Dear colleagues,

First, some good news.

MHOA's abstract about the mentorship program was accepted for presentation at NACCHO360 this summer. Clariese Natal, MHOA program coordinator, and Amy Ewing, MHOA At-Large Board of Directors member and co-chair of the Mentorship Committee will be presenting. Want to join them in Kentucky? Early Bird registration is available through April 17. Congratulations to Clariese and Amy, and thank you to the mentorship committee and our mentor and mentee program participants for all their work to help make this a successful program worth sharing with others. 

We'd also like to congratulate the three cohort two Pathway to Local Public Health program students who completed their nine-month traineeship this week. Matthew Geary, Wafaa Kalai, and Samantha Sanford all have promising job prospects lined up, so we're excited to see them join the local public health workforce. A huge thank you to their host health departments -- Middleton, Lynnfield, and Barnstable County -- for training the students alongside MHOA's Amy McInerney, the assistant program director. We're proud, grateful, and looking forward to continuing to work with them.

Now for my two asks of you:

1. Schedule 15-20 minutes by April 10 to reach out to your state rep - here are the directions! As a member of the Coalition for Local Public Health, MHOA is partnering with the Massachusetts Public Health Alliance to mobilize the workforce in support of state funding for local public health in the FY27 state budget. It's really important that you share your local health stories with elected officials. 
2. Schedule 20-30 minutes before April 10 on your calendar to take Workforce Survey! And if you've already taken it, schedule time to reach out to colleagues within your department and shared services arrangement to ask them to take it. There aren't as many health directors as expected who have finished it so far. The survey is for everyone working in local public health, and is really important for us all "to help demonstrate the demands on the workforce to provide high quality and equitable public health services in every community in Massachusetts." It's anonymous!

Please make the time. It's less than an hour over the next week to help us help you!

A few other notes: 

• The Amy Naparstek Memorial Scholarship deadline is Tuesday, April 1. 
• You'll see a sponsored job ad at the bottom of this newsletter. MHOA for the past couple of years has been using this space occasionally for sponsored ads from companies who want to pay to reach our members. We're also making it available to municipalities who want to advertise a local health job. The cost is $500 for two weeks. We currently have about 1,950 newsletter subscribers and a 66 percent average open rate. Our usual job posting page also remains available. Contact Clariese Natal at cnatal@mhoa.com if you'd like to purchase an ad in the newsletter.
• We've had a flurry of events in the last couple of months and will continue to offer quality, timely and relevant local public health training. To do so, our staff spends substantial time coordinating with the venue, preparing presenters, promoting the program, ensuring you receive continuing education credits, and more. This costs money, not to mention the coffee & food we pay for on your behalf. When you don't attend a training that you have registered for, you still have to pay unless you adhere to our cancellation policy: Cancellations must be received at least 5 business days prior to the seminar to receive a refund. Exceptions may be approved in extraordinary extenuating circumstances. Send your cancellation notices to Lisa Pacella at lpacella@mhoa.com

Have a restful weekend!

Teresa Wood Kett, executive director