Health Administration Section members have an opportunity to improve public health education and by doing that to positively impact the quality of the public health workforce and the practice of public health itself.  Again this year the Council on Education for Public Health is offering Site Visitor training during the APHA Annual Meeting.  This year’s training will be on Sunday Oct. 30, 2011.

The Council on Education for Public Health is an independent agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education to accredit schools of public health and public health programs offered in other university settings. These schools and programs prepare students for entry into public health careers. The primary professional degree is the Master of Public Health, but baccalaureate, master’s and doctoral degrees are offered as well.  CEPH has been performing this function for 40 years and was founded by both APHA and the Association of Schools of Public Health. 

How can you help?  To accredit a program or school CEPH requires a comprehensive Self Study assessing the school or program against existing criteria in such areas as core curriculum, organization, resources, research, diversity and workforce development. These self studies, after a preliminary review, are further analyzed and validated by teams of site visitors who perform an onsite review, conduct interviews and review additional documentation. The site visitor teams then make a recommendation to the CEPH board who determine final action as to accreditation and any follow up items or corrective action needed. CEPH could not do its work without the efforts of these volunteer site visitors.  All site visitors’ expenses are covered.

The need for practitioners is critically important.  One of the primary purposes of public health education is to produce practitioners with the skills and training needed for success. In addition, even for those who receive public health education to become researchers or to teach, the nexus to the practice community must be strong. Therefore, all site visitor teams have at least one practitioner. Without a pool of trained site visitors, CEPH would be unable to fulfill its mission.

For practitioners to become a site visitor, they must:

• Be a senior public health practitioner (primarily employed by a public health department, non-profit organization, health care organization, etc. with preferably at least 10 years of experience in public health).

AND

• Have at least a master’s degree.
• Possess strong writing, communication and analytical skills.
• Have completed site visitor training

As one of the three APHA appointees to the CEPH Board, it is my goal to recruit additional qualified practitioners as site visitors. Please contact Alan Baker at Alanbaker09@verizon.net  if you wish to be nominated or contact Maraquita L. Hollman, CEPH Accreditation Specialist, for more information at MLHollman@ceph.org.