Health Equity Research Hub (University of Maryland School of Pharmacy)

Baltimore, Maryland, USA Skyline over the Inner Harbor at dusk.

Health Equity Research Hub (University of Maryland School of Pharmacy)

IPHI is proud to support the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy’s PATIENTS Program as it establishes a Health Equity Research Hub. With a $9.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Common Fund, this hub is dedicated to advancing health equity through community-led research initiatives.

As a key partner, IPHI brings its expertise in community engagement and capacity building to this groundbreaking initiative aimed at addressing social determinants of health nationwide.

As part of the PATIENTS Program Health Equity Research Hubs, IPHI is co-leading the Research Capacity Building and Training Unit alongside University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) School of Pharmacy and other community experts. This unit focuses on empowering communities with the tools and training needed to lead impactful health equity research. By fostering collaboration between academic institutions and community organizations, this Hub will ensure that the voices of under-resourced populations are not only heard but are central to shaping research interventions that promote structural change.

Supporting Community-Led Interventions Nationwide

IPHI’s involvement in this initiative reflects our commitment to bridging the gap between public health innovation and community needs. By providing technical assistance, capacity-building resources, evidence-based training, and supporting the development of rigorous, community-led health equity interventions, we aim to help local leaders across the country drive meaningful improvements in health outcomes.

This Health Equity Research Hub is more than just a research initiative—it is a catalyst for transforming how health equity interventions are developed and implemented. Through collaboration with community partners and institutions like UMB, IPHI is helping create a future where all communities have the opportunity to achieve health equity. IPHI’s partnership with the PATIENTS Program at UMB exemplifies our longstanding mission to advance public health solutions that empower communities and address social determinants of health. Together, we are working to change the landscape of health equity research, ensuring that communities across the country lead the way in creating a healthier, more equitable future for all.

For more information, visit: https://news.pharmacy.umaryland.edu/patients-program-receives-9-4-million-grant-to-start-a-health-equity-research-hub-at-umb/

To learn more about the Health Equity Research Hubs, please contact the senior health program specialist at The PATIENTS Program, Tralisa Colby, MPH at [email protected].

Contact

2025 Community Health Worker Continuing Education Trainings

Posted on June 14, 2024February 26, 2025 by iphiadmin

Stay updated with IPHI’s continuing education training scheduled! All training information can be found below:

January 2025

January 16, 17: Digital Literacy | Register

January 24: Navigating Social Needs in DC | Register

January 24: Vaccine Hesitancy | Register

February 2025

February 7: Emergency Response for CHWs | Register

February 21: CPR and AED | Register

March 2025

March 7: Opioid Overdose Response Training | Register

March 13: Digital Literacy | Register

March 21: Vaccine Hesitancy | Register

March 28: Navigating Social Needs in DC | Register

April 2025

April 4: Emergency Response for CHWs | Register

April 18: CPR and AED | Register

June 2025

June 6: Opioid Overdose Response Training | Register

Resources

Training Catalog

Community Health Worker Training

Training/Technical Assistance

Public Health Infrastructure Grant

PUBLIC HEALTH INFRASTRUCTURE GRANT

The Public Health Infrastructure Grant (PHIG) provides substantial resources to support and strengthen state and local health department capacity and impact through CDC funding.

The National Network of Public Health Institutes (NNPHI) received CDC funding through the OE22-2203: Strengthening U.S. Public Health Infrastructure, Workforce, and Data Systems grant to provide technical assistance to state and local health departments (LHDs) using a “Hub and Spoke Model.” This model is a method to organize and distribute public health expertise, involving a central hub that coordinates and aligns training and technical assistance provided by spokes to health departments. NNPHI is partnering with nine regional Hubs to support a tailored technical assistance response. As the Region 3 Hub, Public Health Management Corporation (PHMC) subcontracted $250,000 to IPHI to serve as a spoke.

IPHI’s Role:
By mobilizing resources and expertise, IPHI will provide technical assistance and training to state and local health departments across Region 3, focusing on Washington, DC, Maryland, and Virginia.

IPHI will support state and LHDs in the following ways:

1. Tool Development & Sharing

Creating or distributing tools like toolkits, templates, and implementation guides.

2. Guidance

Providing advice through calls, meetings, or emails on program development, evaluation, and staffing solutions.

3. Training & Webinars

Offering both virtual and in-person training on various technical assistance topics. This support encompasses interactive workshops, webinars, and bite-sized training modules tailored to specific goals.

4. Needs-Based Assessments

Conducting assessments to identify problems, highlight priorities, and interpret results.

5. Connecting Networks

Facilitating peer-to-peer discussions about successes, challenges, and best practices to guide partners’ work.

To learn more about IPHI’s public health infrastructure support, please contact Senior Vice President Mike Royster at [email protected].

Contact

Supporting Maryland Organizations Address Health Disparities

Supporting Maryland Organizations Address Health Disparities

IPHI will collaborate with Maryland Nonprofits from July 1, 2023, to December 31, 2024, through a CDC-funded grant.

The IPHI and Maryland Nonprofits partnership will support Maryland’s community-based organizations, faith-based organizations (C/FBO), and local health departments (LHD) in addressing the social determinants of health (SDoH). This partnership will utilize partner networks, experiences, and a repository of tools and resources to support capacity-building efforts.

Strategy Overview:

1. Assessment

Conduct a thorough assessment of Maryland’s LHDs and C/FBOs to identify their strengths and capacity needs in addressing SDoH and promoting health equity.
Use surveys, focus groups, and listening sessions to understand organizational needs.

2. Training

Offer various online educational resources, including toolkits, equity assessment guides, on-demand learning events, recorded webinars, and newsletters.
Plan and arrange workshops on specific topics, like the “Healthy and Equitable Communities” workshop.
Plan a monthly 90-minute webinar series covering CBO/Nonprofit capacity.

3. Communities of Practice

Organize up to five forums to share resources, best practices, and real-time project implementation feedback.
These forums may discuss regional strategies to support health equity programming through workforce development.
Participants can set agendas tailored to their needs and be acknowledged as subject matter experts.

4. Tailored Technical Assistance

Provide support across various topic areas, prioritizing by assessment results and demand.

This project is supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), with 100 percent funding provided by CDC/HHS.

The state (Maryland Dept of Health) is supporting this project and is funded by the CDC RFA OT21 2103 Grant, National Initiative to Address COVID-19 Health Disparities Among Populations at High-Risk and Underserved, Including Racial and Ethnic Minority Populations and Rural Communities, for the provision of technical assistance and capacity building services to Community-Based Organizations (CBOs), Faith-Based Organizations (FBO’s), and Local Health Departments (LHDs).

To learn more about IPHI supporting organizations addressing health disparities, please contact Senior Program Director Carolyn Padovano at [email protected].

Contact

Healthy & Equitable Communities Training

Woman standing in front a whiteboard teaching about the social determinants of health.

Healthy & Equitable Communities Training

The National Network of Public Health Institutes (NNPHI) Elevating Practice Award was presented to IPHI’s healthy and equitable communities training.

Training Request Form

The historic and present-day impact of structural racism and other forms of oppression has created dramatic differences in health across populations and communities. Where we live can impact our access to resources and can ultimately influence a variety of health outcomes. When there is a difference in health status among distinct segments of the population, there is a health disparity. Health inequities are disparities which are modifiable, associated with social disadvantage, and considered ethically unfair. Health equity is the concept that people should have the opportunity to attain their full health potential and have fair opportunities in housing, transportation, employment, education, and other factors considered determinants of health.

In order to address the preventable and unjust health inequities found in communities throughout the United States, IPHI offers trainings and technical assistance to organizations and coalitions. Our trainings fuse theory with practice and allow participants to apply the knowledge and tools presented in training and implement them in their everyday work to create healthy, equitable, thriving communities.

Training content includes:

Health equity and racial and social justice definitions and concepts
Multi-level structure of racism and other forms of oppression
Implicit bias
Community participation and power
Strategies to communicate equity to stakeholders and decision-makers
The use of equity impact review tools to develop policy, systems, and environmental changes

Our team has extensive experience providing training and technical assistance to traditional (e.g. health departments, hospitals, FQHCs) and non-traditional (e.g. planning, transportation, housing, social services, faith-based, advocacy) public health organizations and across sectors (e.g. government, business, non-profit, grassroots). Offerings can be tailored based on the needs of individual organizations.

Download flyer: HERE.

To learn more IPHI’s healthy and equitable communities training, please contact us at [email protected] or 202.747.3512.

Contact

COVID-19 Response & Recovery

IPHI employees (Fairfax County office) from a birds eye view.

COVID-19 Response & Recovery

In May 2020, Fairfax County Health Department in Virginia turned to IPHI to assist with swiftly building up its workforce capacity to respond to the pandemic (see the Health Department’s initial press release).

Within less than a month, IPHI recruited, employed, and trained 80 new staff on behalf of Fairfax County. By the end of January 2021, IPHI had hired over 640 employees. This new surge workforce included case interviewers, contact interviewers, community health workers, epidemiologists, environmental health specialists, call center staff, wellness specialists, and over 50 response team managers. As the pandemic response shifted to include an emphasis on COVID-19 vaccine access, team members were trained and shifted to support vaccine outreach, education, and provision.

IPHI developed a week-long training program for case and contact interviewers that wrapped around an online, self-guided course offered by Johns Hopkins University. IPHI also created a separate training program for COVID-19 community health workers. IPHI’s curricula ensured new hires had the opportunity to practice what they were learning through interactive, adult learning methods. The IPHI courses were so well-received the health department asked IPHI to include over 250 government employees in the program as well, beyond the IPHI-employed staff. Over the course of its involvement, IPHI has trained well over 1,400 pandemic responders. In March 2021, the National Network of Public Health Institutes published an article on IPHI’s training program.

In the late summer of 2021, it became clear that a second boost in workforce capacity was required to respond to a new surge in COVID-19 cases in Fairfax County and across the Commonwealth of Virginia due to the Delta variant and, later, Omicron. IPHI hired and trained hundreds of additional workers in the fall of 2021 who were deployed to not just Fairfax County Health Department but 22 additional Local Health Districts across Virginia.

IPHI has learned a number of key lessons from this work thus far, including:

Public/private partnerships can provide efficiency and agility to governmental efforts to expand capacity and effectively respond to public health emergencies.
While there is pressure to ramp up quickly, governments and their partners should invest in sufficient upfront training to improve performance and staff satisfaction.
Community health workers have a vital role to play in emergency response.

“IPHI is an essential partner in the Health Department’s efforts to contain COVID-19 in Fairfax County. Recruiting, employing and training hundreds of staff in just a few short months was no small feat. Due to the critical support and capacity IPHI provided, we were able to focus on our role leading the Emergency Response.”
— Gloria Addo-Ayensu, MD, MPH, Director of Health for Fairfax County

To learn more about IPHI’s COVID-19 response and recovery, please contact Senior Director Carolyn Padovano at [email protected].

Contact

Equity and Health in all Policies Technical Assistance

Two women staring at a computer monitor while one of the women point to the screen.

Equity and Health in all Policies Technical Assistance

Equity and Health in All Policies (EHiAP) is a collaborative approach to improving community health by incorporating health considerations into decision-making across sectors and policy areas.

EHiAP aims to ensure policy-makers are informed about the health, equity, and sustainability considerations of various policy options during the policy development process to maximize the health benefits and minimize negative health consequences.

To download the Equity and Health in All Policies Technical Framework, click: here.

The health of communities is greatly affected by policies and practices not only in the public health and healthcare arenas, but across diverse areas such as housing, land use and planning, transportation, public safety, education, economic and community development, environmental protection, and many other sectors. Such policies and practices shape our environment and the conditions in which we live, work, learn and play, impacting our health and well-being directly as well as indirectly by influencing our health-related behaviors.

We provide technical assistance to local and state governments on Equity and Health in All Policies. As an example, we provided support to the City of Richmond, Virginia, in the development and adoption of an Equity and Health in All Policies Resolution in February 2015 and worked with a team of city departmental leaders to implement the Equity and Health in All Policies framework across all departments, agencies, and offices. As part of this technical assistance, IPHI Vice President Mike Royster co-facilitated a two-day workshop for leaders of the Richmond City government on EHiAP. During the two days, participants were introduced to EHiAP concepts and definitions, explored how EHiAP relates to and can support the city’s strategic plan and focus on poverty reduction, and practiced using a health equity impact (HEI) tool that helped participants consider the health and equity implications of the city’s revitalization plans.

To learn more about Equity and Health in All Policies and IPHI’s related technical assistance, please contact us at [email protected].

Contact

Health Equity Consultant for Nemours Foundation

Three boys wearing soccer gear are stretching on the field.

Health Equity Consultant for Nemours Foundation

In August 2021, IPHI extended its partnership with Nemours Children’s Health System for a fourth year. IPHI will continue to serve as an equity consultant for Nemours’ CDC-funded Healthy Kids, Healthy Future (HKHF) initiative.

Healthy Kids, Healthy Future logo

HKHF partners with state-level early care and education (ECE) coalitions of agencies and organizations integrating obesity prevention policies and systems into ECE settings.

IPHI will continue to provide core equity training to state-level coalitions throughout the nation. The training uses a 16-hour Healthy and Equitable Communities (HEC) curriculum, then provides follow-up technical assistance to support integrating equity tools and concepts into coalition strategies. IPHI will work with up to seven states through HKHF on the following:

Health Equity Research / Data
Coalition Building and Support
Survey Design / Development
Strategic Planning
Community Engagement
Equity Committee Development

IPHI supported Nemours HKHF with the following technical assistance :

Michigan and Florida –
- Provided consultative services to advise on the logistics and communications needed to coordinate each state’s Healthy and Equitable Communities Workshop sessions. IPHI coordinated participant registrations via IPHI’s Learning Hub system and distributed pre- and post-assessment surveys to assess participant knowledge levels around various equity topics. After the workshops, IPHI provided a comprehensive training report summarizing data from the workshop sessions and providing recommendations for future improvements.
Kansas –
- Provided consultation on the development of a position description for a newly created Equity Consultant role. IPHI leveraged best practices for job descriptions to co-create an accurate and detailed position description in collaboration with our client partner.
Alabama –
- Attended several strategic planning discussions to assess the needs to support re-assembling their member coalition. Discussions centered around potential technical assistance support areas, including the development of a member survey, assistance with a strategic plan, coalition re-engagement strategies, and expanding diversity of coalition members.
Pennsylvania Keystone Kids Go (KKG) –
- Reviewed prior member survey data and advised the development of an enhanced member survey to embed an equity focus. IPHI evaluated the client’s mission, values statement, and strategic plan and advised on opportunities to increase emphasis on equity language and methods. Provided guidance on methods to engage additional coalition members, ensuring representation from diverse organizations. IPHI assisted our client with developing a steering committee and advised on plans for the re-engagement of their coalition members. Also developed plans for the KKG’s annual member meeting. For the annual meeting, IPHI developed presentation materials and facilitated consensus discussions to ensure a path forward in building equity into their strategic plan.

Community Health Worker Training

IPHI employee training a group of community health workers in a lecture room.

Community Health Worker Training

Developing the skills and knowledge of community members to serve as part of the region’s health workforce.

I’m an organization looking for CHW training:

Organization Training Request

We are proud to have trained over 1,300 community health workers (CHWs) over the past decade for our own projects and for many other initiatives and partners. While occasionally training outside the region, our CHWs primarily work throughout the Greater Washington region. CHWs trained by IPHI are currently working for community-based organizations, community health centers, hospitals, managed care organizations, health departments, universities, and other employers.

We have developed an accessible, comprehensive CHW training program that incorporates adult learning methods and meets the needs of diverse learners. The IPHI CHW training builds upon the core roles and competencies of community health workers identified in the National Community Health Advisor Study conducted by The University of Arizona in 1998 and is regularly updated for the latest best practices in CHW training.

The training is comprised of:

An adaptable 120-hour core skills training
Additional modules for specific types of CHW-based programs and services
Recommended ongoing CHW continuing education (approx. 8 hrs/month)
Drop-in continuing education opportunities
Annual CHW retreats

The training courses provided by IPHI includes:

Cores Skills Competency
Continuing Education
CHW Supervisor
CHW Team Integration
CHW Specialty Trainings
CHW Training of Trainers
HRSA – IPHI CHW Academy

A Two-Pronged Approach to Success

A combination of evidence-based content and skilled, experienced trainers contribute to the success of our CHW training. The large majority of the CHWs working on our projects have stayed in their positions or been promoted to new opportunities.

We offer CHW competency trainings for community members on a regular basis. Please register to join our mailing list and learn about upcoming training opportunities here.

The following are testimonials from training participants:

“I really appreciate your training. That was the best training I have ever had. I never had training about the community health worker and was not clear about the role. This training answered every question I had and helped me to equip myself with the new tools I need.” – Training Participant, Healthy Howard

“Both of you ladies are amazingly skilled trainers/facilitators. The training was excellent.” – Virginia Department of Health staff

To learn more about community health worker training opportunities, please contact [email protected].

Contact

Mid-Atlantic Regional Public Health Training Center

Two women in face masks talking at a table.

Mid-Atlantic Regional Public Health Training Center

IPHI is a proud training provider for the Mid-Atlantic Regional Public Health Training Center (MAR-PHTC).

MAR-PHTC is part of a national network of 10 public health training centers funded by the Federal Health Resources and Services Administration to improve the nation’s public health system by strengthening the technical, scientific, managerial, and leadership competence of the current and future public health workforce. MAR-PHTC serves the District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Delaware, and Pennsylvania and is based at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health.

In addition to the partnership with MAR-PHTC, IPHI has worked with public health departments. We support the Blue Ridge Health District in Virginia as they adapt its internal policies and practices to become an anti-racist organization committed to promoting health equity. Our capacity-building work includes in-depth workshops on strategies and best practices for organizational leadership and equity committees to lead transformational change for equity. We have also guided key administrative issues such as workforce diversity, community engagement, customer service, communications, evaluation, and accountability.

Previous work with health departments includes training and technical assistance with the Richmond City Health District, Peninsula Health District, and Norfolk City Department of Health. We assisted the local health department to develop an Equity and Health in All Policies (EHiAP) approach to local governmental decision-making. We provided training on EHiAP and best practices across the country, strategic support in engaging elected officials and other governmental leaders, and policy expertise in developing and passing local legislation to support using an EHiAP framework.

Our educational and training opportunities include classroom-based instruction, workshops, and online professional development events, as well as tailored technical assistance on the following topics:

Public Health
Health Equity
Equity and Health in All Policies
Social Determinants of Health
Community Health Worker Development
Leadership and Management
Racism as a Public Health Crisis
Cultural Humility
Implicit Bias in Public Health and Healthcare
Community Engagement
Conducting Equity Impact Reviews of Policies, Programs, and Services
Communicating Equity to Decision-Makers

To learn more about IPHI public health workforce trainings, please contact us at [email protected].

Contact