Students of the concentration of public health (PHL) Retirement of concentration / Photo graceful of phl lab
At the beginning of April, around two dozen students gathered at the Harvard Th Chan School of Public Health to participate in a day retirement – the culmination of a year of work for the school Public health leadership concentration (PHL).
The concentration, which is offered by PHL LAB and opened to students in all diploma programs, allows students to improve their leadership skills by attending workshops, completing courses and receiving mentorship. In retirement, students had the opportunity to connect with each other and discuss their experiences.
“The objective of retirement is to exploit learning in the previous academic year that students have done around leadership, both in our workshops and in the requirements of the course,” said Fawn PhelpsDirector of Leadership Development and Director of LAB LAB.
Interdisciplinary approach to leadership
The concentration brings together students in various fields of study, from epidemiology to biostatistics to health policy. “We reproduce the public health system, because public health does not occur in disciplinary silos,” said Phelps.
During the fall semester, students finished a series of workshops to develop objectives for the development of personal leadership. For example, in a workshop, students carry out a self-assessment to determine their own leadership styles and identify areas for improvement. Connection with other students during workshops is a key element of experience, according to Phelps. “It helps each student know that they are not alone in their growth in leadership,” she said.
Then, during the spring semester, students have the opportunity to combine themselves with former personnel and mentors of the staff to obtain support, or to receive executive coaching from the Career and professional development office.
As part of the PHL concentration, students must take 10 course credits in addition to their other diploma requirements. Concentration courses plunge in specific areas of leadership, such as communication and entrepreneurship.
During the academic year of 2024-2025, more than 40 students completed the concentration. One of them was Aitu Osman Alem, MPH student in global health. He said that he had chosen concentration because during his previous work as a doctor and defender of public health in Asia and Africa, he observed that bad leadership could be an obstacle to the implementation of health system reforms.
“I joined this concentration to strengthen my skills in communication and leadership, in particular to direct multidisciplinary teams, influence political decisions and design sustainable and actions solutions,” said Alem. “The experiential approach and based on evidence of concentration has been incredibly precious.”
Tanesha Beckford, an emergency doctor working towards a health management MPH, said: “I devote myself to strengthening my leadership skills and being more aware of the way my leadership has changed over time,” she said, adding that the choice of PHL concentration has enabled her to achieve his “more confident and thoughtful leader”.
Retirement focuses on teamwork
In retirement, the students started the day by reflecting on what inspired them to work in the field of public health. “We estimated that, given the moments when we are for public health, students could be better supported if they had clarity that their objective in public health and what their values support it,” said Phelps.
Retirement group exercises highlighted the importance of teamwork in leadership. In an activity, the students worked in small groups to design and build a small Lego structure. To simulate the different parts of a complicated organization, each member of the group was awarded a different role in the process, including a director at the head of the project, a manager and a manufacturer who really assembled the Lego bricks.
“(The exercise) taught me the importance of staying calm under pressure and trusting my teammates,” said Alem. Noted Beckford, “Each person plays an important role – and when we forget that we have lost sight of a critical piece of the puzzle. No role is too big or too small for the team. ”
Beckford added that his biggest point to remember from retirement was that effective leadership requires constant self-reflection.
“As leaders of public health, we are committed to helping communities and we tend to ask often:” What we can do for our communities? ” But sometimes we have to step back and ask ourselves what the community has taught us, “she said. “For me, this means that we must not only strive to hire the community, but become an integral part of the communities that we want to direct and serve.”
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