The Indiana University School of Public Health-Bloomington just announced a new, online course, open to the public, focused on public health leadership. The course, P650: Seminar in Public Health Administration, will guide students in creating a powerful, compelling vision for organizational and personal growth, help students navigate and negotiate organizational change, and gain the trust and support necessary to execute a vision.

Leading the class will be one of the most well-known leaders in public health, Dr. John Seffrin, CEO of the American Cancer Society for 25 years. Under his leadership, the American Cancer Society became the world’s largest voluntary health organization. Dr. Seffrin is an expert in making an organization’s voice heard nationally and internationally; particularly when the foe was the tobacco industry. Under his leadership, the Society celebrated its historic 100th birthday in 2013, and is poised to help finish the fight against cancer in its second century.

This course addresses four Council on Education in Public Health (CEPH) core competencies in leadership and communication.  As Dr. Seffrin addresses the principles of leadership, students will be able to create a vision, empower others, foster collaboration, guide decision making, and help organizations transform. Students will learn effective communication, negotiation, and mediation skills, critical to the unique complexities of leading public health organizations. The course considers the contemporary environment of transparency and accountability, and recognizes the importance of civil society in achieving public health goals and outcomes.

In addition to teaching this course, Dr. Seffrin is a professor of practice at the IU School of Public Health-Bloomington. He served as a professor of health education and chair of the Department of Applied Health Science from 1979 to 1992, and was also the director of the Center for Health and Safety and chair of the Hazard Control Program Advisory Board.

Dr. Seffrin has a B.S. degree from Ball State University, an M.S. degree from the University of Illinois and a Ph.D. from Purdue University, as well as honorary doctorates from the Medical University of South Carolina, Mercer University, the State University New York, Ball State University, Purdue University, Thomas Jefferson University and Indiana University.

For more information about the course or to register, visit one.iu.edu and search for P650: Seminar in Public Health Administration.