Assuring the "public" in "public Health": Developing Workforce Capacity, Diversity, and Connectedness at the Department of Public Health Sciences.

Public Health serves a critical role in ensuring and maintaining population health by recognizing that health is influenced by individual, social, economic, environmental, structural, and political factors. Despite the core role that public health plays in communities, the field's workforce faces shortages which were already dire pre-pandemic. The Department of Public Health Sciences (DPHS) at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa (UHM) provides bachelor, masters, and doctoral degrees and serves as an essential training ground for the public health workforce in Hawai'i. The purpose of this paper is to describe some of the ways DPHS is meeting the ever-growing demand for qualified health professionals, in local and global government and community health departments and organizations. Since the first graduating class in 1967, more than 7000 individuals have earned accredited degrees through DPHS, including over 500 diverse undergraduate and graduate alumni since Fall 2015. The quality of DPHS' program and instruction are consistently highly rated by students and alumni. The curriculum is continually enhanced through innovative programs, and actively engages students in advancing public health practice and gaining applied research skills through all steps of scholarship including publications. DPHS is proud to be part of the movement towards building and revitalizing the public health workforce through teaching, research, and service and continues to strive to foster practitioners who will represent and serve local communities, engage in meaningful research and service, and bridge connections across disciplines and geographies.