Federal Grant to Increase Public Health Workers in Wisconsin

Madison, Wisconsin - Wisconsin's public health workforce will get a boost thanks to a $3.2 million federal grant to the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health (UW SMPH).

The five-year U.S. Department of Health and Human Services award will establish a new Wisconsin Center for Public Health Education and Training (WiCPHET) to help achieve the goal of a sufficient, competent and diverse public health workforce to protect and promote health.

"WiCPHET is urgently needed to prepare a sufficient public health workforce," says Karen Timberlake, secretary of the state Department of Health Services.

Timberlake notes the United States will need 250,000 more public health workers by 2020. In Wisconsin alone, about half of the Division of Public Health employees will be eligible for retirement by 2011.

"We are honored to be a part of this important initiative," says Dr. Robert N. Golden, professor and dean of the UW School of Medicine and Public Health. "Our combined strengths in providing education for tomorrow's providers and leaders in public health and biomedicine make this a natural fit."

WiCPHET, based at UW-Madison, will coordinate and develop new statewide academic and public health training resources to expand the pipeline of future public health professionals, integrate statewide professional preparation opportunities, and strengthen continuing education.

WiCPHET has a special focus on developing skills and capacity to address health disparities in underserved communities and populations.

Dr. Thomas Oliver, who heads up the Master of Public Health (MPH) program at UW-Madison and will serve as director of the new center, notes that while those in the public health workforce know their primary disciplines - such as nursing, nutrition, dental hygiene, laboratory science, environmental health or medicine - they are requesting training in increasingly complex public health practice.

"WiCPHET will help the current public health workforce update and expand its skills and provide a new generation of students with expanded, cutting-edge instruction and community-based field experience throughout the state," says Oliver, professor of population health sciences at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health.

Oliver notes that the grant expands on several initiatives created through the Wisconsin Partnership Program, including the MPH program, the Population Health Fellowship Program and the Healthy Wisconsin Leadership Institute.

The Partnership began about six years ago with the goal of serving the public needs of Wisconsin, reducing health disparities and fostering collaboration throughout the state's public health system. Oliver says the Partnership programming was key in gaining the WiCPHET grant.

WiCPHET partners include:

• The four Wisconsin Master of Public Health programs (UW-Madison, UW-La Crosse, UW-Milwaukee, and the Medical College of Wisconsin)
• The Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Division of Public Health
• Wisconsin Area Health Education Centers
• Wisconsin Public Health Association
• UW Office of Continuing Professional Development
• UW Population Health Institute