Our Work
CWORPH is the home of the nation's first HRSA/CDC Public Health Workforce Research Center and the site of numerous other innovative research projects related to public health workforce.
HRSA/CDC Public Health Workforce Research Center
The Public Health Health Workforce Research Center (PHWRC) is a joint initiative between the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Health Services Research Administration (HRSA). This cooperative agreement provides funding over 5 years (2022-2027) for research focused on:
- Evaluating the role(s) of public health occupations in delivering programs, including essential or foundational public health services, across populations.
- Investigating public health workforce composition, data, needs, sufficiency, and distribution including both governmental (i.e., federal, state, local, tribal, territorial) and non-governmental entities.
- Assessing public health workforce development methods including but not limited to recruitment and training models and the outlook and analytics for workforce needs.
- Conducting and evaluating public health workforce implementation scientific research, including identifying evidence-informed strategies and interventions. CWORPH Principal Investigators collaborate with partners to conduct 8-10 studies per year, with guidance and direction from both CDC and HRSA.
Click here to see summaries of Year 1 CWORPH Projects (2022-2023)
Click here to see summaries of Year 2 CWORPH Projects (2023-2024)
The Public Health Workforce Research Center is supported by the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). This information or content and conclusions are those of the author and should not be construed as the official position or policy of, nor should any endorsements be inferred by CDC, HRSA, HHS or the U.S. Government.
Other Collaborations
The CWORPH PIs have been collaborating on public health workforce products for many years and are involved in a variety of projects in addition to those funded by the PHWRC. Currently they are funded by the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) through a grant from the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) Public Health Infrastructure Grant Program for the following studies:
- Conducting an analysis to determine the current size, distribution, and characteristics of the nation’s public health workforce;
- Supporting the creation of a first-in-the nation Public Health Information Data System (PHIDS) under leadership of the Public Health Accreditation Board to make sure that the nation’s public health-related datasets are aligned and able to communicate.
All Products
Retention of Community Health Workers in the Public Health Workforce: Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey, 2017 and 2021
To investigate the organizational factors contributing to the intent of community health workers (CHWs) to quit their jobs in local and state health departments in the United States
What Are Public Health Agencies Planning for Workforce Development? A Content Analysis of Workforce Development Plans of Accredited Public Health Departments
Recruiting and retaining public health employees and ensuring they have the skills necessary to respond are vital for meeting public health needs. As the first study examining health department (HD) workforce development plans (WDPs), this study presents gaps and strategies identified in WDPs across 201 accredited HDs (168 initial/33 reaccreditation plans).
Local Health Departments' Spending on the Foundational Capabilities
This study presents local health departments' expenditures on the foundational capabilities a uniform chart of accounts crosswalk.
The Landscape of US Undergraduate Public Health Education
This study examines the growth in undergraduate education in public health and assesses its potential implications on the public health field.
How Much Do We Spend? Creating Historical Estimates of Public Health Expenditures in the United States at the Federal, State, and Local Levels
This review outlines the challenges associated with estimating public health spending and explains the known sources of funding that are used to estimate and demonstrate the value of public health spending.
Assessing The Value Of 40 Years Of Local Public Expenditures On Health
This study estimates the impact of local public hospital spending and nonhospital health spending on all-cause mortality at the county level.
The Foundational Public Health Services as a Framework for Estimating Spending
This study begins to provide a cost estimation for the adoption of the Foundational Public Health Services Framework in every community to protect and improve population health.
The Who, What, How, and Why of Estimating Public Health Activity Spending
This commentary reviews the underlying principles of how public health expenditures estimates are generated and addresses what counts as public health spending, who counts it, how it is counted, and why it matters.
Machine-Learning Algorithms to Code Public Health Spending Accounts
This study compared the performances of machine-learning algorithms with manual classification of public health expenditures to determine if machines could provide a faster, cheaper alternative to manual classification.
Assessing the Public Health Activity Estimate from the National Health Expenditure Accounts: Why Public Health Expenditure Definitions Matter
This study explores how reported official estimates for governmental public health spending are overinflated by manually recoding expenditure data used to create the national Public Health Activity Estimate.
The Role of Salary in Recruiting Employees in State and Local Governmental Public Health: PH WINS 2017
This study examines the extent to which low salaries are a barrier for public health hiring.
Public Health Undergraduates in the Workforce: A Trickle, Soon a Wave?
This article provides perspectives on the growth of undergraduate public health education and its impact on the public health workforce,