Make a Difference, Grow our Workforce, Connect with Youth

Our History

In 2007, research showed a new kind of threat to the public’s health: a growing shortage of public health workers. Contributing factors included our aging workforce and population, not enough training programs and poor health habits and health literacy among our general population.

CPHA responded with a long-term goal: Prepare youth and undergraduates as future public health advocates, leaders and health literate citizens with the help of CPHA members.  We formed a Mentoring Committee, called Mentors on Request (MOR) and armed them with activities and tools to engage youth and young adults in public health, from the classroom to the community.  Since 2007 the MOR has grown from 7 organizational members to 45. 

Our Strategy

• Start young:  We targeted high school and community college students. In K-12, students are rarely taught about the field of public health and the many career options within it because there are limited courses with the name “public health” in it. Thus, majoring in the field was an unusual choice for an undergraduate. 

• Recruit mentoring organizations, not individuals: Often mentors’ passion for their field turns to burnout when they are the only ones doing the mentoring in their organization. Therefore, we asked leaders of public health organizations to be members and to spread mentoring efforts across their staff.

• Shape mentoring activities to fit schedules: We offered mentors experiential learning opportunities that fit their schedules, from one-hour classroom presentations to one-semester internships.   Next, we provided materials and training using PowerPoints with short entertaining videos that illustrate what public health is and does. Later we added an internship guide, Making Internships Work and a Speed Mentoring Guide.

MOR Leadership Team

Maggie Litwin, MPH: Committee Chair; Deputy Director, Southwestern AHEC

Cyndi Billian Stern, MA, MPH: Co-founder, CPHA MOR, Vision Health International

Deb Risisky, PhD: Professor and Undergraduate Coordinator, Department of Public Health, Southern Connecticut State University

Joan Lane, MPH: Project Coordinator, Southwest Community Health Center

Randy Domina, MPHCPHA Board Secretary, Affiliate Representative to the APHA Governing Council (ARGC), APHA Council of Affiliates, Justice Equity Diversity and Inclusion Committee (APHA), Region 1 ARGC Coordinator

Fatawu Mahama, MPH, CCHW: Lead Community Health Worker, Southwestern AHEC

Natalie Crino, MS: AHEC Director, Health Education Center

Nikole Allen: Associate Director, CT Public Health Workforce Initiative, Office of Public Health Practice, Yale School of Public Health

Olivia Micca, MPH: Health Policy Program Manager, Yale University, Tobin Center for Economic Policy

Join the CPHA MOR Organization

We welcome educational institutions, non-profit and for-profit organizations that have a goal of  preparing young people for community service, healthier lifestyles and careers in public health.  Click here for the MOR Registration Form .

For more information about the CPHA MOR, please email us at: [email protected]