The Region 6 South Central Public Health Training Center hosted a learning exchange for members of the Public Health Learning Network (PHLN) on Tuesday, May 17, 2016.

At the exchange, PHLN members from across the country were able to discuss the initiatives of the R6-SCPHTC, participate in a live demonstration of Region 6's Moodle-based learning management system, engage in the course vetting and evaluation process and discuss opportunities for leveraging emerging trends and resources as a national training network.

John Oeffinger is Program Manager, Workforce Development & Community Collaborative Partnerships at Texas Health Institute (THI). He is the project manager and Co-PI for developing two CDC funded multi-organization and multi-SME collaborative course development curriculum projects. Vector Control for Environmental Health Professionals: The Importance of Integrated Pest Management is an eleven course curriculum with the courses moving through final CDC clearance. Safe Water Program Improvement is an eight course curriculum in the course creation phase. The CDC, National Network of Public Health Institutes, Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, National Environmental Health Association, and Texas Health Institute are partners in creating these curriculums and courses. The team uses a 21 step course creation process designed to include multiple organizations, practitioners, and Subject Matter Experts in a collaborative and agile process to create individual courses. John is also responsible for the Texas Local Performance Site for Region 6 South Central Public Health Training Center. John is Co-PI and co-author for the National Coordinating Center for Public Health Training's National Training Coordination Plan: A Plan to Promote High Quality Training For the Public Health Workforce. He has helped produce over 450 HTML eLearning courses in nine industries using eight different Learning Management Systems since 1997. He has been a product manager for an eLearning portal start-up and marketing director for one of the largest consumer health portals. John also leads THI's Texas County Health Rankings Announcement collaborative effort funded by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute's County Health Rankings and Roadmaps and involving five partner organizations.

John Oeffinger is an experienced association and non-profit organization manager with additional experience in for-profit technology companies. He has represented organizations on state, national, and international committees and in the media including a UNIDO Technical Workgroup. He co-created and co-chaired International Informatics Access '87 (IIA '87). He has delivered invited presentations to more than twenty-eight state, national, or international events sharing expertise in the strategic use of technology to communicate, eLearning/distance learning, telemedicine, online community development, and work force development. He has also served as a political campaign manager or operative on congressional, statewide (Texas), and presidential campaign staffs (National HQ, Texas) and on two presidential campaign PACs (National). John was included in the 51st Edition, Marquis Who's Who in America.

Leadership Development

The Leadership Development course bundle aims to enhance and develop leadership skills in participants through education and individual change and growth. The bundle stresses application of core functions to public health issues, and translation of leadership skills into  tools for community empowerment.

The goals of the course bundle are to:

•     Effect individual growth and change
•     Develop leadership skills among participants
•     Apply leadership skills and techniques in public health practice
•     Improve organizational effectiveness, efficiency, and equity
•     Develop collaborative partnerships to generate healthy communities
•     Develop the skills to create online learning environments conducive to program
      outcomes

For more information about the Leadership Development course bundle, please click here.

Looking for more training on a specific topic in public health? Need additional training on a current public health hot topic? We want to help you address these needs. Please email us and let us know about your current training needs/interests/issues. We will evaluate our current trainings to see if we have something that can address your area of interest.

If we don't have the resources already available, we will look into the possibility of developing those resources for you. Please send us an email at [email protected] Thank you.