Environmental Health Leadership and Leadership Deficits in the Crisis Economy

Leadership is the act of leading a group of people toward a common vision. It sounds simple enough, but is extremely challenging to manifest and implement. Are you waiting for things to return to normal in your organization? Sorry! Leadership in this new millennium will require new skills tailored to an environment of urgency, high stakes, and uncertainty. This presentation addresses characteristics of successful leaders, attributes and principles of effective leadership, and critical new skill sets that today’s leaders must develop and implement to achieve true success. The environmental health profession is both diverse and dynamic, and its leaders must vigorously excel in the management of innovation and change in a crisis economy. Our workplaces have an abundance of managers and administrators, but leadership deficits are endemic across the profession and the nation, and the successful leader must resolve to lead and not merely manage. Many organizations are well managed and poorly led as executives address routine, status quo issues while ignoring or not even recognizing rapidly emerging critical matters. They allow themselves to become buried with details, focus on trivia and “office politics,” and march firmly into the past. Today’s successful leader must encourage dissent, disagreement and truth from associates and search for self-truth by spending time in the field, analyzing their own operations, and speaking truthfully with both employees and customers. Today’s leaders must balance career and personal roles, and use vision, ambition, talent and learning ability to serve rather than enslave. They must embrace flexibility, self-awareness and self-direction. As constant as change has been for decades, and as vital as it is today, it’s still difficult to bring about. People in leadership positions must be agents of adjustment, who face things as they are and prepare for things as they will be. If competence, conscience and innovation are to be restored to government, business and society alike, that restoration must start with those who propose lead our organizations. It will require new and innovative skills to foster adaptation, embrace disequilibrium and generate leadership in all levels of the organization — and it must begin with you.

EPH & Priority Based Budgeting - This Happened to Me!

As a kid growing up in Montana, one of my favorite things was reading my Dad’s Outdoor Life Magazine's "This Happened to Me!" feature. These amazing, graphic stories showed how preparation, ingenuity, and sometimes plain old luck, allowed people who were faced with life threatening situations in the wild survive. In today’s wild world of budget cuts and priority based budgeting, Environmental Health needs to be prepared to quickly respond not just to the threats, but the opportunities presented by these difficult times. It is my firm belief that EH can do more than survive, but can thrive. Come to this presentation and hear the real-life stories of those who have come up with some basic strategies, tools, and ways to present outcomes that make a difference to policy makers that make budget decisions. Leave this presentation with a new-found hope, that with some preparation, ingenuity, and maybe a little luck, you too can make the most of every dollar and not fear every budget cycle.

Cross Community Collaborations for Environmental Health

Environmental health problems typically cross boundaries of race, gender, class, and geography, especially problems that impact those who are disproportionately at risk from harmful chemical exposures. Developing successful collaborations among the diverse stakeholders seeking to resolve such problems is a major challenge for environmental health professionals. The Oakland-based Center for Environmental Health (CEH) has successfully facilitated collaborations among environmental justice community-based groups, government agencies, non-profits, labor unions, and business leaders to eliminate health threats and create more sustainable communities. In this session CEH Executive Director Michael Green will discuss with participants the strategies for facilitating successful collaborations across diverse communities, the methods for developing successful relationships, and practices that professionals can use in their work with diverse constituencies.

EH Practioner and the 21st Century

Perception of the current state of environmental health practice is that of a specialist which is focused only on regulation and enforcement and not participating in development of a more holistic sustainable “green” approach to environmental issues for the twenty first century. Much of the this perception is due to the fact that a major focus of those who practice and that of the general public appears to be on the awareness of current environmental problems and not promoting sustainable solutions.  As examples, a brief review of basic environmental health practice in the areas of pollution control, water resources, and food protection clearly demonstrates that environmental health practice has always incorporated sustainability as the correct way to deal with modern environmental problems. Pollution control whether it is concerned with air, soil, water, or food has been viewed with a cradle to grave approach of pollutants emitted from obtaining source material, to the process of developing the product, the product use itself, and to the final disposal of that product.

Pollution control has emphasized protecting human health, allowed for “best available technology,” considers cost of controls, and not generating the pollutants whenever possible. Water resources utilization and availability for residence, industry, and agriculture have had major sustainable efforts applied by environmental health practitioners regarding water conservation techniques, waste water reclamation, and implementing social solutions to water scarcity. To address evolving threats and concerns with food sources and food-borne illness, emphasis on risk-based inspections to prevent problems before they start, to ensure preventive measures are effective, and provide a rapid response when contaminated food or feed are detected.

The Evolving World of Environmental Health: A strategy of how to best adapt and advance the profession from an entry-level professional, a mid-level manager and a senior director

The field of environmental health is constantly evolving, as new hazards threaten our communities. For example, Cryptosporidium is commonly associated with waterborne outbreaks, yet we knew little about this agent just twenty years ago. Less than ten years ago, sprouts were not considered a potentially hazardous food. Environmental health professionals are increasingly involved with disaster sanitation and emergency planning management, but are we prepared? Knowledge and skills must evolve in order to keep pace with current environmental health needs.

This panel presentation will offer a step-by-step strategy on how to adapt to the evolving world of environmental health by sharing perspectives of an entry level professional, a mid-level manager, and a senior director. The panel will assess the current environmental health employment opportunities and barriers for new graduates and experienced professionals.  The panel will identify common skills employers are seeking, how new graduates can best prepare to enter the work force, and discuss adaptation strategies to keep relevant in a changing field. Additionally, we will outline similarities and differences between the new entry level workers and the experienced managers as it relates to the progression of the profession.  The panel will conclude the presentation by providing solutions on how we can all effectively collaborate to advance the profession and meet the needs of the evolving world of environmental health.

State Environmental Health Policy

The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) is the trade association for state legislatures, meaning both the elected officials and the staff that serves them.  NCSL is the only organization that provides an open, bipartisan, national forum for lawmakers to communicate with one another and share ideas. NCSL's tracks state legislation, policies and chaptered laws to identify legislative trends and needs of the state legislative audience.  Most substantive state policies and programs require legislative approval, funding, and oversight.  As well, the most innovative or unique state policies come from state legislatures.  This session will review the state environmental public health legislation that was introduced and enacted during the 2011 state legislative sessions, including laws on food safety (particularly the cottage food industry), water and waste water (including private well and waste water use), natural gas fracking, chemical regulations (green chemistry) and zoonotic rules.  NCSL covers legislation from the 50 states, territories and the district of Columbia.  

Legislatures also hold the purse strings in state government and determine the funding levels of state agencies and programs.  Many legislatures appropriate federal funds designated for state and local programs and make policy decisions about their use.  As in Washington, D.C., health policy initiatives at the state level require legislative approval before they become policy.  For example, many innovative health initiatives and pilot programs sponsored by private foundations or federal grants require state legislative involvement, understanding, and approval if they are to succeed in the long term.

The Relationship between Local Health Department Capacity, Performance, and National Environmental Public Health Leadership Institute Participation in Providing Environmental Public Health Services, and Disease Ratios in a C

This project seeks to explore the relationship between local public health agency performance as assessed by the National Environmental Public Health Performance Standards (NEPHPS) instrument and various measures of local health agency capacity contained in contemporaneous data collected by the 2008 National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) Profile of Local Health Departments survey instrument, such as distribution of regulation, inspection and licensing activities in a community, as well the ratio of observed/expected cases of E.Coli, Shigella and Salmonella contained in the Community Health Status Indicators (CHSI). Our specific research questions are:

1. What is the effect of direct (local health department) versus indirect (other government agency or contracted to third party) provision of services on public health performance and on community health as reflected by the CHSI data mentioned above?
2. What is the relationship between variations in performance as measured by the NEPHPS instrument and community health as reflected by the CHSI data mentioned above?
3. What is the relationship between variations in environmental workforce capacity (number of FTEs classified as environmental health specialists, as epidemiologists, and as "other environmental scientists or technicians) and public health performance and on community health as reflected by the CHSI data mentioned above?
4. How do LHD that participated in EPHLI compare with peer counties on community health as  reflected by the CHSI data? Data from the NEPHPS instruments comes from public health system personnel, mostly health department personnel, responsible for providing environmental health services in a community; this data will be matched with the 2008 Profile and version 2.0 of the CHSI.
Preliminary findings reveal that that those LHDs with increase EH budget have improved performance. There also appears to be a relationship between EPHLI participating and improved environmental health outcomes compared to their peer counties.

State Environmental Health Policy

The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) is the trade association for state legislatures, meaning both the elected officials and the staff that serves them.  NCSL is the only organization that provides an open, bipartisan, national forum for lawmakers to communicate with one another and share ideas. NCSL's tracks state legislation, policies and chaptered laws to identify legislative trends and needs of the state legislative audience.  Most substantive state policies and programs require legislative approval, funding, and oversight.  As well, the most innovative or unique state policies come from state legislatures.

This session will review the state environmental public health legislation that was introduced and enacted during the 2011 state legislative sessions, including laws on food safety (particularly the cottage food industry), water and waste water (including private well and waste water use), natural gas fracking, chemical regulations (green chemistry) and zoonotic rules.  NCSL covers legislation from the 50 states, territories and the district of Columbia.  

Legislatures also hold the purse strings in state government and determine the funding levels of state agencies and programs.  Many legislatures appropriate federal funds designated for state and local programs and make policy decisions about their use.  As in Washington, D.C., health policy initiatives at the state level require legislative approval before they become policy.  For example, many innovative health initiatives and pilot programs sponsored by private foundations or federal grants require state legislative involvement, understanding, and approval if they are to succeed in the long term.

Do your inspections from the office!

Sacramento County has experimented with performing low risk well closures streamed by smartphone from the field to the office. Potentially one can accomplish three times the daily inspections from the office, not incur travel expenses or field liabilities by doing the inspection live from your office.  

Woodstock to WWF: How to Benefit from Gererational Differences in the Workplace [LEARNING LAB]

Multiple generations are in the workforce, now more than ever.  We will discuss each generation in your organization, events that define generations and potential barriers.  Learn how to break down barriers and benefit from each others' strengths, overcome challenges and how to successfully co-exist.

Sanitation Concerns with the Military in Afghanistan

A United States Army Preventive Medicine Medical Detachment provided public health support to over 7000 United States and coalition forces in Regional Command West Afghanistan. This Medical Detachment focused on Occupational and Environmental Health Site Assessments, vector borne surveillance, the Defense Occupational and Environmental Health Readiness System portal, and general site sanitation within forward operating bases (FOB) in western and austere regions of Afghanistan. The three top sanitation issues were solid waste management, chlorination of water and feral animals. Preventive medicine technicians traveled throughout a large area of Afghanistan providing base camp site assessments and working with the FOB leadership to correct deficiencies in sanitation resulting in improved sanitation and a reduction in Disease Non-battle injuries.

Environmental Health Divorcing from Public Health? [LEARNING LAB]

In the era of budget cuts, many core environmental health programs are moving to code enforcement, natural resources, agriculture, and environmental protection. The lack of cohesiveness makes it difficult to look at the problems wholistically (i.e. a food service establishment with waste disposal problems may fall under the purvue of Agriculture, Natural Resources or Environmental Protection). The public no longer knows who to call, and no one agency is responsible for mitigation or investigation making coordination difficult. We have taken the public health out of environmental health.