In a constantly changing health care environment, Emerging Leaders in Public Health has equipped more than 100 visionary leaders at local and county public health departments around the country with the knowledge and skills to strengthen and transform the role of their organizations and improve the health and well-being of people in their communities.

As part of this 18-month, action-oriented experience, teams of public health leaders were encouraged to think beyond the traditional role of a public health agency and implement approaches designed to enhance organizational and leadership competencies in business, planning and public health systems development.

In each team, the public health department director collaborated with an emerging leader from the same organization. These teams worked together to develop leadership skills that enabled them to address challenges in the communities they serve. Over the course of the program, the team collaborated with multisector national and local experts and their staff to position their organization for a new leadership role within the public health system. These leaders have been successful in building the skills to advance their roles as health equity resources, chief health strategists and coordinators for community health data.

In addition to receiving leadership coaching and development, each team received grants as large as $125,000 to develop and implement a transformative concept designed to deliver a new model of public health for their respective communities.

In 2015, Kresge’s Health Program selected 24 leaders to participate in the inaugural cohort, and selected 40 to participate in Cohort II in 2017. Kresge selected 40 local leaders to participate in a third cohort in 2018.