THURS-028 - Designing a Publicly Available Platform to Provide Individualized Guidance for Public Health Careers
Thursday, April 23, 2026
11:45 AM - 12:45 PM PST
Location: Plaza Foyer, Plaza Level
Area of Responsibility: Area II: Planning Keywords: Technical Assistance (TA)@@@Workforce Development, Subcompetencies: 8.3.3 Develop a career advancement plan., 2.2.1 Identify desired outcomes using the needs and capacity assessment. Research or Practice: Practice
Research Manager Center for Excellence in Public Health Leadership, Kennedy Krieger Institute Baltimore, Maryland, United States
Learning Objectives:
At the end of this session, participants will be able to:
Describe the design of a publicly available online system, Public Health and Social Sciences-Individual Development Plan (PHaSS-IDP) to assess skills and provide individualized planning for public health careers.
Summarize scholar utilization patterns for the PHaSS-IDP.
Demonstrate how to access and use the PHaSS-IDP of a publicly available online system to self-assess skills and plan academic and career decisions for public health careers.
Brief Abstract Summary: Design of a publicly available online system to assess skills and provide individualized planning for public health careers will be discussed during this presentation. Demonstration and practice with the application to self-assess skills and plan academic and career decisions for public health careers will be provided.
Detailed abstract description: A publicly available online application, the Public Health and Social Science-Individual Development Plan (PHaSS-IDP), was developed by the Kennedy Krieger Institute (KKI) to guide academic and professional achievement in community and public health careers. This presentation will demonstrate the PHaSS-IDP for use by students and early career professionals. The Dr. James A. Ferguson Emerging Infectious Diseases (Ferguson Fellows) graduate fellows, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and administered by KKI, uses the PHaSS-IDP to foster self-efficacy and promote the success of the community health workforce. Fellows complete PHaSS-IDP self-assessments of community and public health skillsets, desired tasks envisioned for future careers, areas of career focus, and values that undergird the fellow’s community health interests. The PHaSS-IDP has twenty public health career “windows” into necessary skills that align with public health career interests, professional associations, job boards, and information related to predicted job availability and median income across each state and territory. Career planning tools from major public health programs and videos from public health leaders are also included. 107 Ferguson Fellows completed the PHaSS-IDP surveys. Analysis of de-identified information indicated that the top five public health priority areas for fellows were Child Health (38.1%), Health Equity & Disparities (32.4%), Chronic Non-Communicable Diseases (22.9%), Domestic Violence & Abuse Prevention (21.9%), and Healthcare Access & Affordability (20.0%). Analysis of PHaSS-IDP responses informs curriculum development and professional mentorship needs for Ferguson Fellows. Fellows use the PHaSS-IDP following the fellowship to guide academic and career decisions. Thus, the PHaSS-IDP allows students and early career professionals to systematically explore and plan interdisciplinary public health careers that will strengthen and build the public health workforce.
