PROGRAMS FOR FELLOWS AND JUNIOR FACULTY
THE COMMONWEALTH FUND/HARVARD UNIVERSITY FELLOWSHIP IN MINORITY HEALTH POLICY
PROGRAM COMPONENTS
The Commonwealth Fund/Harvard University Fellowship in Minority Health Policy incorporates academic work leading to a master degree in public health management and training components beyond the basic curriculum:
Curriculum
Fellows are required to complete the curriculum course requirements for a master of public health degree from the Harvard University School of Public Health (HSPH).
Leadership Forums
Three Leadership Forums are held per year. These forums are designed to provide an opportunity for fellows to interact with key physician leaders from the public, private and academic sectors. The goal is to expose fellows to the ways in which nationally recognized leaders solve problems in the real world. These two-day visits will include lecture, one-on-one meeting with fellows, an informal group dinner and reception and discussion. In addition, some portion of these sessions will be open to a larger audience.
Seminar Series
The seminar series is designed to help fellows acquire sophisticated skills required to perform good leadership in public health management, with the emphasis on policy analysis, leadership skills, problem identification, program planning and formation, and strategies for career development. It is a full year ID course for credit (5 credits), offered jointly with Harvard School of Public Health. The fall semester course (Leadership in Minority Health Policy and Issues in Minority Health Policy) takes place Tuesday afternoons. And the spring course (Issues in Minority Health Policy) is held every Wednesday afternoon (spring term). The seminars take various forms including lecture, informal discussion, lunch/dinner with presenters.
Practicum
The practicum is a problem-solving exercise through which fellows learn how to apply their analytical skill to real-world policy decisions. The practicum project can take the form of either an analysis of the effects of a public policy or a study of management processes for a client organization in government, public sector, community health settings or private industry.
Site Visits
Two site visits during each fellowship year enable fellows to obtain firsthand experiences of problem-solving and policy-making processes in public health management and afford them the opportunity to network directly with key administrators from both the public and private sectors. The Fellowship arranges site visits to Atlanta and Washington DC, each lasting approximately 4 to 5 days.
Shadowing
The shadowing experience provides fellows a unique opportunity to interact more directly with nationally recognized public health leaders and to expose them to the central issues and challenges encountered by public health leaders. Fellows spend 3-4 days working directly for the assigned public health leaders, attending senior staff meetings, participating in the actual policy-making process, and observing how they address real-world problems.
Journal Club
Journal club meetings are held monthly to discuss current articles related to public policy and public health, particularly articles related to minority health issues. Although open to any students participating in the seminar series, CFHUF fellows are responsible for presenting and leading the discussion.
Annual Meeting
The annual meeting is held in May each year. Both the alumni fellows and current fellows are invited. The former fellows are expected to assess the relevance of the Fellowship program in terms of their professional experiences of the post-fellowship years, and the current fellows present their practicum projects at the meeting. This annual gathering also provides the opportunity for both current and former fellows to share professional and academic experiences.
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