Academic Public Health: Education at a Crossroads

Public health has faced significant challenges in recent years. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed gaps in the capacity to respond to public health emergencies, underscored health inequities, and increased the politicization of public health. The field has experienced an erosion of public trust and a rise in misinformation. Burnout and attrition of the public health workforce has reached an all-time high. Funding for public health has faced significant cuts. At this same time, rapid advances in artificial intelligence are reshaping how knowledge is generated, communicated, and applied. To address these challenges and new developments, public health professionals need to acquire new skills and abilities while ensuring public health practice remains equitable and community-centered. There is a need for academic public health to reimagine how schools and programs prepare current and future professionals, redesign education models, and strengthen connections among academia, practice, and communities.The goal of this research topic is to explore ways in which the academic public health can adapt and advance education for the future and current public health workforce. Solutions may include re-envisioning how public health is taught, what is taught, and who is involved in teaching it; integrating emerging technologies in curriculum; increasing experiential learning while reducing reliance on traditional lecture-based instruction; integrating interprofessional education and practice that centers a systems-based approach to improving population health with clinical education and practice embedded in the broader system; and recognizing prior experience, learning outcomes, and certificate programs within structured degree pathways. Suitable themes for manuscripts include, but are not limited to:1. Digital and technological innovation in public health education2. Flexible pathways that recognize different approaches to competency attainment, beyond traditional academic credit, to broaden access and expand public health training opportunities3. Leadership, strategic communication, and political competence training, including crisis communication, working with elected officials, managing media, and navigating public mis/distrust, to enhance public health influence and effectiveness.4. Bridging the academic-practice gap by incorporating practice-based, community-engaged, and experiential learning much earlier and more substantively5. Aligning curricula with workforce demands and real-world public health contexts to ensure graduates are workforce ready6. Cross-sector, interprofessional training that centers a systems-based, rather than clinical, approach to prepare learners to collaborate beyond traditional Topic editors: Cara Pennel, Margaret Chorazy, Laura E Liang, Nandi A Marshall, Ela Austin Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/79331/academic-public-health-education-at-a-crossroads