From leadership research to district action: Leadership tasks in public health: findings from the National Board of Public Health Examiners’ job task analysis

AI-assisted editorial implementation guide. Proposed district actions are separate from the original authors’ findings and recommendations. Independent peer review of this guide is not asserted.

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Evidence and transfer

Education-related source: verify which participants, institutions and outcomes were actually studied before district adoption. Source publication type: research-article. License and identity checks do not establish study quality or causality.

Original authors’ abstract, reproduced under the source license:

Introduction Public health leadership plays a crucial role in shaping effective health policies and practices. The National Board of Public Health Examiners (NBPHE) conducts a job task analysis (JTA) survey every 5–7 years to update the Certified in Public Health (CPH) examination. The objective of this study is to examine the JTA findings on leadership tasks in public health practice. Methods In April 2022, through the collaboration of expert panels and a validation survey, 103 tasks organized into ten domains were established for the JTA survey. The JTA survey was distributed online to current public health professionals. Across the tasks in the ten domains, respondents were asked about frequency (Scale of 1–6; how often they performed this task) and criticality (Scale of 1–5; how important this task was to their job). Results A total of 2,091 public health professionals responded to at least 82 of the 103 tasks (80%) and were included in the analysis. Approximately 86% of respondents worked in the United States and 41% had earned their CPH credential. Average frequency ratings ranged from 2.38 to 5.58, indicating that task ratings ranged from being performed never performed, every few years to daily. Average criticality ratings ranged from 2.46 to 4.64, indicating that task ratings ranged from not important to critically important. Specific to leadership, it was found that the ‘leadership’ domain ranked 2nd highest for both frequency and criticality. Conclusion Our findings suggest that leadership-focused development as part of academic public health programs and continuing education for the workforce is essential. Future research may examine how individuals perform on the leadership domain of the CPH exam across multiple characteristics to better inform additional workforce development strategies.

Study methods

In April 2022, through the collaboration of an expert panel and a validation survey, 103 tasks organized into ten domains were established for the JTA survey (10, 12). There were 3 phases to the development and implementation of the JTA survey which constitute the data for this study. Ethics approval by an institutional review board (IRB) was not required of this study as all human subject data were deidentified.

Limitations

The strength of this JTA survey is that it is one of its kind in the United States to specifically measure the domains and tasks of public health professionals. Typically used by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, conducting these JTAs emphasizes the importance of establishing a standardized scope of practice surrounding public health professionals. This is the only JTA known to these researchers to specifically survey the domain of public health leadership in governmental public health workers.

A 90-day district inquiry

Days 1–15 · Appraise. Read the source methods, recruitment, comparator, outcomes and limitations. Record how the study setting differs from your district and which claim the design can support.
Days 16–30 · Design. Choose one recurring leadership practice described in the source. Map its participants, incentives and constraints to a district setting, then design a small reversible staff pilot with an accountable owner. Agree participation, privacy protections, baseline and stopping rules before starting.
Days 31–60 · Observe. Collect the pre-agreed measures, keep a log of implementation changes and invite confidential voluntary feedback. Preserve existing support for staff and learners.
Days 61–90 · Decide. Record implementation fidelity, staff review time, task quality and unintended burdens against a baseline. Use a comparison team where feasible and document alternative explanations before expanding. Make a dated decision to stop, revise or extend the inquiry.

Board decision brief

Present the local problem, source setting, evidence limits, intervention, responsible owner, total cost, measured changes and uncertainty. Separate staff perceptions, implementation measures and student learning outcomes.

Attribution and reuse

Cerina Dubois; Anthony Dissen; Michael Bowen; Rick Kurz; Allison Foster; David Buys. Leadership tasks in public health: findings from the National Board of Public Health Examiners’ job task analysis. Frontiers in Public Health (2025-06-16). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2025.1583383

Prepared 2026-11-07. Source authorship and DOI are preserved. The abstract and source passages are attributed extracts; this editorial guide is offered under the same CC BY 4.0 license.