Academic Health Department Partnerships Toolkit
Welcome to the Academic Health Department Partnerships Toolkit.
An academic health department (AHD) partnership is a formal affiliation between a health department and an academic institution. Often compared to the “teaching hospital” model between hospitals and medical schools, AHD partnerships strengthen education, training, research, and service in public health—offering benefits to both organizations and the broader community. This toolkit organizes resources and tools to help develop, expand, and sustain AHD partnerships.
This toolkit contains the following sections:
Introduction
What is an AHD Partnership?
An AHD partnership is a mutually beneficial partnership that has been built between a health department and an academic institution. These partnerships strengthen collaboration between the organizations and help to formally operationalize their relationship as a regular part of how they do their work. Through AHD partnerships, organizations may engage collaboratively to provide education and training to students or to the current workforce, work together on joint research projects, or jointly provide public health services. These partnerships are often formalized through some kind of partnership agreement – a memorandum of agreement, memorandum of understanding, or contract, for example – and may also involve sharing personnel, funding, or other resources between the organizations.
AHD partnerships come in all shapes and sizes, and serve to enhance public health education and training, research, and service, strengthening the current capacity and workforce of the organizations involved and building for the future.
What is the Benefit of an AHD Partnership?
AHD partnerships can strengthen the connections between public health practice and academia, enhancing the capacity of the organizations involved. These partnerships offer a variety of benefits that help to improve the public health system and the public’s health. For example, you often see student internship or practicum programs as one component of an AHD partnership. Such programs are instrumental in providing students with practice-based experience and better preparing them to work in health departments after they graduate. These programs also help build a pathway into governmental public health, supporting health departments in recruiting qualified personnel. Other benefits of AHD partnerships include maximizing limited resources, obtaining funding, generating community-based research, and meeting accreditation standards, among other areas.
Learn More About AHD Partnerships
The Public Health Foundation offers tailored technical assistance to health departments interested in exploring and enhancing AHD partnerships through its Performance Improvement Consulting Services and hosts, on behalf of the Council on Linkages Between Academia and Public Health Practice, an Academic Health Department Learning Community, which brings together more than 1,400 people from across the country interested in sharing and learning together about AHD partnerships. For an ongoing connection to colleagues, and to be notified of upcoming AHD Learning Community events, resources, and tools, join the AHD Learning Community or subscribe to the Council on Linkages Update.
Developing and Sustaining AHD Partnerships
This section provides an overview of AHD partnerships and includes examples and templates from existing partnerships that demonstrate how to operationalize and maintain them.
Getting Started
The following resources provide additional context about the benefits and activities of AHD partnerships, outline key concepts, and describe potential stages of partnership development:
- AHD Core Concepts: Brief working paper defining an AHD partnership, along with proposed attributes, purpose, and benefits associated with this concept.
- Staged Model of AHD Development: Working model illustrating the potential development of AHD partnerships on a continuum that has five stages, from informal relationships through comprehensive collaboration.
Establishing and Formalizing AHD Partnerships
AHD partnerships can begin informally or be formalized through agreements like memorandum of understanding (MOUs) or affiliation agreements. These may cover a range of areas or focus on specific goals in education, research, or service delivery. The Council on Linkages Between Academia and Public Health Practice maintains a collection of agreements that organizations have used to formalize their AHD partnerships.
Operationalizing Partnerships
Beyond a formal agreement, successful partnerships require staffing, structures, processes, and communication. This section includes sample materials illustrating how partnerships are operationalized, such as job descriptions, committee structures, workplans, and strategic documents.
Job Descriptions
Examples in this section illustrate how organizations have developed job descriptions for a wide range of positions within their AHD partnership structure:
- Academic Health Department Coordinator – Knox County Health Department (TN)
- Director – Live Well Center for Innovation & Leadership, San Diego (CA)
- Management Fellow – Live Well Center for Innovation & Leadership, San Diego (CA)
- Preceptorship Coordinator II – University of Tennessee & Knox County Health Department (TN)
- Public Health Preceptorship Coordinator – University of Tennessee
- Management Fellow, Research & Data Excellence – Live Well Center for Innovation & Leadership, San Diego (CA)
- Shared Position Description – New River Health District, (VA) & Virginia Tech
Committee Structure, Scopes of Work, and Work Plans
This section provides examples of AHD partnership’s committee structures, scopes of work, and workplans that help to formalize the partnership and operationalize how the organizations work together:
- Academic Health Department Partners’ Work Plan, April 1, 2016 – June 30, 2017 – Florida Department of Health in Leon County, Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University, & Florida State University
- Academic Public Health Consortium Overview – Texas Department of State Health Services, Texas Health and Human Services
- Academic Public Health Partnership Framework – Texas Department of State Health Services, Texas Health and Human Services
- AHD Steering Committee (2016) – Knox County Health Department (TN) & The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Department of Public Health
- DSHS Office of Practice and Learning – Texas Department of State Health Services, Texas Health and Human Services
- 2017-18 Scope of Work (Translational and Implementation Research Specialist) – Granville Vance Public Health (NC)
Strategic Plans and Roadmaps
Examples in this section include strategic plans and roadmaps that help to guide the goals and activities of AHD partnerships:
- 2024-2027 Strategic Roadmap: Co-Creating a High Impact Academic Health and Human Services Department for San Diego County – Live Well Center for Innovation & Leadership, County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency (CA) & San Diego State University
- 2024-2027 Strategic Roadmap: Co-Creating a High Impact Academic Health and Human Services Department for the San Diego Region (Slide Deck) – Live Well Center for Innovation & Leadership, County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency (CA) & San Diego State University
- Engaging Academic Institutions Strategic Plan 2019 – Texas Department of State Health Services, Texas Health and Human Services
Annual Reports
This section includes annual reports from AHD partnerships, highlighting the impact of these partnerships across the country:
- Academic Health Department Yearly Report, 2023 – Louisville Metro Department of Public Health and Wellness, (KY)
- Academic Health Department 2014-2015 Annual Report – The University of Tennessee, Knoxville & Knox County Health Department (TN)
- Academic Health Department Activities (June 2021) – Texas Department of State Health Services, Texas Health and Human Services
- Annual Report 2017 – Granville Vance Public Health (NC)
- State of the County Health Report 2017 – Granville Vance Public Health (NC)
Stories from the Field
Hearing directly from established AHD partnerships can be informative and inspiring. This section includes archived webinars, success stories, and best practices from AHD partnerships.
AHD Webinar Series
Hosted by the AHD Learning Community, the AHD Webinar Series highlights successful AHD partnerships across the country. View recordings and slides from past webinars or access these materials via the AHD Partnerships Webinar Series training plan on the TRAIN Learning Network.
Other AHD Presentations
Public Health Foundation staff regularly share AHD partnership expertise at national, regional, and local events. This section includes recorded presentations designed to help public health organizations better understand AHD partnerships, explore the benefits, and share successful strategies and best practices for these partnerships.
- Unlocking Potential: Enhancing Capacity Through Academic Health Department Partnerships – (2024 Public Health Learning Forum Session)
- Exploring Successful Academic Health Department Partnerships – Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) (April 2025)
- Pathways to Academic Health Department Partnerships: Successes and Best Practices – ASTHO (May 2025)
Success Stories
Explore additional success stories of AHD partnerships.
The following success stories were developed in partnership with the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials:
- Academic Health Partnership Prioritizes Workforce Development in Florida (May 2025)
- Public Health and Academic Leaders Unite Through Texas Consortium (June 2025)
- San Diego Academic Health Partnership Strengthens Service During COVID-19 and Beyond (June 2025)
Explore the PHF Blog to learn about how AHDs are working together to meet their communities needs:
AHD Research
The AHD Research Agenda outlines potential research questions focused on AHD partnerships. Developed by the Council on Linkages Between Academia and Public Health Practice through the AHD Learning Community, this agenda supports collaborative research to evaluate AHD partnership structures, functions, and impacts.
AHD Research Agenda
Approved and updated in 2016, the research agenda includes 62 questions across five categories: inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes, and impacts.
- AHD Research Agenda (2016)
- Developing an AHD Research Agenda (Recorded Webinar, 2016)
- Development of a Research Agenda Focused on Academic Health Departments (2017)
AHD Partnerships in the Literature
Explore a curated bibliography of literature on AHD partnerships.
Expert Technical Assistance
AHD partnership experts are available to answer your questions. For assistance, please contact Mayela Arana at marana@phf.org.
Technical assistance exploring AHD partnership opportunities is also available through the Public Health Foundation’s (PHF’s) Performance Improvement Consulting Services. Learn more about the AHD Partnerships Environmental Scan service offering and request assistance.
Discover how PHF supported Alameda County’s AHD partnership environmental scan.
Academic Health Department Partnerships: Bridging the Gap Between Town and Gown
This new book captures learnings from decades of work with AHD partnerships and the AHD Learning Community. It can serve as a how-to guide for developing and maintaining AHD partnerships, exploring a variety of elements related to these partnerships and making the case for why they are valuable. This comprehensive guide covers the value, stages, challenges, cultural considerations, case studies, and science behind AHD partnerships.
Join the AHD Learning Community
The AHD Learning Community is free and open to all who are involved or interested in AHD partnerships. Become a member today to connect with colleagues across the country who are passionate about strengthening collaboration between public health practice and academia.
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This work was supported by funds made available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), National Center for STLT Public Health Infrastructure and Workforce, through OE22-2203: Strengthening U.S. Public Health Infrastructure, Workforce, and Data Systems grant. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by CDC/HHS, or the U.S. Government.