First Milbank Memorial Fund Leadership Program to be Held

The health of communities will always depend, in part, on a continuing supply of informed and capable leaders in state government. With this in mind, the Milbank Memorial Fund—and the Reforming States Group (RSG)— has created the Emerging Leaders Program (ELP), an interactive workshop designed to help individuals from the executive and legislative branches develop skills that will enhance their effectiveness in addressing the challenges of today’s complex health policy environment. About 20 individuals, who were nominated to participate, will attend the program, which will be held from July 22 to 24 in Denver. Participants represent a balance of executive and legislative officials—from regions all over the country.

“We are excited about launching the Emerging Leaders Program,” says Trina Gonzalez, program officer at the Fund. “State leaders had indicated to us that there was a need to ensure that future leaders have the skills to use evidence and experience to balance competing priorities. We believe that this program will inspire the work of the next generation of health policy leaders.”

Taught by veteran health policy leaders, the program will focus on several topics, including evidence-informed policymaking, the social determinants of health, systems thinking, and building alliances to achieve goals.

The ELP is modeled in the RSG tradition. Like the RSG, a bipartisan group of state legislative and executive branch leaders, the ELP hopes to foster the same type of learning and networking experience for young leaders from around the country.