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DIRECT FROM CDC ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH SERVICES BRANCH
Editor's Note: NEHA strives to provide up-to-date and relevant information on environmental health and to build partnerships in the profession. In pursuit of these goals, we feature a column from the Environmental Health Services Branch (EHSB) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in every issue of the. Journal.
In this column, EHSB and guest authors from across CDC will highlight a variety of concerns, opportunities, challenges, and successes that we all share in environmental public health. EHSB's objective is to strengthen the role of state, local, and national environmental health programs and professionals to anticipate, identify, and respond to adverse environmental exposures and the consequences of these exposures for human health. The services being developed through EHSB include access to topical, relevant, and scientific information; consultation; and assistance to environmental health specialists, sanitarians, and environmental health professionals and practitioners.
The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official position of CDC.
CAPT Mehran Massoudi is the associate director for science in the Scientific Education and Professional Development Program Office at CDC; he has been at CDC for 18 years working in various disciplines, most recently in training and workforce development. Rob Blake is chief of the EHSB at CDC and has been working in the environmental health field for more than 30 years. Larry Marcum is the managing director for research and development and government affairs for NEHA; he is an attorney and has been in a senior management role at NEHA for 22 years.
Workforce enumeration is the foundation for identifying workforce needs. In 2000, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) sponsored an enumeration of the public health workforce (HRSA, 2000), but since then, no comprehensive enumeration has occurred. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and HRSA are now collaborating on an effort to determine the number and composition of the U.S. workforce at the federal, state, and local levels.
Limited public health workforce data are being captured by periodic profile studies by the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO, 2011), the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO, 2011), the U.S. Office of Personnel Management...