Abstract
A large Midwestern university recently received accreditation for its Master of Public Health (MPH) degree program from the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH). Requirements of the accreditation include the periodic assessment of the regional public health workforce’s professional development needs and the delivery of training and continuing education to meet those needs. To that end, this study’s primary purpose was to describe the professional development needs of the regional public health workforce and to develop recommendations for the provision of professional development activities to meet those needs. Fifty-eight respondents from 27 regional public health departments and 7 regional health coalitions completed the survey, identifying priority public health topical training needs as well as priority community health education competency training needs. Additionally, respondents indicated a preference for the delivery of trainings, with offsite, face-to-face training sessions offering continuing education units (CEUs) in a series of half-day or full-day workshops being favored.