What is SEPHLI?

Overview

The Southeast Public Health Leadership Institute is a year-long leadership development program, within the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health, for mid- to senior level public health administrators working in the states of Arkansas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.

The Institute supports the strengthening of leadership competencies, such as creating a shared vision, personal awareness, systems thinking, risk communication, team building, ethical decision making and political and social change strategies. Scholars interact with local and national leaders during 3 working retreats, 4 telephone conferences, and 3 online computer discussion forums. Each scholar also completes an individual learning plan, a community leadership project, a mentoring relationship and 4 small group assignments.

Program Format

The yearlong program begins in December and ends the following December. Face-to-face interactions between the scholars and guest faculty occur three times during the program year: at the beginning, at mid-year (May) and at the end. Between these scheduled meetings, Institute activities take place via distance learning using a mixture of both real time and asynchronous delivery modalities. Scholar distance learning requirements include attending a minimum of four telephone conference calls and two online computer forums.

Program History

The development of SEPHLI was a collaborative effort of public health leaders from each of the founding states, assisted by staff from the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and the West Virginia Public Health Leadership Development Project. In the years since its inception, the three-partner TriState Public Health Leadership Institute of North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia has grown to a four- and then five-state now six-state partnership and along the way changed its name to the Southeast Public Health Leadership Institute, or SEPHLI.

A number of different reports from the Institute of Medicine (IOM), most notably, the initial Future of the Public's Health, published in 1988, made a number of now widely accepted recommendations for improving the system charged with addressing the nation's health. Among them were recommendations for increasing the effectiveness of public health leadership throughout the United States.

Specifically, the IOM calls for greater leadership effectiveness among public health administrators and for more leadership training programs in schools of public health. In response to this challenge, a number of leadership development programs emerged, including federally sponsored national programs, regionally- and state-focused institutes, and leadership curricula and degree programs in schools of public health.

SEPHLI has evolved as public health has in the last decade.  SEPHLI staff work hard to offer the latest technology, advances in teaching styles, emphasize crisis leadership and cross-border preparedness, note importance of ongoing workforce training and support, and connect academic advances to public health practice.

Program Goals

The overall goals of the SEPHLI program are:

• to enhance the leadership skills and abilities of senior and mid-level managers in state and local public health agencies;
• to develop a network of public health leaders in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States; and
• to strengthen the relationship between public health practitioners and public health scholars working in schools and programs of public health.