Rationale: The severity of health disparities in our communities, the pending Public Health workforce crisis, and the on-going need for leadership skill building among our existing and prospective supervisors, managers, and executives are well documented. The confluence of these phenomena demands our immediate and ongoing attention to inspiring and preparing future leaders in community and public health.

Background: The March 2006 Congressional Black Caucus Health Braintrust conference, “Bridging Healthcare Disparities: Getting Healthy and Living Well in the Black Community” in Brooklyn set the stage for inspiring public health workers to take on leadership roles – at every level possible – to move us forward in addressing health care disparities.

The original, July 2006, “Finding Your Inner Leader: An ‘Aha!’ Conference for Aspiring Community and Public Health Leaders” demonstrated the need for a community health leadership launch-pad event to inspire people to prepare themselves to take on community health leadership roles.

In response to the positive reaction and interest in this first event, we have expanded the format of this annual event to include, in addition to the original track for aspiring leaders, a track for current leaders, and a track on leadership responsibilities and opportunities in specific areas of public health.