NACDD hosts a variety of self-paced virtual courses for chronic disease directors, emerging leaders, and practitioners.
Topics include public health leadership development, workplace tools, advocacy, and more. To the right is catalog of courses can be accessed in the NACDD Online Learning Center.
Learners will need register or login at learn.chronicdisease.org to access courses.
NACDD Online Learning Center Catalog
Advancing Health Equity: Community Engagement Strategies
Advancing Health Equity: Community Engagement Strategies is the second course in the Advancing Health Equity Series. This course explores the role of community engagement in health equity work. Principles of equitable community engagement are shared, the benefits of community engagement are outlined, and various models of partnership and engagement are discussed.
Upon completion of this learning opportunity, the participant should be able to:
- Examine how community engagement is impacted by using shared language.
- Identify six principles of equitable community engagement in practice.
- Consider multiple definitions of community and construct your own definition of community.
- Analyze existing and potential partnerships and community enagement in terms of community voice, inclusion, decision-making, and shared understanding, vision, and power.
- Utilize wheels of partnerships to identify benefits creating and sustaining partnerships.
- Compare communicating to engaging as it relates to community engagement.
- Explore differences between three community engagement models.
- Summarize how values impact health decision-making.
- Determine ways to build trust, reduce disparities, and improve health outcomes in communities of color by applying an equity lens.
- Discuss ways you can work with community members or organizations that are resistant to change.
Advancing Health Equity: Introduction
Advancing Health Equity: Introduction is the first course in the Advancing Health Equity Series. This course explores the role of the public health practitioner in advancing health equity. Participants learn about putting equity into action and are invited to draft a road map to achieving health equity.
Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:
- Describe the five elements of equity in action.
- Reflect on ways that you can challenge yourself to advance equity.
- Draft a road map to achieving health equity that includes the following steps: assess and evaluate, build capacity, operationalize, and collaborate.
Advancing Health Equity: Moving Upstream
Advancing Health Equity: Moving Upstream is the third course in the Advancing Health Equity Series. This course presents an upstream/social justice framework to public health and explores the root causes of health inequity. Learners are encouraged to identify personal, interpersonal, and institutional changes they can make to be intentional about health equity work.
Learning Objectives:
Upon completion of this learning opportunity, the participant should be able to:
Investigate conventional framework (downstream) vs. social justice framework (upstream).
Explore the process of identifying root causes of health inequity.
Assess equity action steps using the RIFS strategy.
Explore your role and identify areas where you could apply a health equity lens.
Identify personal, interpersonal, and institutional changes you can make as a practitioner to be intentional about health equity work.
Discuss how to deal with ambiguity, ask questions when answers are often limited, and what steps should be taken to deal with ambiguity.
Advancing Health Equity: Reaching Priority Populations
Advancing Health Equity: Reaching Priority Populations is the fourth course in the Advancing Health Equity Series. This course covers considerations for identifying, partnering with, being inclusive of, and better serving priority populations.
Upon completion of this learning opportunity, the participant should be able to:
Discuss issues with accessing and using data to define and learn about priority populations.
Examine how current and historical trauma impacts the ways priority populations engage with systems of care.
Describe culturally appropriate, safe, and inclusive strategies for priority populations.
Recommend ways to change public health practice to better serve priority populations.
Best Practices for Designing Inclusive Communications
Because our words matter, addressing how and what we communicate about health is low-hanging fruit for achieving equity. Part of communicating more effectively with people is beginning to understand our own biases and how our experiences and values shape the lens through which we view our world. As we work towards equity, best practices in communication are constantly evolving. In this course, Zunera Mirza, MPH, discusses recommended communication standards to increase inclusivity and acknowledgement of the way words matter.
Upon completion of this learning opportunity, the participant should be able to:
List at least 8 aspects of diversity to consider when aiming to design inclusive communications.
Discuss several design choices and alternative formats that can improve access to electronic content (Section 508 compliance).
Describe multiple strategies for reducing bias in language and visual communication.
Engaging with Empathy for Greater Workplace Well-Being
In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, public health professionals are enduring unprecedented levels of stress, burnout, and trauma. While these reactions impact the affected individuals, they also have a collective effect on workplace organizations and functioning.
Please join psychologists Dr. Mark Evces Dr. Karima Clayton from WorkHaven to explore actions we can take to protect our own well-being as well as that of our colleagues. Together we will explore how to create a culture of care and empathy in the workplace. Learn practical strategies for building connection that you can implement right away.
Learning Objectives:
Upon completion of this learning opportunity, the participant should be able to:
Summarize the effects of stress and trauma on individual and organizational well-being.
Define empathy within the workplace context and explain the role of empathy in effective team functioning.
Describe strategies for cultivating empathy in the workplace and apply at least one demonstrated action in the next week.
Generations Working Together in Public Health
This course focuses on the key differences between the three most common generations in the public health workplace: Boomers, Gen Xers and Millennials. You will gain an appreciation for each generation’s strengths and uniqueness.
By the end of this NACDD learning module, you will be able to:
- Explain why working closely with other generations can help you better achieve your public health goals.
- Describe the generational demographics of those working in public health.
- Identify the characteristics of various generations – including their values, strengths, and challenges.
- Determine new ways to approach and work with those of different generations – both inside and outside of public health.
Introduction to Multi-State EHR-Based Network for Disease Surveillance (MENDS)
This course provides an overview of the Multi-state EHR-based Network for Disease Surveillance (MENDS) project, including its goals, partners, governance, benefits, and technologies.
After completion of this course, you will be able to:
- Identify the purpose of MENDS as a pilot national sentinel surveillance network.
- Describe the role of governance in information sharing projects such as MENDS.
- Identify the key features and uses of ESP, RiskScape, and PopMedNet to generate surveillance data.
- Describe the rationale behind validating, weighting, and modeling MENDS data.
Leadership Basics: Budgeting
Before developing a budget for a chronic disease program, understanding the funder and their funding process can be useful. This course provides context for the federal budget process that drives many chronic disease programs; distinguishes federally-funded budgets from common state and private philanthropic budget requirements; and lists resources for learning more about federal and state budgeting processes.
Upon completion of this learning opportunity, the participant should be able to:
- Describe the federal budget process that funds CDC.
- Compare and contrast the federal budget process from state budget processes.
- Identify places to seek additional information regarding budgeting and managing budgets associated with CDC cooperative agreements.
Leadership Basics: Change Management
This course defines change management and provides an overview of several change management frameworks and related models. It also includes an example of how to apply one of the leading change management frameworks to a change initiative in a state health department.
Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:
- Define change management.
- Describe at least two frameworks or theories related to change management.
- Articulate why change management and change leadership are important within public health practice.
- Apply change management principles to real-life public health work.
Leadership Basics: Design Thinking
Design thinking is defined as “a human-centered approach to innovation that draws from the designer’s toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success.” This course provides detail to support the application of design thinking to addressing population health issues.
Learning Objectives:
Upon completion of this learning opportunity, the participant should be able to:
- Explain the value of design thinking.
- Apply design thinking to the context of public health.
- Explain how design thinking can be applied to leadership.
Leadership Basics: Emotional Intelligence
Chronic disease prevention and control can be a very satisfying and fulfilling field of work and, at the same time, stressful. In this brief course, the relationship between emotional intelligence and job satisfaction is explored. Emotional intelligence can also reduce stress through a greater understanding of, and response to, others and one’s own experiences.
Upon completion of this learning opportunity, the participant should be able to:
- List the different types of intelligence.
- Summarize the role of emotional intelligence in leadership and management.
- Explain the link between emotional intelligence and job satisfaction/happiness.
Leadership Basics: Equity
Embedding equity within formal and informal leadership structures is a foundation for organizational capacity and readiness to take action on health inequities. Discover ways to incorporate an equity lens in the daily work of a chronic disease unit.
Learning Objectives:
Upon completion of this learning opportunity, the participant should be able to:
- Demonstrate ability to implement strategies to promote health equity and investing the resources to that end
- Demonstrate ability to apply an equity lens to the development, execution, and evaluation of public health programs
Leadership Basics: Facilitation
Facilitation is a key skill that nearly all of us call on every single day, whether it is facilitating a large group of stakeholders or navigating a small meeting with peers. Good facilitation can help to create a shared vision for a program or policy; poor facilitation can quickly take a project or a meeting down the wrong path. In this brief course, a top 10 list of facilitation tips and tricks is described that leaners can put into practice immediately.
Upon completion of this learning opportunity, the participant should be able to:
- Identify scenarios where facilitation may be a helpful tool
- List some strategies for facilitating difficult conversations
Leadership Basics: Influence Without Authority
To have “influence without authority” refers to the idea that an individual has the ability to lead and influence even if they are not in an official leadership role and/or do not have a title typically associated with authority. Having influence without authority draws on various other skills, including the ability to build positive relationships, communicate well, listen effectively, and shape a purpose and vision.
These individual skills and the ability to influence without authority are important in a variety of situations in public health practice and chronic disease prevention, such as when working with different sectors and partners that are instrumental to public health goals yet also have their own objectives. The ability to influence without authority can support multiple collaborators in coming to consensus or agreement on activities or objectives, achieving their own goals, and advancing a clear vision and purpose across multiple partners.
Upon completion of this learning opportunity, the participant should be able to:
Explain what it means to have influence without authority.
Identify at least two methods and strategies for influencing without authority in their chronic disease prevention work.
Leadership Basics: Leadership vs. Management
Many people confuse the terms management and leadership, using them interchangeably or believing that not all managers are leaders, or that leadership is elusive and only found in a few special individuals. Management and leadership are two different concepts as this course explains; both are important to all organizations.
Upon completion of this learning opportunity, the participant should be able to:
- Define management and leadership.
- Distinguish between management and leadership roles.
- Apply leadership vs. management skills to issues chronic disease units currently tackle.
Leadership Basics: Leading Through Change
In chronic disease prevention and control, it is common for staff at all levels to be asked to lead through, or during times of, change. In this brief course, a high-level overview of key strategies and potential approaches for supporting others during times of change is offered. This course offers practical suggestions that can be applied in chronic disease units within state and local health departments.
Upon completion of this learning opportunity, the participant should be able to:
- Identify the key strategies for leading through change.
- List potential approaches to supporting others during times of change, especially those related to changes in funding.
Leadership Basics: Organizational Capacity
Organizational capacity is having the internal support and resources needed to effectively manage your program. This course introduces learners to NACDD’s organizational capacity building tool – STAR (State Activation and Response).
Upon completion of this learning opportunity, the participant should be able to:
- Articulate why building organizational capacity is important to state health agencies.
- Define organizational capacity.
- Describe administrative evidence-based practices that require capacity building.
- Describe the NACDD organizational capacity building tool – State Activation and Response.
Leadership Basics: Succession Planning
Succession planning is a strategy for planning for the passing and replacement of key leaders in an organization in order to ensure continued, effective organizational performance. The public health workforce is changing, and organizations must prepare for change by utilizing succession planning and management strategies.Upon completion of this learning opportunity, the participant should be able to:
- Summarize succession planning and management principles and methods.
- Apply succession planning and management to your work.
Leadership Basics: Systems Thinking
Systems thinking is an approach that considers how components within a larger structure operate and interact. Systems thinking aims to assess and address a problem holistically by considering linkages and relationships, while taking the whole system into account rather than just its individual parts.
Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:
- Explain what systems thinking is.
- Discuss how systems thinking can be applied to public health problems.
- Apply systems thinking concepts to their own chronic disease prevention activities.
Leading Virtual Meetings
In this course, you’ll learn how to move through the four phases of virtual meetings: Plan, Begin, Conduct and Follow Up as well as specific strategies for overcoming the common challenges of virtual meetings.
By the end of this NACDD learning module, you will be able to:
- Describe common challenges that can arise in virtual meetings, such as:
- Inattention and multitasking
- Passive involvement
- Unequal participation
- Apply specific strategies within four phases of virtual meeting leadership:
- Plan
- Begin
- Conduct
- Follow up
Learning Objectives: When, Why, What, and How?
This is a short, self-paced course designed to teach you how to use learning objectives effectively. Subject matter experts and training developers will find practical tips to get professional learning activities off to a strong start.
Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:
- Explain why developing strong learning objectives is key step in planning an educational activity.
- Create measurable, learner-centered learning objectives.
Making Virtual Work “Work”
In this course, you’ll learn how to you can overcome the challenges of working in a virtual environment and how to succeed when working virtually, as either an employee or a manager.
By the end of this NACDD learning module, you will be able to:
- Explain the benefits of working virtually from the perspective of both employees and your public health organization.
- Describe the challenges you may face as a manager of virtual employees and find ways to overcome those challenges.
- Address the challenges you may face as an employee working virtually.
Taking Action on Equity
This course is based on a panel discussion at the 2022 NACDD Chronic Disease Academy. Learners will learn from leaders and innovators working at the frontlines of social justice and public health about what is working in the field, from community to policy level change.
By the end of this NACDD learning module, you will be able to:
- Identify organizational resources to help implement racial equity concepts when engaging with state partners and community partners.
- Discuss promising practices in addressing equity issues in public health.
- Identify ways to shift equity work from concept to practice.
- Describe the importance of interprofessional collaboration to address health equity.
Understanding Clinical Data: A Data User Perspective
This course provides an overview of the origin of clinical data and potential uses in chronic disease surveillance.
After completion of this course, you will be able to:
- Identify the fundamentals of clinical data capture and electronic health record (EHR) systems.
- Describe the meaning and purpose of clinical data management.
- Describe different types of data aggregators and the roles they play in making clinical data available for secondary uses.
- Identify the rationale and components of data governance when using clinical data for public health surveillance.
Using Clinical Data: Transformation into Chronic Disease Surveillance Information
This course provides an overview of the Multi-state EHR-based Network for Disease Surveillance (MENDS) project, including its goals, partners, governance, benefits, and technologies.
After completion of this course, you will be able to:
- Identify how clinical data can complement traditional surveillance data sources.
- Identify strengths and limitations of clinical data for public health surveillance purposes.
- Succinctly communicate the strengths and limitations of clinical data.
- Clearly describe the methods used to translate clinical data for surveillance purposes, including how an electronic phenotype (e-phenotype) or case definition is constructed.
Using the Chronic Disease Competencies to Build and Sustain a Skilled Team
Using the Chronic Disease Competencies to Build and Sustain a Skilled Team is a three-module course. Modules 1 and 2 are for anyone working in chronic disease prevention and management with an interest in using a competency-based approach to professional development. The third module is designed to help managers utilize a competency-based approach to support a team.
Upon completion of this learning opportunity, the participant should be able to:
Give an overview of NACDD’s Chronic Disease Competencies.
Explain the value of using the Chronic Disease Competencies within the Chronic Disease Unit.
Create a draft of an Individual Development Plan (IDP).
Discuss how to use the Chronic Disease Competencies to create staffing plans.
Describe the components of competency-based hiring.
Discuss how to use the Chronic Disease Competencies in creating a professional development plan for your whole team.
Using the NACDD Legislative Tracker
In this course, you’ll learn how to use the NACDD Legislative Tracker to quickly see the wording and status of legislation in specific policy areas in your state and other states who are working on the same issues.
By the end of this NACDD learning module, you will be able to:
- Describe the purpose of the NACDD Legislative Tracker.
- Access the Legislative Tracker and search for legislation you are working on or interested in by topic or by state.
Working with Elected Officials
In this course, you’ll learn why it’s important to engage with elected officials to achieve your public health goals, who to engage with and effective techniques for engaging with them.
By the end of this NACDD learning module, you will be able to:
- Explain why you, as a public health professional, may need to engage with elected officials.
- Clarify examples of elected officials you may want to engage.
- Describe the roles elected officials play that align with your public health goals.
- Identify tactics you should and should not use when engaging with elected officials.
Writing Effective Emails in Public Health
This course provides specific guidance on best practices for writing more effective email messages to improve your public health practice.
By the end of this NACDD learning module, you will be able to:
- Describe how inefficient email practices can make your work and the work of others less productive.
- Identify seven best practices to help you write more effective emails.
- Improve your own email techniques to build effectiveness and efficiencies.