Episode #432 Real-World Strategies for Today’s Public Health Leaders
- Laura Hollabaugh
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- Nov 25, 2025
- 3 min read
On This Episode Of The Public Health Epidemiology Conversations (PHEC) Podcast
In this solo episode, Dr. Charlotte Huntley revisits key conversations from the year to encourage public health professionals navigating uncertainty, workforce disruption, and rapid change. She weaves together guest insights on locking arms with like-minded colleagues, mastering plain-language communication, embracing innovation and new surveillance tools, being strategic about funding and career moves, staying civically engaged, and protecting mental health through boundaries and vulnerability. Throughout, she calls listeners to “find your lane,” recognize their own power, and use their unique strengths to advance public health, while staying connected through the PHEC Podcast Community app.
Listen To This Episode Of The Public Health Epidemiology Conversations (PHEC) Podcast
Conversation Highlights
Strengthening your network and collaborating with like-minded colleagues is a source of resilience and protection against burnout; no one is meant to shoulder public health challenges alone.
Effective, plain-language communication—storytelling, clear messages, and audience-adapted framing—is central to helping communities understand who public health professionals are, what they do, and why it matters.
Current challenges are also opportunities to innovate, from AI and data modernization in surveillance to reimagining the very foundation of public health.
Strategic career navigation means following funding shifts, understanding philanthropy and corporate social responsibility, and leveraging transferable skills like collaboration and stakeholder engagement.
Advocacy is most powerful when it is intentional and local—staying civically engaged, understanding elected officials’ priorities, and speaking with legislators and media can move policy “one step at a time.”
Prioritizing self-care and mental health, setting and resetting boundaries, and taking intentional time off are essential for long-term impact in public health.
True leadership requires vulnerability—asking for help, acknowledging limits, and allowing community support (even from unexpected places) to show up.
Every professional has a “lane”; identifying your unique strengths and using them to speak up is a powerful antidote to feeling helpless in times of change.
"If there was ever a time to embrace innovation, it’s now. The opportunities for our ideas to take root and for us to act on them are plentiful." - Dr. Huntley
Links Mentioned In This Episode:
PHEC Episode 408: Transforming Public Health Systems from Within, With Dr. Nicole D. Vick, MPH, CHES
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Public Health Consulting To Support You
DrCHHuntley LLC is a public health consulting firm that specializes in epidemiology consulting, supporting large nonprofit organizations in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, and Florida that serve Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). We also provide nationwide public health consulting and epidemiology consulting support to BIPOC organizations across the United States.
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