Pasadena Health Officials to Take Part in 18-Month Emerging Leaders in Public Health Initiative

Pasadena’s Director of Public Health and its Health Officer have been selected to take part in the Emerging Leaders in Public Health Initiative, an 18-month program designed by nationally-renown The Kresge Foundation to provide county and local public health leaders opportunities to build additional knowledge and skills to tackle the challenges they face in their communities.

Public Health Director Michael Johnson said he and Dr. Ying-Ying Goh, Pasadena Health Officer, have been notified this week that they will be among 40 public health leaders representing 20 health departments across the U.S. who will take part as a team in the program’s second cohort.

During the program, pairs of public health leaders will participate in an action-oriented program focused on the design and implementation of a transformative concept that shifts or expands the capacity of their local department. Each team will receive a resource grant up to $125,000 as well as coaching and technical assistance to evolve their ideas into action.

The 40 leaders selected to the second cohort also join a growing community of public health leaders supported by The Kresge Foundation. In 2015, the foundation selected 24 public health leaders to participate in the inaugural cohort of the initiative. With this second cohort, the foundation is progressing towards its goal of providing leadership development and resources to 100 local, public health leaders across the country so that they can approach public health in a new way.

The Kresge Foundation, based in Troy, Michigan, is a $3.6 billion private, national foundation that works to expand opportunities in America’s cities through grant making and social investing in arts and culture, education, environment, health, human services, and community development.

Collaborating with nonprofit, public, private and philanthropic partners, the foundation helps create pathways for vulnerable people to improve their life circumstances and join the economic mainstream.

“At Kresge, we recognize the complexity of the health system and that all the disciplines within the system have the potential to play important roles in fostering community health. Public health agencies are an especially vital partner in creating healthier people and communities,” said David Fukuzawa, managing director of The Kresge Foundation’s Health and Human Services Programs. “The training these leaders receive will create more opportunities for their agencies to inspire their communities to think differently about population health.”

For more information about The Kresge Foundation and the Emerging Leaders in Public Health Initiative, visit www.kresge.org.