Presenter Name Affiliation Date Uncovering Environmental Health: The practitioners, their work, and challenges Presenter Name Affiliation Date

Headlines from Recent Environmental Health Events Environmental health (EH) professionals constantly face evolving and emerging challenges. To appropriately address and respond to these challenges, we must ensure the EH workforce is fully knowledgeable, equipped with resources, and prepared to meet current needs and face future threats. Horizon scans and workforce surveys play a critical role in ensuring professionals are prepared to respond. Results of these efforts can be used to inform actions such as developing training, garnering support for resources, and increasing public awareness of the profession.

Preparing the Environmental Health Profession EH faces complex challenges that require specific knowledge, skills, and resources Understanding EH professional characteristics and the practice is essential for society to understand the critical role of EH in protecting our communities Hearing directly from EH professionals about evolving and emerging issues can inform actions to better support the practice The emergence of many new challenges and threats requires a well-prepared EH workforce. In addition, reduced funding and budget cuts have led to job losses and decreased services at state and local public health departments. These compounding factors reinforce the need to closely examine the workforce to ensure it is sufficient and able to meet the EH needs of the nation. Supporting an effort to hear from EH professionals working at public health departments about their practice, work and challenges is a critical necessity, especially considering the complexity of emerging EH issues and uncertainties in public health department capacity.

An Unprecedented Opportunity UNCOVER EH - Understanding the Needs, Challenges, Opportunities, Vision and Emerging Roles in Environmental Health Web-based survey for EH professionals working at public health departments In-person workshops National level representation and reporting In response, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Environmental Health Association, and Baylor University are collaborating on an unprecedented initiative to understand the environmental health profession, describe areas of practice, and identify workforce and practice needs. This effort is called UNCOVER EH (Understanding the Needs, Challenges, Opportunities, Vision and Emerging Roles in Environmental Health). Describing and characterizing the public health workforce is emphasized by the importance of identifying gaps in staffing, training, and ultimately ensuring a sufficient workforce prepared to meet future challenges. Efforts are underway to describe these details for the general public health workforce and have occurred for specific discipline areas, such as public health nursing and epidemiology. EH’s important role within the public health framework warrants assessment and analysis of the professionals and their practice in order to assure a workforce well positioned to address current needs and future challenges. UNCOVER EH, through a web-based survey and in-person workshops, will generate information about 1) EH workforce demographics and professional roles; 2) gaps in competencies and training needs; and 3) critical skills and resources needed to meet the evolving and emerging EH issues and challenges. Collecting this information has been recognized as a vital function for ensuring high quality EH services and maintaining a sufficient and well trained workforce. This phase of the project is focused on EH professionals working at public health departments. Opportunities to expand the survey to include EH professionals at other governmental agencies, non-governmental agencies, and private industry will be explored in the future. An effort of this magnitude will result in a wide range of benefits to the EH workforce that span across the levels of government and beyond by reaching leaders and decision makers within non-governmental organizations, private industry, and other sectors. A national level report will provide decision-makers and leaders with essential data for shaping the delivery of EH services and preparing the workforce to address current and future EH issues.

We Need You! UNCOVER EH presents a unique opportunity to speak with one voice to identify needs, challenges and opportunities facing the practice Your participation is critical to the profession and ensuring the workforce is prepared to meet EH needs now and in the future Efforts of environmental health professionals like you are critical to protect public health and the environment, yet these efforts often go unnoticed until problems occur (e.g., foodborne outbreaks, vector borne diseases, contaminated water supplies, disasters). Given the importance of environmental health to ensure healthy communities, it is very timely to understand the challenges faced by environmental health professionals to provide solutions to these needs. In order to assure that the survey results are as accurate as possible, and to understand challenges, needs and opportunities that can contribute knowledge for solutions to meet these needs, it is crucial to hear from environmental health professionals across the nation.

To participate… Respond to inquiries to identify EH professionals and spread the word about this initiative Sign up for UNCOVER EH email updates Contact us neha.org/uncover-eh with questions and comments, or to request more information UNCOVER EH is expected to launch in 2017, and more information will be shared prior to the release of the survey. In the meantime, 1) if contacted, please consider assisting with the identification of EH professionals working at public health departments within your state or region, 2) spread the word about this important initiative, and 3) watch for UNCOVER EH updates. Your participation is critical to ensuring accurate representation of the EH workforce. For more information or questions about UNCOVER EH, feel free to contact us at UNCOVER_EH@baylor.edu.