The education of local health department top executives

An analysis was done on the educational backgrounds of current top agency executives of U.S. local health departments (LHD), using the National Association of City and County Health Officials 1992-1993 national survey of LHDs as the data source. Nurses are often the executive in jurisdictions with less than 50,000, while executives of jurisdictions with more than 250,000 are predominantly physicians. Overall, 78 percent of LHD executives have no formal public health training, and executives of larger jurisdictions are more likely to have a public health degree. Because a majority of executives lack formal training opportunities for them need major expansion. Particular emphasis should be placed on expanding short-term opportunities such as state-based leadership and distance-based learning programs.