The Health Promotion Administration Unit is responsible for MCH workforce development strategies that ensure recruitment and retention of qualified staff, training and professional development for employees, and strategic staffing structures that maximize funding resources. MCH acknowledges the candidate driven job market and continues to utilize the latest recruiting strategies including social recruiting, employer branding, and candidate experience. MCH has 89 percent of positions filled. The MCH leadership staff is comprised of the following individuals:

LaToya Osmani, MPH, serves as the Director of the Division of Health Promotion. She is a member of the DPH Executive Leadership Team and is responsible for providing leadership to the MCH Section, Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), and cross-cutting programs: Oral Health and Georgia Shape. She has over 22 years of experience in public health ranging from the federal, local, non-profit, private, and global arenas. In addition to her public health administrative experience, she is skilled in informatics, business analysis, and has taught public health. Leveraging her knowledge of public health enterprise, Ms. Osmani has supported and aligned teams to streamline processes and increase efficiency to strengthen public health programs and services.

Jeannine Galloway, MPH, is the MCH Director overseeing programs and services related to early intervention, children and youth with special health care needs, fatherhood, and maternal and infant health. In addition, she serves as the Director for the Title V Block Grant. Ms. Galloway has over 17 years of experience in public health increasing funding, partnerships, and programs with federal, state, and non-profit organizations. Her experience includes creating, disseminating, and evaluating national and state interventions. 

Paige Jones is the Deputy Director managing the Title V Block Grant and serves as the State Lead for the Improving Birth Outcomes Initiative. She has over 28 years of MCH experience developing, managing, and directing both public health, Medicaid, and non-profit maternity care coordination programs. Ms. Jones has directed evidence-based home visiting programs, developed a fatherhood initiative, and led collective impact efforts in Alabama.

Kimberlee Spencer, Ph.D., is the Deputy Director of Early Intervention. She has over 21 years of experience in programs for young children and their families, including administering a Department of Defense Child and Youth Program, a regional Early Intervention program in Florida, and a University Child Development Center. In addition, she has been faculty at the University of Georgia Department of Human Development and Family Science. During her time in Florida, Dr. Spencer successfully adopted telehealth services, realigned the program with evidence-based practices, improved compliance with Office of Special Education Program requirements, and implemented the Primary Service Provider Model.  

Sharifa Peart, MPH, is the Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs (CYSHCN) Program Director and supervises the Children Medical Services Program, Health Check, and the Autism Initiative. She has been with the DPH MCH Section since 2012 and has experience in health care transition, telemedicine expansion, care coordination, physician engagement, family satisfaction, and child health referral systems. Ms. Peart successfully completed the Georgia Leadership & Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (GaLEND) interdisciplinary training program for future professionals, disability advocates, and family members. 

Tina Turner, MPA, is the Deputy Director for Child Health Services. She oversees the Newborn Screening, Early Hearing Detection and Intervention, Children First, and 1st Care programs as well as the Georgia HMG® initiative. She has over 28 years of Public Health experience with state systems in Georgia, Ohio, and California. Ms. Turner has developed and led quality, financial, and patient safety improvement projects for rural health clinics, federally qualified health centers, and local health departments. She has over 10 years of experience in health equity, infant mortality and vitality, community and stakeholder engagement, and has earned a certificate in Ohio Lean Boot Camp Lean Six Sigma Camo Belt.

Deputy Director, Family and Community Supports- Open position managing the unit that includes the Maternal Infant and Early Child Home Visiting (MIECHV) activities for the agency, the Fatherhood Initiative aimed at ensuring public health programs and external partnering agencies are intentionally involving fathers in programs and services, the Healthy Start initiative funded by HRSA with the purpose of lowering risk factors associated with preterm birth, low birth weight, infant mortality, and poor developmental outcomes and Early Brain Development and Language Acquisition.

Director of Oral Health- Open position managing the State Oral Health Program, including grants, contracts, budgeting, staffing, partnerships, and strategic programmatic objectives and activities. It also includes the facilitation of oral health literacy awareness, education, school-based oral health prevention programs, community fluoridation systems, oral health surveillance, and direct provision of clinical services throughout the state public health districts.

Valerie Newton-Lamb, MSHA, is the Director of Administration for the Division of Health Promotion. She has over 22 years of experience in public health and healthcare administration managing complex, large-scale operations. Ms. Newton-Lamb is responsible for Workforce Management, Quality Improvement/Process Improvement, and Communications, Planning and Partnerships within the Health Promotion Division.

Debra Chapman is the Fiscal Director for the Division of Health Promotion. She has over 22 years of experience in public health managing budgets. Her areas of responsibility are financial services, monitoring budget expenditures, preparing district budget and financial reports, and grants and contracts. Ms. Chapman provides information and serves as a resource to others; achieving defined objectives by planning, developing, implementing, and maintaining services in compliance with established guidelines; and serving as a member of the leadership team.

The MCH Family Support Coordinator, a CYSHCN parent, provides support and guidance to state and local district BCW and CMS staff by developing and promoting opportunities to engage families, establishing partnerships with community stakeholders, and facilitating resolutions to family concerns. Title V programs would not function without the support of a dedicated team of MCH Epidemiologist (MCH EPI) data analysts and program evaluators for data supports and program evaluation.

The Health Promotion Division strategic staffing management plan includes workforce development plans for Title V program workforce. The plan is reviewed quarterly by the Health Promotion Division Director and Senior Leadership team and updated as needed. The plan establishes staffing requirements to meet current objectives, goals, and mission. MCH and Title V program capacity planning ensures sufficient staffing levels to accomplish work processes related to state performance measures.

The plan serves as a platform for creating new positions to meet staffing needs as defined by division and department strategic goals. New positions are created in response to capacity planning that links Title V performance measures upward to division and department strategic goals. The ‘Future Staffing’ section of the division staffing plan requires an annual review. Program directors are expected to identify new roles and responsibilities, describe the strategic impact/justification and project hire dates.

The division has expanded partnerships to create innovative staff structures and grow pools of resources to enhance Title V program capacity through the following programs and activities:

• CDC Public Health Associate Program (PHAP)– the division is a host site for three PHAP associates assigned to projects impacting Title V programs. The two-year associate assignment adds invaluable program capacity.

• University Relations and Intern partnerships– DPH University Relations initiates and maintains partnerships with colleges and universities that regularly supply high-quality graduate public health students for MCH internships. Among these schools are Morehouse University, Emory University, University of Georgia, and Mercer University. DPH MCH has successfully hired from intern pools.

• Morehouse School of Medicine Resident Rotation– The 12-week rotation provides residents with (1) educational and applied learning in the Division of Health Promotion programs: MCH, Child Health and Wellness Georgia Shape, and Oral Health, (2) educational and applied learning in program evaluation and financial planning, (3) project specific skills in the resident’s area of interest and focus, (4) educational and applied learning corresponding to Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals, and (5) educational and applied learning in Essential Public Health Services.

The overarching goal is for the DPH Health Promotion Division to increase capacity within the public health and healthcare pipeline by providing applied learning and training opportunities to college students and medical residents. This partnership provides a requisite public health experience for the residents while expanding our capacity to meet an MCH program goal.

• Participation in local MPH networking events such as Mercer MPH Speed Interviewing Event where public health graduate students interviewed with a panel of representatives from public health organizations. The event provided a mutual benefit, introducing students to public health employers and connecting public health organizations with top-quality graduates.

Recruitment efforts continue to leverage social media to help brand DPH as an employer of choice (i.e., advertising on LinkedIn and Handshake, upgrading the department website critical data dashboards, and an information bot). Job descriptions are routinely reviewed to ensure that core responsibilities are clearly communicated along with benefits such as flexible schedules and generous time off. Recruitment also utilizes sponsored jobs for postings intended to draw high-quality applicants. Title V Program position job descriptions include public health competency skills. Staff competencies are evaluated as part of the annual performance review.

The Division of Health Promotion promotes excellence and continuous performance improvement by providing resources for training and professional development. The division’s professional development program includes subscriptions and access to multiple resources, which includes LinkedIn Learning, Exceed LMS (Learning Management System), and professional development allotments. Supervisors and direct reports work together to identify courses or create Online Learning Paths in LinkedIn that develop and engage staff in learning content that is both relevant to their existing positions and needed to reach staff professional development goals.

Supervisors receive quarterly reports of LinkedIn learning usage and encourage staff to apply professional development skills learned. Program staff are allowed up to four hours for professional development per quarter. Infrastructure which includes Fiscal, Administration, and Evaluation staff receive up to eight professional development hours per quarter as infrastructure units do not attend program related conferences or have training opportunities covered by grants or other funding sources. This time can be used for LinkedIn Learning, courses approved under the annual allotment, DPH Exceed platform courses, or other approved coursework. The scheduled time can be divided into time increments that best work with the employee’s work schedule. When used during work hours, online professional development in LinkedIn follows guidelines consistent with the division policy criteria for professional development.

Program directors are required to capture training needs for technical, functional, and people/soft skills. The MCH Director consults with program managers to review all roles and staff resources for the Title V program, the type of training needed, the timeframe, costs, training methods, and training resources. The training is also registered in the annual performance review as an individual development plan and successful completion is evaluated at the end of the fiscal year.

The Division of Health Promotion promotes horizontal/lattice approach development opportunities to provide a non-linear path for professional growth, acquisition of new skills rather than hierarchical job titles, create value for staff by increasing knowledge, and provide multi-directional career opportunities with wider prospects for job opportunities. The horizontal approach for career development contributes to a well-skilled, diversified team, and well-rounded senior leaders who have more insight into several different business units across an organization, greater opportunity to explore interests within the organization and across different departments and encourage employee retention across the organization.

Members of the Health Promotion Division are participating in the National MCH Workforce Development Center’s 2022 Accelerating Equity Learning Community (AELC) Skills Institute. Georgia is one of five states participating in the AELC along with Wisconsin, North Carolina, Iowa, and Virginia. The team is composed of the MCH Title V Director, CYSHCN Director, Health Promotion Administration Director, Health Promotion Program Evaluation and Performance Improvement Director, MCH Administrative Manager, Title V Deputy Director, Title V Team Lead, Title V Analyst, and WIC Coordinator. The project goal is to establish a culture of equity within the Health Promotion Division by developing a Health Equity Workforce Development Plan to operationalize health equity for current and future Health Promotion Division staff and interns. MCH and Administrative team members attended an AELC in-person Skills Institute in Detroit, Michigan and the entire team will meet virtually each month through August 2022 with equity coaches from the National MCH Workforce Development Center. The AELC provides invaluable training to equip Health Promotion staff with the knowledge and skills needed to address the transformative demands of health equity programming.

The Division of Health Promotion will continue to foster a learning environment and culture to support the efforts of DPH to build a workforce capable to accomplish the mission of public health as well as meet the mission of the MCH Title V Block Grant.