Welcome to the Lerner Center for Public Health Advocacy
Training leaders as effective advocates for solving the world's greatest public health challenges.
What is Advocacy?
We define advocacy as strategic actions taken to drive social, organizational, or policy change on behalf of particular health goals or population health. This encompasses a range of disciplines and practices that effectively engage and inform policymakers, media, and the public to act and embrace evidence-based solutions for public health challenges.
Policy is one of the most powerful tools for ensuring that everyone can have the fairest, most equitable opportunity for a healthy, prosperous life and environment. We will enhance the knowledge and skills of public health professionals to effectively translate the science, engage with decisionmakers, build political support and will, and use data to effectively drive change.
Public health advocacy has the power to improve all lives through evidence-based action.
What's New
Video: Elevator Pitch Essentials
The Lerner Center created a new, short how-to video on creating an effective elevator pitch as part of its Advocacy Skill Series.
Recap: The Career Connection
The Lerner Center for Public Health Advocacy held its first-ever networking event, The Career Connection: Charting Your Path in Public Health Advocacy, at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health on October 1, 2024.
Advocacy Action Lab Recap
The Lerner Center for Public Health Advocacy hosted its first-ever Advocacy Action Lab at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg Center in Washington, DC on June 6. An energized group of faculty and staff from across Johns Hopkins came together to gain practical insights, knowledge, and skills to enhance influence with decision makers at all levels.
Public Health Advocacy Consensus Task Force (PH-ACT)
The Lerner Center for Public Health Advocacy and the de Beaumont Foundation, in partnership with other national and state public health organizations are launching the Public Health Advocacy Consensus Task Force (PH-ACT), which will:
- Gain consensus on the definition of public health advocacy;
- Identify the essential advocacy skills needed to operationalize it; and
- Draft guidance that could help schools and programs.
The Power of Advocacy
If we want demonstrable improvements in the public’s health, we need to intervene in the larger political and social arena and more fully engage in advocacy to inform decision making in our society.
— Ellen J. MacKenzie PhD ’79, MSc ’75, Bloomberg Distinguished Professor, Dean, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
