Fall 2003 Issue
A Promising Future
Management Academy going strong after successful four-year pilot
After the resounding success of a four-year pilot phase that ended last spring, the Management Academy of Public Health at the University of North Carolina has graduated to a new level of independence.
“The Management Academy is one of the CDC Foundation’s real success stories,” says Charles Stokes, president and CEO of the CDC Foundation. “Our role in this project was to mesh the visions and funding priorities of multiple partners into a viable program. The collaboration resulted in a first-rate program that is continuing to operate without assistance from the CDC Foundation or the original funding partnership.”
A ten-month, career development program, the Management Academy teaches public health professionals how to manage people, money and data through classroom work, distance learning and an extensive business plan development project. Offered through UNC´s School of Public Health and the Kenan-Flagler Business School, it has graduated close to 600 public health professionals from four states who have learned how to manage and generate revenue like business pros.
In 1998 the pilot program was launched through a unique collaboration between CDC, the CDC Foundation and a group of funding partners that included CDC, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. During the first four years, students attended the academy at UNC´s Chapel Hill campus free of charge. Today, UNC continues to manage the academy with funding from CDC and student tuition.
“After four years it was apparent that this program provided much-needed management training for local health departments and their employees,” says Stokes. “The CDC Foundation is proud to have played a role in getting this program off the ground so that it can continue to teach public health professionals for years to come.”
Evaluation and results critical to program’s success
During the pilot phase Dr. Richard M. House, a CDC Foundation public health management fellow, served as the liaison between all sponsoring organizations, the CDC Foundation and UNC, providing ongoing consultation and support for the program´s implementation.
To help assure the academy´s long-term viability and success, House worked closely with Judith Ottoson, Ed.D., M.P.H., public health evaluation consultant and professor of policy studies at Georgia State University, and The Lewin Group, a private health care consulting firm, to evaluate the pilot phase. Among the findings, the study showed that the pilot program spent $2 million to train its first 500 graduates, who then generated $6 million in revenue for their public health departments.
“We know that those who attended the academy increased their competence, confidence and communication skills, and were able to convert their knowledge into cash when they returned to their organizations,” says House. “The fact that almost 1,000 people applied to the academy in four years is incredible, and the fact that there are 97 people enrolled in a new class is a strong indication that the program can, and will, be sustainable on its own merits.”
UNC´s Dr. Stephen Orton, academy manager, credits Richard House and the CDC Foundation for the academy´s success. “After Sept. 11 and the anthrax attacks, Richard advised us to collect data about the academy and emergency preparedness. Results were published in “Public Health Reports,” showing that academy graduates are indeed better prepared to respond to disasters. Consequently, many agencies are now able to use bioterrorism funds to send managers to the academy.”
William L. Roper, dean of the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and former director of CDC says the program provides invaluable experience. “UNC´s Management Academy is important because it is the first and only training program in the country that teaches public health professionals advanced management skills to help them deal with the many difficult issues they face. From the very beginning, the CDC Foundation has had a significant role in administering the program, serving as the coordinating force between all sponsoring organizations and UNC to ensure that the academy is successful,” says Roper.
For more information on how to apply to the Management Academy for Public Health, please visit www.maph.unc.edu.
-Lisa Splitlog