Funding will go to the Western Region Public Health Training Center to provide free training and continuing education for the public health workforce in Arizona, California, Nevada, Hawaii, and the U.S.-affiliated Pacific Islands. According to the report, a significant part of the training center’s focus is increasing outreach to rural areas to fund public health jobs and increase workforce diversity.
Director of the Western Region Public Health Training Center, Kelly Reynolds, PhD, said the center focuses on recruiting students from rural areas to serve in their own communities.
“We try to recruit students from these areas of medically underserved or rural regions to take partner training or be placed in the health departments so they can then be available and culturally competent to go serve in those areas where they live,” Dr. Reynolds said.
