Hosting Future Public Health Leaders: The Why and How of Investing in Students

Overview:

This is a live webinar on October 7, 2025, from 12:00 pm-1:30 pm ET. Participants will use Zoom to join. 

Have you ever thought about the impact you could make by mentoring a student, even if your organization has not hosted interns before? This session, Hosting Future Public Health Leaders: The Why and How of Investing in Students, will explore why investing in students matters for the future of every profession and how you can create positive, practical learning experiences. You will gain insights on how to set clear expectations, communicate effectively, and support learners while also strengthening your own organization. Whether you work in public health, education, government, or a community-based organization, this webinar will leave you with strategies and inspiration to nurture the next generation of leaders. 

Janie Cambron, RS, MPH, DrPHc, has more than 20 years of experience in public health practice and academia. She serves as the inaugural Director of Land Grant Engagement in the University of Kentucky College of Public Health, advancing the land-grant mission by fostering reciprocal partnerships with Cooperative Extension, the Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment, community organizations, state and local public health agencies, and professional associations. Her work emphasizes building sustainable collaborations that strengthen communities, advance experiential learning, and support the development of future leaders. 

In March 2020, Cambron was one of eight national scholars accepted into the Bloomberg Fellowship DrPH program at Johns Hopkins University. Previously, she was Associate Dean for Practice and Workforce Development at UK, serving as Principal Investigator on multiple workforce development initiatives, including the HRSA Public Health Scholarship Program, with a focus on aligning academic training with public health practice needs and investing in the growth of others. Cambron also spent over a decade at the Kentucky Department for Public Health, where she co-led the effort to achieve the agency’s first national public health accreditation and held leadership roles in quality improvement, program management, epidemiology, and environmental health. A Kentucky Public Health Leadership Institute scholar, trainer, and mentor, Cambron has also served as an instructor for the Community Leadership Institute of Kentucky (CLIK).  

She maintains professional credentialing as a Registered Sanitarian (RS) and is deeply committed to service, experiential learning, and cultivating the next generation of health professionals through innovation, mentorship, and leadership. 

Learning Objectives: By the end of this webinar, participants will be able to:

• Explain the value of mentoring and hosting students as a strategy to strengthen the future workforce in any field.
• Identify effective practices for onboarding, setting expectations, and supporting students with diverse backgrounds and needs.
• Develop approaches to create meaningful, mutually beneficial learning experiences that foster growth for both students and hosts.

CERTIFICATE: The course contains three modules: a module for pre-session questions, a module to access the webinar, and an evaluation module. After accessing these modules, learners will earn a certificate of completion. 

This project is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under grant number UB6HP31680, Public Health Training Centers for $4,348,992. This information or content and conclusions are those of the author and should not be construed as the official position or policy of, nor should any endorsements be inferred by HRSA, HHS or the U.S. Government.