Public Health Training Center Directors
The current supply of public health workers is insufficient to meet the health needs of the United States population. In 2008, the Association of Schools of Public Health reported that by 2020, the Nation will be facing a shortage of 250,000 public health workers. In addition, approximately 110,000 workers, nearly 25 percent of the current workforce, will be eligible to retire by 2012. HRSA’s Public Health Training Centers provide foundational education and training programs in the core public health skills and competencies for the existing public health workforce through partnerships between schools of public health and public health workforce agencies and organizations. Currently, 14 PHTCs, covering 45 states and the District of Columbia, assess public health workforce learning needs and provide needed training to that workforce. View the work of the PHTCs. 
Miriam Alexander
Linda Lloyd
Debra Olson
Rhonda Jones Webb
Kathleen Wright
Marita Murrman
Louis Rowitz
- More than 6,000 U.S. communities are primary medical care Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs); 4,000 are dental HPSAS; and 3,000 are mental health HPSAs.
- There are significant shortages of primary care physicians in regions of the country. The number of medical students selecting primary care continues to decline.
- There is a critical shortage of nurses; this shortage could reach up to one million by 2020.
- The current public health workforce is inadequate to meet the health needs of the U.S. population. Shortages are projected to reach 250,000 by 2020.
- The health professions workforce does not reflect the diversity of the population it serves: African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans are under-represented. African Americans, for example, were 12.2 percent of U.S. population in 2004, but only 3.3 percent of the nation’s physicians.