This summer, emerging public health professionals came together to get an accelerated, hands-on training at the Public Health Boot Camp (PHBC). Co-sponsored by the AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC) and the Institute of Public Health and Medicine (IPHAM) at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, the program is designed to prepare HIV/AIDS public health leaders through a one-week intensive, residential education program.
“Leadership development is highly unique but each PHBC has had one essential ingredient, leadership transformation. In the 2019 PHBC (the 12th PHBC cohort) there was clear collaboration, learning, respect, love and leadership transformation,” said Vice President of Prevention and Community Partnerships for AFC Cynthia Tucker. She has directed PHBC sessions for almost a decade.
The Boot Camp is divided into eight core areas, including Leadership and Interprofessional Practice in Public Health, Public Health Policy and Advocacy, Guiding Principles of Community Engagement and more.
“Our community-anchored partnership work is twenty-years proud this Fall. We are grateful to co-create meaningful, responsive public health workforce development with and in service to the AIDS Foundation of Chicago” remarked Dr. Neubauer, one of the co-founders of the PHBC.
Breakout sessions this year included a panel of PHBC alumni describing how they developed their projects into new professional opportunities, an introduction to epidemiology in public health practice, a training about to Getting to Zero Illinois, conversations about marketing and donor management, and more.
Click here to read bios of all this year’s presenters and here to read bios of this year’s participants.
