A report published in 2015 states that 38% of public health workers plan to leave the public health workforce by 2020, either to retire or to pursue positions outside the field. Additionally, there has been a remarkable increase in public health undergraduate and graduate programs across the country in the last decade. In 2004, fewer than 1500 undergraduate degrees were awarded in public health; just ten years later, over 9 thousand undergraduate degrees were awarded, marking nearly a 300% increase in public health young professionals entering the workforce. Both the current state of the public health workforce and the emergence of new public health education programs demonstrate a gap in bridging professional education with leadership development in the field.
We also took an informal poll to collect pilot data that will inform the development of PHYLA. This poll showed that nearly 70% of respondents felt disconnected from the public health community in the Greater Philadelphia area. Respondents were generally not members of other young professional networks and cited “unaware of how membership will benefit me” as a barrier to membership.
PHYLA hopes to provide meaningful career development opportunities to public health young professionals whose needs do not align with existing young professional organizations.
PHYLA is here to fill the gap in mentoring and networking needs of Philadelphia’s young public health professionals. We hope you will join us in creating a thriving, supportive community.