Recommendations for Data Science and Leadership

After three years of engaging community members and data science experts, the PH LEADS team is excited to share recommendations for recruitment, retention, education, training, curriculum, and programs.

To inform these recommendations, we conducted:

  • Listening sessions with public health professionals across career stages
  • Reviewed existing public health, leadership, and data science academic programs
  • Steering Committee discussions with experts representing health departments, academia, and workforce development

The recommendations below reflect common themes identified across these activities and are intended to guide workforce development efforts, training investments, academic partnerships, and leadership development initiatives.

Recruitment and Retention toggle
  • Reform hiring practices to remove systemic barriers and modernize job accessibility.
  • Job classification and promotion pathways.
  • Retention through engagement and organizational culture.
  • Workforce pipelines and academic partnerships.
  • Narrative, visibility, and community-based recruitment.
  • Dissemination and systems-level change.
Education and Training toggle
  • Broaden eligibility to include aspiring program managers, frontline practitioners, health planners, and early-career staff with lived experience.
  • Cohort-based structured training with both virtual and in-person components.
  • Prioritizing mentorship matching and facilitation to ensure successful interpersonal dynamics.
Curriculum and Programs toggle
  • Core public health competencies should include ethics, health literacy, and the use of plain language to ensure communication is clear and accessible.
  • Strengthen leadership and analytical skills, promote cultural competence, and offer opportunities for mentoring and shadowing.
  • Fully integrate the data lifecycle into public health education – spanning collection, governance, analysis, visualization, and communication.
  • Academic learning must be grounded in the applied functions of public health practice.

Recommendation Summary Resources

Insights on Curriculum and Program Development for Data Science Training and Leadership Development

This report summaries the PH LEADS Steering Committee's guidance on general public health education, data science training and leadership development.

October 2025
Insights on Education and Training for Workforce Development in Public Health Data Science

This report details the PH LEADS' Steering Committee thoughtful feedback in developing a dynamic, equity-centered approach to workforce development.

October 2025
Insights on Actionable Strategies to Strengthen the Public Health Workforce; Focusing on Recruitment and Retention

This report synthesizes the PH LEADS Steering Committee’s recommendations, actionable strategies and thematic priorities in recruitment and retention.

October 2025