Skills you'll gain

Specialization - 3 course series

Leadership for Public Health Crises prepares participants to lead collaboratively through the most profound public health-related crises by building individual leadership ability, as well as leadership capacity across multiple sectors, functional areas, and roles in preparation for and response to crises.

This course emphasizes why it is important to build leadership skills in public health positions and work with diverse teams while immersed in a crisis. The course is designed to help develop effective communication skills necessary to lead a team through conflict and crisis, and build strategies to reach a common goal.

This course will introduce you to basic concepts of emergency management, planning, and crisis risk communication. You will understand the definitions of and operational challenges associated with disasters and public health emergencies. You will identify important components of risk communication, and you will identify and evaluate the ways social characteristics shape vulnerabilities to crises and health outcomes. In completing this course, you will begin to learn about the nature of different kinds of extreme events and the disruptions they can cause for communities affected by them. You will learn about how to approach the planning process. You will also explore the ways extreme events can be felt differently by different members within our communities. Finally, you will go over important considerations in crafting messages about risks. As you go through the course, you will apply your knowledge of these principles in assignments which ask you to consider how you would approach the crisis risk communication planning process for your organization or community.

This course emphasizes how public health communicators can segment their audiences into smaller groups, thereby allowing them to tailor messages to each group's unique needs. You will explore how public health communicators recognize and overcome underlying biases, assumptions, and stereotypes to create messaging that is rooted in empathy, as well as leverage persuasive communication strategies to frame and deliver messages in ways that appeal to audiences’ core values. You will learn to approach media interviews with confidence, adjust your communication strategy in the moment, and center your focus on your audiences and their needs.

Disaster, Crisis, and Emergency Preparedness Communication

Connect with Diverse Audiences during a Public Health Crisis