News

PHF offers a wide range of TA and training to help health departments build strong internal systems. We focus on areas like quality improvement, performance management, and workforce development, all essential for accreditation and long-term success. 

For example, we help agencies create formal QI plans and train staff through formats that fit their needs: from half-day virtual workshops to multi-day, in-person sessions, or even extended train-the-trainer series. 

We also support performance management by helping staff understand how to design meaningful performance measures and connect them to strategic priorities. That might mean group workshops or one-on-one coaching for program managers. 

And when it comes to workforce development, we guide agencies in aligning staff roles with the Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals, helping them write better job descriptions, conduct workforce assessments, and build staff-led development plans. 

Beyond that, we offer training in facilitation skills and strategic planning, both critical for leading internal initiatives and working effectively with partners. 

One of the biggest challenges is simply capacity. Many health departments don’t have the internal expertise or infrastructure to sustain agency-wide performance improvement efforts. PHF helps bridge that gap. 

We move agencies beyond just tracking grant deliverables, toward building systems that improve performance across the health department and align with community priorities. 

A lot of our work focuses on helping teams define what “better” actually looks like. We do that by teaching how to design strong performance measures and apply proven quality improvement tools. It’s about giving staff confidence and structure to drive meaningful change. 

I recently worked with a large health department that had paused its performance management system during COVID. Over the course of a year, we helped them rebuild that system from the ground up, through in-person training, coaching program managers, and support for onboarding new staff. We focused on writing effective measures and designing a rollout plan that made sense for their timeline and team. 

Another great example is a QI training series I led where participants presented final projects showing real improvements, like better supervisory training, clearer SOPs, and expanded use of customer satisfaction data. 

And in workforce development, I’ve helped agencies engage staff in prioritizing Core Competencies tied to their roles. That led to targeted assessments and training plans built directly from staff input, which is exactly the kind of ownership and relevance we aim for.