Public Health Strategy
Rebuilding trust in the public health system post-Covid.
Situation
Following COVID-19, the public health system faced widespread reputational damage and internal strain.
The American Public Health Association (APHA) convened leaders across federal, state, and local agencies to create a multi-year strategy to rebuild credibility, strengthen the workforce, and modernize operations.
I was engaged to design and lead the stakeholder-driven planning process.
Approach
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The client’s primary requirement was broad, authentic participation across the public health ecosystem. My team designed a multi-phase, mixed-methods engagement model that scaled participation while still enabling deep collaboration. We segmented hundreds of participants and deployed surveys to identify system-wide challenges, priorities, and emerging themes.
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Using the survey results, we designed and facilitated virtual strategy workshops using Mural, onboarding participants to the platform and guiding structured collaboration through small-group activities and facilitated discussions.
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From this pool, we selected approximately 50 public health leaders and subject-matter experts for a two-day, in-person strategy summit in Washington, DC.
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We structured the summit around cross-disciplinary workgroups, each focused on a major sector challenge. Teams developed prioritized solutions and draft implementation plans. Groups then rotated across rooms to critique and strengthen one another’s strategies—allowing expertise from across the system to meaningfully shape every workstream.
Outcomes
Dozens of national, state, and local public health organizations directly shaped a shared five-year strategy.
We partnered with APHA leadership to establish the governance and operating model for execution, defining workstream ownership, supporting roles, metrics, and reporting cadence.
The strategy remains in active use today, guiding national efforts focused on workforce capacity, operations modernization, data and technology infrastructure, and advancing equitable public health outcomes.
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