PUBLIC HEALTH FOUNDATION

The Public Health Foundation (PHF) serves the public health community in the United States by providing information, data, and training on America's public health system. Through applied research, training, and technical assistance, the PHF focuses its efforts on helping strengthen and build public health agencies and systems. The PHF is an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting and advancing the efforts of local, state, and federal public health agencies and systems to promote and protect the health of people living within their respective jurisdictions. Its board of directors is composed of individuals from state and local public health agencies, boards of health, academia, and the private sector. The PHF was founded in 1970 initially as a research arm of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials and later evolved into an independent organization focusing on overall public health system infrastructure and capacity building.

State, local, and national organizations have turned to the PHF for assistance with projects such as:

• Setting, measuring, and achieving health improvement objectives and performance standards.
• Designing tools and publications to help put science into practice.
• Tracking and planning Healthy People and other public health initiatives.
• Gathering and analyzing information about public health infrastructure.
• Interpreting data for community and professional audiences.
• Identifying "exemplary practices" and innovations.
• Designing training programs and work force development strategies.

The PHF also serves as staff to the Council on Linkages Between Academia and Public Health Practice, which is dedicated to improving the practice and teaching of public health through the creation of strong academic-practice linkages. Funding for the PHF comes from a variety of federal, state, local, foundation, and private sector sources.

Reports, tools, and descriptions of projects are available at http://www.phf.org, and PHF's online clearinghouse of distance learning offerings is available at http://www.TrainingFinder.org.

Ron Bialek