UofL faculty expertise led to the school鈥檚 selection as Kentucky鈥檚 headquarters – known as a Local Performance Site (LPS) – within the based at Emory University鈥檚 Rollins School of Public Health. The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) has awarded more than $1 million to fund the program with a goal of strengthening the public health workforce in the southern region of the United States聽 – Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.

鈥淥ur faculty members have tremendous experience in providing education to public health and other health care professionals in the areas of biological and general public health threats, infectious disease risks, and the use of information sciences tools to conduct research and deliver educational programs,鈥 said W. Paul McKinney, MD, associate dean for research, UofL School of Public Health and Information Sciences. 鈥淲e also have worked extensively with the Kentucky Department for Public Health in developing targeted coursework, presentations and service.鈥

UofL joins with Emory University, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Florida A&M University, University of North Carolina 鈥 Wilmington, Medical University of South Carolina and East Tennessee State University to develop training courses and continuing education courses under the Region IV PHTC. Public health professionals will learn through webinars, web-based interactive lectures and virtual skill-based trainings.

McKinney hopes to increase access to courses through the Kentucky Department for Public Health鈥檚 platform for online learning -Kentucky TRAIN (Training Finder Real-time Affiliate Integrated Network). He鈥檚 working in collaboration with Kelli Dunn, M.D., senior associate dean for state initiatives and outreach, UofL School of Medicine, in helping build awareness about these continuing education courses through the state鈥檚 .

By the end of 2018, UofL and the other six sites hope to develop nearly 500 training sessions for more than 32,000 public health and other health care professionals.

Pathways to Practice Scholars

The Public Health Training Center program also incorporates a competitive opportunity for public health master鈥檚 students from accredited institutions to gain practical experience under the mentorship of seasoned public health practitioners working with underserved communities.

The is intended to enhance a student鈥檚 professional knowledge while allowing them to use skills learned in the classroom. Each scholar will receive $1,500 to support travel and housing for the 8-12 week summer field placement.

UofL will oversee Kentucky鈥檚 two field placement opportunities at the and at the .

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Julie Heflin
Julie oversees digital content for the Office of Communications and Marketing. She began her UofL career on the Health Sciences Center campus in 2007. Prior to this, Julie was a journalist with WFPL (Louisville Public Media), and occasionally filed reports for National Public Radio.