Building Leadership Skills and Promoting Workforce Development: Evaluation Data Collected from Public Health Professionals in the Field of Maternal and Child Health

While workforce development is both emphasized and valued in the discipline of maternal and child health (MCH), continuing education provides limited opportunities for MCH practitioners to develop leadership skills outside the scope of identified job duties. Although public health leadership institutes offer mentored leadership training [1], these institutes emphasize general public health leadership rather than focusing on the MCH sub-discipline. Further, though such institutionally offered methodological skills trainings are available to MCH epidemiologists, rarely do these trainings integrate concepts related to advocacy for MCH populations (i.e., women, infants, and children) with analytic approaches. Although the development of core competencies for applied epidemiology [2], public health [3], and leadership [4, 5] identify the knowledge base and skills that epidemiologists and MCH professionals should attain, the implicit link between applied epidemiology, workforce development, and MCH leadership has not been emphasized. Few MCH epidemiologists are familiar with the MCH leadership competencies, though they are aware of the need for further training in the area of MCH leadership [6]. In a 2003 commentary addressing this gap in professional training, Greg Alexander, PhD, said: “… we must continue to build our data capacity and use our data judiciously to expand our understanding, to question our assumptions, and to explore and evaluate new approaches. Nonetheless, to move from data to effective action and change takes more than MCH epidemiology, it takes leadership.” [7, p. 148] MCH epidemiologists are building capacity [8] and using data more judiciously [9–12]; however, until very recently, little emphasis has been placed on publishing or publicizing successes in capacity building and data translation [13, 14]. Evaluating and translating data to program action is a skill developed over years of professional experience. Although the need for capacity building has historically been a priority, states remain at the initial stages of developing a planned process for teaching and instilling leadership skills in MCH epidemiologists [6, 15]. Furthermore, while competency in epidemiologic skills and methodologies are integral to practicing effective public health [8, 9], the area of leadership in workforce development is a less emphasized aspect of a MCH epidemiologist’s professional development and education. Yet, it is an area in which MCH professionals and epidemiologists recognize that additional training is warranted [6, 16]. Kroelinger et al. Page 2 Matern Child Health J. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2015 August 11. Author Manuscript Author Manuscript Author Manuscript Author Manuscript An annual conference specifically devoted to the research and practice of MCH and MCH epidemiology provides an ideal opportunity for introducing and reinforcing the MCH leadership competencies [5, 6], incorporating this knowledge into MCH epidemiology, providing professional development support, mentoring, and improving leadership skills. The annual Maternal and Child Health Epidemiology Conference (the “Conference”) supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/Maternal and Child Health Epidemiology Program, the Health Resources and Services Administration/ Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB), CityMatCH, and the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs, presents a potential forum for assessing leadership skills among MC