Assignment 1: Public Health’s Most Influential Leader

Due Week 5 and worth 200 points

Each year Time magazine publishes “The Most Influential People” in the nation – they are artists, icons, pioneers, and leaders in their respective fields. For more than 100 years, healthcare has eradicated diseases, promoted safer communities, and enacted reform. None of these achievements would have been possible without the dedication of those warranting change. Consider the qualities you admire in leaders and identify your personal influential leader in public health.

Write a three to four (3-4) page paper in which you:

1. Briefly describe the leader’s contribution to the field of healthcare. Speculate on how this person would define leadership, and determine his / her leadership style.
2. Articulate how he / she was a pioneer, group organizer, motivator or visionary. Examine the major factors that positively or negatively influenced the leader’s success.
3. Provide specific examples of the areas in which you can personally identify with this leader’s circumstances, struggles, or insights. Recommend two (2) approaches the leader could have employed to be more effective or acceptable. Justify your answer.
4. Suggest two (2) lessons you learned from this person’s experience. Conclude how these lessons will help you become a better leader.
5. Use at least four (4) quality academic resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia does not qualify as an academic resource.
6. Format your assignment according to the following formatting requirements:
   1. Typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides.
   2. Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.
   3. Include a reference page. Citations and references must follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

• Assess the role of governmental and organizational leadership in public health.
• Develop a framework for efficient use of resources of public health departments and agencies that enables these organizations to maximize scarce resources.
• Evaluate talent selection practices of public health agencies in relation to the demands of modern public health realities.
• Evaluate the ways in which social media can be used to advance the administrative activities in the public health sector.
• Implement a quality management methodology to improve on a process or practice within a public health agency.
• Use technology and information resources to research issues in public health management.
• Write clearly and concisely about public health management using proper writing mechanics.