Maternal and Child Health Public Health Catalyst Program - Maternal, infant and child health are top priorities in New Jersey (NJ), thanks to First Lady Tammy Murphy launching the NurtureNJ initiative in 2019. Over the past five years, sectors throughout the state have collaborated on health improvement efforts, including state departments and policymakers, community partner agencies, philanthropy, businesses, health systems, academia and more. And yet, actual improvements in NJ’s maternal and child health (MCH) outcomes are slow to come to fruition. To sustain these ongoing efforts, the MCH workforce pipeline needs diverse perspectives and sustained expertise in MCH content areas and leadership. Montclair State University is NJ’s largest Hispanic Serving Institution, recently merging with Bloomfield College, NJ’s only Predominantly Black Institution. Our Public Health students are diverse in many ways, including age, race and ethnicity, and language. Montclair’s Department of Public Health in the College for Community Health will develop the MCH workforce through HRSA’s MCH Public Health Catalyst Program – Track 1 Start-Up – creating courses and pathways for graduate-level trainees in MCH. Our approach involves three primary pillars: interdisciplinary engagement, practice-based MCH workforce development, and diversity as an asset. Montclair has an existing undergraduate MCH course and undergraduate public health student group. We also have existing partnerships with the NJ Department of Health (NJDOH) Division of Family Health Services, which administers the Title V MCH program in NJ, as well as the Partnership for Maternal and Child Health of Northern NJ and other agencies working in local communities across the state. Collaborating with these partners on classroom and experiential learning, Montclair will develop and launch a masters level course in MCH Foundations within Year 1, followed by a landscape analysis and needs assessment on MCH workforce learning gaps leading to the creation of at least 1 additional MCH course. Together, our aim is that this curriculum development will culminate in an interdisciplinary graduate MCH Certificate by the end of the 5-year Catalyst program. In addition, we will develop internship pathways with both NJDOH and the Partnership, providing reciprocal benefit and practical, community-engaged and MCH administration and policy experience for our diverse students. To support these course planning and workforce development efforts, we will also create an MCH Workforce Advisory Committee and a student-led MCH group, building on existing programs at Montclair. Overall, the purpose of our Catalyst Program is to drive transformative change in maternal and child health through the development of a diverse, skilled, and equity-minded workforce. Our program goals are simple but bold: (1) Establish Montclair as a premier public health training program to cultivate the next generation of equity-minded MCH workforce professionals; and (2) Build an ecosystem for MCH workforce excellence at Montclair, including at the student, faculty, and systems (organizations and community) levels. This work aligns well with our Montclair Department of Public Health’s goal of training the future public health leaders of NJ.
