About Us

RJCM
Masked Doctor with Patients

35

Public Health Professionals
About
about us

Racial Justice Working Group

Developing a competency model for racial justice.

Currently, 35 public health professionals from across the country are part of the expert review panel. The goal of the workgroup is to establish clear, specific, consensus-based recommendations and produce a Racial Justice Competency Model for Public Health Professionals to provide public health agencies with resources to develop racial justice education and training.

The Team
Leaders of the Racial Justice Working Group

The Team

In October 2020, the Public Health Training Center Network (PHTC) formed a workgroup to explore the development of a racial justice competency model. Mayela Arana, Region 2 PHTC at Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health; Tamira Moon, Region 4 PHTC at Emory's School of Public Health; and Dena Fife, Region 7 PHTC at University of Iowa, Institute for Public Health Practice; and Dany Zemmel Region V Public Health Training Center are leading the Racial Justice Working Group in developing a competency model for racial justice.
PHTC
Public Health Training Center

PHTC

Process
process

Competency Set Development Process

Creating a Competency Library

• 1 •

Beginning with the 10 PHTCs and our partner organizations, we identified existing competency statements and frameworks used in training development and strategic planning efforts. The resulting competency library comprised over 650 statements relevant to health equity and racial justice.

Convening an Expert Review Panel

• 2 •

A group of 35 public health practitioners from state, local, and tribal public health departments; federal government agencies such the CDC; non-governmental organizations; and academics from various schools of public health across the country were convened to help prioritize competency statements and provide feedback and suggestions throughout the process.

Create Draft Model

• 3 •

ERP members and our workgroup took part in an iterative process of development, including monthly meetings to discuss the utility of the model, the organizing framework that should be used, including domains and the use of tiers. The ERP provided insight on the applicability of the competency statements and their relevance in providing staff with the tools to combat racism in their public health work.

Validating the Work Model

• 4 •

Validation will ensure that the model reflects the necessary and practical knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to address racism in public health practice. This includes a pilot testing phase as well as feedback we are collecting.

Refining and Finalizing the Model

• 5 •

Based on the results of the validation phase, we refined and finalized Version 1 of the model. This model will be periodically reviewed and revised to ensure it remains relevant for public health practitioners.