The University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) School of Public Health and the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) have joined together in a progressive new academic health department (AHD) partnership. Aimed at improving public health in Chicago, a 10-year agreement has been established between the two organizations to support shared decision making and collaboration in areas of public health research, education, and data analysis. This AHD partnership will help build deeper connections and sharing of resources among these organizations, with early goals of the partnership focused on education, research, and sustainability, and each organization contributing based on its strengths. Visit the UIC website to read more about this exciting new partnership.

 

 

How can you make an AHD partnership a reality for your organization? Get started today by exploring the resources available through the Council on Linkages Between Academia and Public Health Practice’s AHD Learning Community. With 700 members from across the country, the AHD Learning Community aims to support public health practitioners, educators, and researchers in developing, maintaining, and expanding AHD partnerships. The Learning Community offers a listserv for discussion, virtual meetings and webinars highlighting successful AHD partnerships, and resources and tools to help with implementation.

 

Interested in more in-depth guidance and advice? Join the AHD Mentorship Program to connect one-on-one with an experienced mentor. Mentors participating in this program have expertise in a variety of areas of AHD development, operation, and evaluation and are available to offer guidance as you work to build your AHD partnerships. Griselle Torres, DrPH, MPH, MSW, Director of the Coordinating Center for Public Health Practice at UIC, who has been instrumental in establishing UIC’s AHD partnership with CDPH, currently participates in the mentorship program as a mentee. Dr. Torres highlights benefits of the program:

 

“My mentor helped me sort through the many thoughts and ideas in my head in trying to negotiate the partnership agreement and, most importantly, did so taking into consideration the context in which we were operating. We talked things through and strategized possibilities as I worked to move the process forward. My mentor was my sounding board, strategist, and cheerleader.”

 

Individual questions can also be shared in the Comments section below or sent to me at [email protected] to be answered by AHD experts.

 

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