Workforce

Understanding the resource needs, funding demands, and work climate of the environmental health community is paramount to our mission. We partner with universities, local, state, tribal, territorial, and federal environmental health organizations to gather data and facilitate actions to address issues impacting the environmental health workforce.

Lead Exposure Reduction Project

We are working with tribal and territorial communities to provide education and tools to address lead exposure risks and testing in their areas. Learn more about the project and access the community-specific training materials and resources we have created.

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Achieving Environmental Health Equity: The Need and Opportunities for Public Health Action Brief

This resource provides the background, data, and actionable steps environmental health leaders can take address systemic inequities and environmental health disparities to improve health in their community. Actions are organized by the 10 Essential Services and provided in short form visuals as an easy reference.

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UNCOVER EH

We partnered with the CDC and Baylor University on this initiative to identify and describe key governmental environmental health workforce and practice elements. The initiative provides an understanding of the environmental health profession and helps inform environmental health workforce development initiatives, improve the practice, and establish uniform benchmarks and professional competencies.

UNCOVER EH ArticleCDC UNCOVER EH Initiative

Environmental Health Workforce Act

We support the Environmental Health Workforce Act. The bill requires the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to carry out certain activities related to the environmental health workforce and reporting on state-based practices for training and credentialing environmental health workers. The bill also specifies that environmental-health workers are eligible for public-service loan forgiveness.

Legislative ActionsWorkforce Resources

COVID-19 Environmental Health Workforce Needs Assessment Report

In 2020, we fielded a nationwide environmental health workforce needs assessment in response to COVID-19. Initial findings told us that environmental health practitioners, many of whom are employed at small local agencies, are actively supporting COVID-19 response and recovery. Their contributions are felt in safely reopening and restoring the economy, emergency operation centers, contact tracing, and communications efforts, in addition to their customary responsibilities. Based on these findings, we recommend environmental health staff be included early as active and meaningful participants in formulating plans to vaccinate the public. Read the full report to see more of our findings and our full recommendations.

Workforce Report October 2020Workforce Report April 2020

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