Welcoming the 2025-26 Milbank State Leadership Program Cohorts\u00a0<\/p>\n
As federal health agencies contract and fewer federal dollars are allocated to health services and coverage, state and local leadership takes on a larger role in population health. Each year, the Milbank Memorial Fund invests in the development of state and large city\/county leaders who are committed to improving population health through its\u202ftwo nonpartisan legislative and executive branch leadership programs. The Milbank Fellows Program<\/a>\u202f(MFP) and\u202fEmerging Leaders Program<\/a>\u202f(ELP) have given more than 300 participants leadership and policy skills to implement evidence-based policy across state and party lines.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n Today, Milbank announces the members of the 2025-26\u202f ELP and MFP cohorts, who were selected from the largest group of applicants to date; three state officials applied for every spot available. The current cohorts include state senators and representatives, agency commissioners and secretaries, division directors, chief medical officers, and state epidemiologists. Cohort members come from 32 states and include 35 members of the executive branch and 21 legislators evenly split across political parties. \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThese leadership classes, which are highly representative in terms of geography, background, and political perspective, demonstrate both the expertise and openness needed to help pass and implement policies that can improve health in today\u2019s politically polarized environment,\u201d said Morgan McDonald, MD, Milbank\u2019s National Director for Population Health.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Throughout the program and long afterward, participants connect with colleagues across the political and geographic spectrum in meaningful ways. They have also leveraged the program to advance priorities like maternal health initiatives in Kentucky; community health worker certification in Mississippi; and improved prescription drug price transparency in Illinois. Participants have also helped change or stop policies harmful to population health as a result of the program.\u202f\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Independent evaluations of the programs find that they empower participants to introduce legislation, implement evidence-based programs, and cultivate relationships across parties, branches of government, and states.\u202fNearly all (93%) of MFP and ELP graduate survey respondents agreed that the program equipped them with skills for depolarization that assist with effective policy implementation.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Now in its fifth year, MFP is designed for senior executive branch and legislative state leaders and is administered in collaboration with the Colorado Health Institute and consultant Michele Lueck. ELP, now in its ninth year, engages early and mid-career legislative and executive branch state and large-county government officials. ELP is facilitated in partnership with nationally recognized academic and leadership consultant Rich Callahan.\u202fBoth programs focus on professional and personal growth, leadership skills, best practices from health and leadership experts, and the development of a network of colleagues from across the country.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Congratulations to the members of this year\u2019s cohorts for both MFP and ELP, who are listed below.\u00a0<\/p>\n Milbank Fellows ProgramEmerging Leaders Program<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcoming the 2025-26 Milbank State Leadership Program Cohorts\u00a0 As federal health agencies contract and fewer federal dollars are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112132,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253],"class_list":["post-131120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}