Strategic Development of the Public Health Workforce: A Unified Logic Model for a Multifaceted Program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Context: Public health has a responsibility to ensure the ability of its workforce to deliver essential services, including mastering the core public health competencies. Program: The Division of Scientific Education and Professional Development (DSEPD) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has a mission to improve health outcomes through a competent, sustainable, and empowered public health workforce. The DSEPD programs offer fellowships and other training opportunities, develop and disseminate quality public health training, and advance public health workforce development science. Evaluation: The DSEPD developed a unified division logic model to describe the combined activities and intended outcomes of all DSEPD programs and their intended contribution to a robust public health workforce and to support ongoing program planning and evaluation. The logic model has 4 streams of work that include (1) producing and disseminating quality learning products; (2) implementing and managing fellowship programs that support learning; (3) providing public health service through fellows; and (4) advancing workforce development science through collaboration with other public health leaders. The underlying program theory is that a robust workforce has sufficient workforce, organizational, and systems capacity to deliver public health essential services and, therefore, to protect the public's health. Three scientific theories support the program theory: the quality of learning; the accepted practice of competency-based programs and the service-learning model; and use of evidence-guided decision making in workforce development programs. Discussion: A unified division logic model allows DSEPD to describe its combined approaches to workforce development as a coherent portfolio with well-defined goals and measureable outcomes. The logic model effectively communicates the relationship among division programs, their shared outcomes, and their combined contributions to developing and maintaining a robust public health workforce. A unified logic model can serve as effective frame of reference for division evaluation and as evidence in public health workforce development science.