The Public Health Boot Camp: An Intensive Training Institute Graduates Its 2019 Cohort

The AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC) has partnered with the Department of Preventive Medicine Division of Public Health Practice and two IPHAM entities, the Program in Public Health and Center for Community Health, to develop and implement an annual week-long residential training program for HIV/AIDS community-based service providers.  

Cynthia Tucker from AFC, Dr. Leah Neubauer (Preventive Medicine, Program in Public Health), and Grisel Robles-Schrader (Center for Community Health, Program in Public Health) led the week-long institute. This year’s cohort included 13 participants from 10 HIV-AIDS focused agencies from across the Chicagoland area. “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.

The program’s instruction is shared across 21 faculty from thirteen universities/agencies, including several Feinberg faculty: Jen Brown, Dr. Margaret Danilovich, and Dr. Gregory Phillips. The public health curriculum provides 47 contact hours and is annually refined based on workforce community needs as identified by AFC through their statewide partner network.  This is the third institute which has graduated 37 participants since it began at Northwestern.  The partnership is planning the next Institute for the summer of 2019. For more information on the PHBC, please contact Dr. Neubauer.