This workbook was created by WE Public Health, in partnership with the American Association of Public Health, to support public health professionals with tools for building fulfilling careers that align with their values, strengths, and goals.

Our Goal: Integration + Action

To understand how we could contribute to the array of existing public health career development resources, we analyzed 25 websites and 60+individual resources across multiple formats, including, but not limited to, asynchronous courses and recorded webinars, blog posts, fact sheets, and other similar resources, self-assessments, templates, toolkits, and job listing sites.

We discovered many resources with valuable career guidance, but we also observed:

• Limited Practical Implementation: Many resources offer guidance at a high level, without practice activities or detailed, step-by-step instructions for taking action.
• Fragmented Coverage: Several resources addressed isolated elements of career development without connecting them to the broader process. For example, resume formatting tips without guidance on how to identify and articulate your accomplishments, or lists of networking events without strategies for how to make and follow up with new contacts.

This workbook is an effort to put it all together.

The workbook is framed around FOUR ESSENTIAL BUILDING BLOCKS FOR A PURPOSE-DRIVEN CAREER and includes practical implementation tools to translate existing career development guidance into action. All sections of the workbook include things like:

• Worksheets and checklists to help you reflect on key concepts and practice new skills.
• Customizable templates and tools that can be used throughout your job search and beyond.
• Connections to existing resources to deepen your learning

Acknowledgments

This workbook exists because of the generosity and wisdom of the public health community. From the organizations that developed the resources we curated, to the professionals who shared their insights, to APHA's investment in career development—this is the product of collective commitment to supporting career development in our field.

We are deeply grateful to the many individuals and organizations whose excellent resources informed and inspired this workbook. Their work made this possible, and we have done our best to appropriately cite and credit their contributions throughout. If we missed one, please send a note to let us know. 📫

Authorship

The workbook was written and compiled by WE Public Health Partners: Jennifer McKeever, WE Public Health, Laura Runnels, LAR Consulting, and Kimberly Green-Warren, SMART Health Education. The content was edited by WE Public Health Partner: Brianna Graham, Mixed Media, LLC.

Your Input Matters

Technical Issues:

• Are there broken links or errors?
• Are any external resources no longer available or outdated?
• Did you encounter formatting or usability issues?

Attribution & Credit:

• Did we fail to properly credit a resource or cite a source?
• Is there work that informed or inspired a section that we didn't acknowledge?
• Our goal is to give credit where credit is due—please let us know if we fell short!

Content & Usability:

• What worked well for you?
• What sections could be clearer or more helpful?
• What additional topics or tools would strengthen the workbook?
• What resources should we include in future updates?
• Did you discover excellent resources we missed in our scan?