What is the Management Academy
for Public Health?
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Managers are selected for the program in teams of three to six participants. The Academy serves health managers in governmental public health and in the broader public health system, including hospitals, health associations, and grass-roots organizations. The curriculum has been custom-designed for managers that have significant management responsibility and health backgrounds, but may lack formal management training.
Public Health Managers who have attended other leadership institutes (such as the Southeast Public Health Leadership Institute and the National Public Health Leadership Institute) will find the curriculum to be complementary.
Most leadership institutes focus on big-picture aspects of the leader’s job--developing vision, media relations, systems thinking, strategic planning, policy development. Management Academy does not teach policy development; it teaches how to make policies work.
[We]
rely on grants, that's just the only thing we think of when we
think of starting a new program--not really considering the need
for an analysis of expenditures versus revenues...Management
Academy has given us the opportunity to look at it from a
different perspective. 
Excerpt from a taped discussion with graduating Academy members
We teach management fundamentals. Instead of developing an organizational vision, we teach delegation and civic entrepreneurship. Instead of media relations, we teach basic business communication skills like writing and presenting. Instead of strategic planning for an entire organization, we teach business planning: how to operationalize one part of an existing strategic plan
Academy teams come to Chapel Hill in the summer for an intensive four-day management training program devoted to the basics of managing people, money, data and partnerships.
At the end of this on-site training, Academy participants begin the distance learning phase. They take additional courses over the web and work on their business plans with support of a business plan coach. Participants are responsible for completing their feasibility plans during this phase.
In the spring, Academy participants return to Chapel Hill for the conclusion of the program. The on-site session includes additional courses, team presentations and the announcement of the blue ribbon award winner.
Courses are taught by award-winning faculty from the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School and the Gillings School of Global Public Health. The program is administered through the North Carolina Institute for Public Health.
The Management Academy has enrolled over 1050 managers representing local and state public health agencies in the last ten years. That's over 250 teams!