Under the leadership of Mayela Arana and Tamira Moon, Region 2 PHTC at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health and Region 4 PHTC at Emory’s School of Public Health are leading the Racial Justice Working Group to develop a competency set for racial justice.  Senior Program Manager of NEPTHC, Karla Todd Barrett, is a member of the working group.

The purpose of the competency set is that all PHTCs and their partners and client agencies can use the set in developing racial justice education and training.  This is consistent with agencies across the country declaring racism a public health issue, and expressing interest in ongoing health equity and racial justice training.

Competency Set Development Process

The working group has a process for developing the competency set including:

1. Creating a competency library
2. Convening an expert review panel
3. Creating draft models in collaboration with expert review panel
4. Validating the working model
5. Refining and finalizing the model

Currently, 35 public health professionals from across the country are considering joining the expert review panel.  If you are interested, please contact Mayela Arana  to get the introductory email with the scheduling polls and commitment.

Implications for Workforce Development

The expecation is that PHTCs, partners, and local and state health departments will be able to use the competency set to help develop training, write job descriptions and evaluate performance.

Download their presentation from NNPHI’s recent conference Emergeing Lessons from COVID 19: Action Toward Equity here: In Pursuit of Health Equity: Developing Racial Justice Competencies for the Public Health Workforce.