The University of Iowa College of Public Health has been selected as one of ten regional public health training centers funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The Midwestern Public Health Training Center, covering the four-state region of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska, will help improve public health by strengthening the technical, scientific, managerial, and leadership competencies of the public health workforce, according to Tanya Uden-Holman, principal investigator and director of the center.

“Our four states have a long history of collaborating on public health workforce development activities,” notes Uden-Holman, associate professor of health management and policy. “We look forward to working with our academic and practice partners across the region to create a culture of training and education that ensures the public health workforce has the knowledge, skills, and abilities to meet the challenges of the 21st century.”

The UI has housed a HRSA-funded public health training center since 2001. In 2014, the agency moved to a regional model, reducing the number of centers from 37 to ten nationwide.