We understand local cul- ture, local regulatory environment, local language, and local politics. There is no other profession that can bridge and braid the preventive and clinical health enterprise like our profession can. The emerging workforce should be competent in science, math, and social science, with a garnish of alchemy. These attri- butes will require someone to see themselves more as a problem solver and less as a regulator.
The CDC cooperative agreement is part of the Strengthening Public Health Systems and Services through National Partnerships to Improve and Protect the Nation’s Health program. Our activities to build capacity align with the goals of CDC to improve orga- nizational and systems infrastructure and performance across the public health system, ultimately improving health outcomes and reducing health inequities. As you can see, we take our mission to build, sustain, and empower the environmental health workforce seriously. We understand that the profession is assembled one person at a time, one competency at a time. The crises of our generation will give rise to the foundation of the next. That is an e ort worth supporting. The next generation should be alert to the regression to the mean attitude I see throughout the country. Collecting, aggre- gating, and reporting data are important. Our profession does it reasonably well. What we do not do very well is thread our data to public health outcomes. Yes, inspection eciency and validity are important, but more important are the health, safety, and economic prosperities of our constituents. The emerging workforce will be well served to reflect on its data and answer the questions that elected ocials and our communities cling to. Is it safe to swim in the ocean after heavy rainfall? Do I need to wear a mask during a regional wildfire? What do the PFOS results mean to me and my baby? This endeavor will take a more assertive, participatory, and engaged professional. Our association is acting with immediacy to embrace the chal- lenge we inherited with AEHAP’s departure from the academic scene. At the time of writing, we have conceived and are in the process of creating an Oce of Student A airs. We aim to house under one umbrella a comprehensive and cogent approach to young and emerging professionals. Our association will man- age the national environmental health student research compe- tition, super-charge our national grand rounds webinar series, host AEC events for students, and continue our momentum in the nationally acclaimed leadership program. To complement these initiatives, our Membership Department is committed to the launch of a mentoring program, intended to connect envi- ronmental health professionals with recently retired environ- mental health leaders to ensure a smooth transition from one generation to the next. In sum, we will implement a support system for environmental health professionals throughout their careers—from university to retirement.
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Volume 87 • Number 2
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