A pilot fellowship program for minority public health executives was so effective that the W.K. Kellogg Foundation is committing $500,000 more to keep it going.

Designed to prepare the next generation of public health leaders, the national W.K. Kellogg Fellowship for Emerging Leaders in Public Health is a partnership between Kenan-Flagler Business School and the School of Public Health at UNC-Chapel Hill. The program serves Latinos, African Americans, Native Americans, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders and Asians, all groups underepresented in public health leadership.

The foundation funded the pilot with about $194,000, and the new grant will support two more classes of fellows.

Faculty from UNC Kenan-Flagler and the School of Public Health train fellows face-to-face and online over nine months. The theme is "managing during turbulent times," and topics include management and leadership, problem analysis, teamwork, reflective and continuous learning, evaluation, communication and finance.

"The program recognizes that future public health leaders need a variety of high-level skills that cut across many diverse areas of work," said Dr. James Johnson Jr., an entrepreneurship professor at UNC Kenan-Flagler who helped create the program. "The intensive fellowship training focuses on dealing with crises in finances, human resources and communication."

Thirty-two fellows completed the inaugural 2004-05 program. Participants said the experience made them better leaders and even led directly to promotions.

"The program’s curriculum of fireside chats, team simulation experiences, individual development plans … and team projects have helped immensely in my professional and personal growth," said fellow Emanuel Finn, who works for the Washington, D.C., Department of Health. He earned a promotion from oral health program manager to chief of the oral health division, an accomplishment he attributes directly to the fellowship. "It enhanced what I needed to know about business and management strategies and practices in a very fundamental way."

The 2005-2006 fellow class will meet in October for an introductory week on UNC’s campus. For more information, visit http://publichealthleaders.org/.