Like many public health professionals, Doug Gieryn, public health director/health officer for Winnebago County Public Health (WCPH) in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, took a somewhat circuitous career path.

Gieryn originally planned to go to medical school. Instead, he studied physiology in graduate school before joining the Milwaukee Health Department.

“I started as an environment health specialist and grew to manage environmental health and communicable disease in Milwaukee,” Gieryn said. But when he moved to WCPH, he realized he was missing subject matter knowledge in areas like maternal child health and nursing. “In a big agency, you can get pretty siloed,” he said. “After 11 years in public health, there I was learning public health again.”

At WCPH, Gieryn has worked to create a culture of continuous learning. That commitment includes his department’s participation in the New to Public Health Residency Program™ (N2PH), a year-long initiative designed to support early career public health professionals working in government public health organizations.

“For our employees who are new to public health, we saw N2PH as an opportunity to get all those foundational pieces in a structured way over the course of a year,” Gieryn said. “There’s often a need for and a gap in this type of training for new staff. The program’s structure supports staff and holds them accountable. There’s also that saying, ‘When you’ve seen one health department, you’ve seen one health department.’ I really want our staff to be exposed to other ideas and to bring things back that help us as an agency and a community.”

About the New to Public Health (N2PH) Residency Program

The N2PH Residency Program focuses on workforce development for newer public health employees. Content helps deepen knowledge of concepts from the Foundational Public Health Services model. The program’s goal is for participants to build both competence and confidence.

Each month, N2PH residents spend about 10 hours on program activities. They join a cohort of approximately 25 residents, with each cohort assigned a mentor for the duration of the program. Residents also participate in monthly online learning sessions and synchronous discussions, and work on an evidence-based practice or quality improvement project. Monthly scavenger hunts encourage residents to explore policies, practices, and procedures related to their specific agency or community.

The program offers formalized training for employees who may not have an academic background in public health. It’s also a good fit for employees who have certain knowledge gaps, according to Gieryn.

Many staff members seek general public health knowledge they can build upon — especially when opportunities for cross-divisional learning can be limited due to capacity and time. “Opportunities to learn the broad base of public health can be more limited once you start working,” Gieryn said.

Gieryn also said staff often rate themselves low on fiscal knowledge and policy and advocacy work. “Most staff probably don’t need a whole lot of fiscal knowledge until they reach the supervisor level, but they do need it when they’re writing a grant,” he said. “That could be anyone in our department, so an understanding of how public health financing works is beneficial.”

Peer learning and support: ‘It’s not just me’

Since 2022, four of WCPH’s 55 employees have graduated from N2PH — and those staff members have stayed with the department, Gieryn said. One graduate stayed on to mentor new residents in the program. Other WCPH staff members, including Gieryn, are also mentoring, and one has volunteered as a microlearning speaker on the topic of “Maintaining Hope in the Current Public Health Landscape,” a specific request by N2PH residents in 2024.

Gieryn said WCPH leadership has encouraged supervisors to share the N2PH opportunity with their teams. “I’ve asked them to help identify those who would benefit from the program and be able to participate,” he said.

N2PH is a great way for early-career public health professionals to share resources, network with one another, and build communities of practice. Learning from — and sharing with — other health departments across the country is beneficial, Gieryn said.

Building supportive peer communities also helps manage the overwhelm that new public health professionals sometimes feel. “When we think about the experiences of early-career professionals and whether they’ll decide to stay in public health, it can help to talk with others who are also new to the profession,” Gieryn said. “It helps them realize, ‘It’s not just me. Everybody feels this way sometimes.’”

A successful N2PH experience

Success in a program like N2PH requires a deliberate mapping of participation time. “Supervisors need to allocate enough time for employees to participate in meetings, review materials, and meet with their mentors,” Gieryn said. “It’s a commitment.”

His own time as a mentor has taught him valuable lessons. He meets with participants as a group and said there’s benefit in exchanging ideas with people you don’t work with every day.

“Sometimes, there’s a level of expertise in an area by one of the students that can help all of us,” he said. “Hearing what people know and don’t know, along with the kinds of questions they ask, helps me think about how I can better share information with our staff.”

The N2PH experience helps employees solidify where they’d like to take their career. “It helps them understand the larger scope of public health and what areas they may have an interest in,” he said. “If we’ve got a good person, I want to keep them. These connections can accelerate their ability to function at a higher level and to explore other resources. That’s the beginning of the journey to becoming a leader in whatever position you’re in.”

Learning never stops

Gieryn said he would have benefited from a program like N2PH during his early days in public health. “Mostly, I tried to insert myself into situations where I would be exposed to more people,” he said. “I joined state associations and took on special projects. A program like this would have been helpful for someone without a degree in public health.”

Building communities of practice and strong networks is critical to sustaining a public health career. “A culture of continuous learning and support is important,” Gieryn said. “Most people feel comfortable asking questions here. I think anybody with a passion for learning can do well in public health. If you don’t have that, it’s a tough go because things are always changing.”

Key Actions to Support Early-Career Public Health Professionals

  • Build in time. Programs like N2PH, self-directed learning, and building mentoring relationships require commitment. Supervisors can support early-career professionals by managing expectations and creating time for knowledge development and skill-building activities.
  • Celebrate milestones. Acknowledge the hard work and commitment of team members who complete programs like N2PH. Whether it’s a bulletin board display, department-wide announcement email, or graduation ceremony, find ways to recognize those who commit to learning and development.
  • Create teach-back opportunities. Sharing what you’ve learned with others helps solidify knowledge and build presentation skills. Encourage staff involved in formal training programs to present to colleagues and share new skills.