The Learning Collaboratory: developing and evaluating public health students’ skills while promoting community health

IntroductionComplex and continuous developments in health and healthcare require innovative changes in programs that educate public health scientists and professionals. Public health change agents need critical competencies to confront today and tomorrow’s leading problems including leadership, communication, interprofessional practice, and systems thinking.The context: challenges in public health educationPublic Health training programs teach competencies through their applied field experience and culminating project, typically late in the program, and often implemented in isolation from peers and faculty. Objectives and skills do not always align closely with community-based program needs. Students pursuing a degree in science in public health need to deeply comprehend multi-dimensional and interconnected systemic problems and communicate with diverse stakeholders across disciplines to produce relevant community-engaged research. The University of Miami Public Health Learning Collaboratory (LC) was established to transform the learning experience of public health master’s students by providing opportunities to develop necessary core skills for effective public health practice ear