Preparing Public Health Education Advocates

Abstract

According to the Health Education Specialist Practice Analysis (HESPA) II (see https://www.sophe.org/resources/hespa-ii-2020/), advocacy is listed as a standalone area of responsibility for health education specialists. Emerging data suggest that public health education faculty are not prepared to meet this responsibility in their pre-professional programs for a variety of reasons. Guidance must be provided to programs on acceptable preparation for advocacy skills in the health education profession. Ways to increase program and faculty readiness for advocacy teaching may include revised faculty training and reframing advocacy work to address political concerns. For example, the Public Health Advocacy Consensus Taskforce (see https://publichealth.jhu.edu/lerner-center/public-health-advocacy-consensus-task-force-ph-act) is diligently working on an Advocacy 2.0 model to help guide programs in the teaching of advocacy. Resources like these can help faculty utilize best practices in advocacy training for future health education specialists.