As the COVID-19 pandemic and deepening racial, health, and social inequities have shown us, we are living in an increasingly complex world. Achieving real change will require addressing the root causes of inequity to overcome systemic challenges. To provide a path forward, the de Beaumont Foundation and Springer Publishing have released a new book — Leading Systems Change in Public Health: A Field Guide for Practitioners.
Written by and for practitioners and experts across the spectrum of public health, the book offers practice-based guidance and examples for examining and achieving systems change to improve health equity.
“Public health practitioners need to achieve political, societal, and organizational change but often don’t have the training to influence these systems. This book seeks to remedy that,” said co-editor Brian C. Castrucci, DrPH, president and CEO of the de Beaumont Foundation. “Leading Systems Change is an essential resource for public heath practitioners committed to pursuing the necessary change to improve our public health systems and to aspire toward racial justice.”
The book offers readers practical guidance and examples for leading systems change, including applying a racial justice and power-sharing framework to systems change work, using systems thinking to create sustainable change, applying best practices to address the root causes of inequities, and more.
“By taking a systems leadership approach, you can have an even more meaningful impact on seemingly intractable public health problems,” said co-editor Christina Welter, DrPH, MPH, director of the Doctorate in Public Health Leadership and a clinical assistant professor in the Division of Health Policy and Administration at the University of Illinois Chicago School of Public Health. “This book provides an inclusive process and framework with tools for understanding and implementing change that leads to collective transformation.”
Co-editor Kris Risley, DrPH, CPCC, executive and leadership coach and founder of Kris Risley Coaching, said, “Creating genuine, equitable, and lasting changes in our systems and institutions requires that we expand who we involve and how we think to ask questions that get to the root of problems and lead to solutions that work for everyone. This book gives public health practitioners simple strategies that will help them change systems and get results.”
Leading Systems Change in Public Health: A Field Guide for Practitioners and individual chapters are available for purchase from Springer Publishing.
