HSR Workforce Development

AcademyHealth's redesigned membership model, launching January 15, 2027, will bring more people together to strengthen our collective voice, defend the value of evidence, and improve health and health care for all.

In Work Interrupted: Voices from the Field, one former USAID professional reflects on navigating a new chapter after leaving the community that shaped her career. Through lessons drawn from the Peace Corps and decades in global health, she explores adaptation, belonging, and how the values we carry can transform the places we land.

In Work Interrupted: Voices from the Field, one researcher reflects on the uncertainty of building an academic career amid a rapidly changing federal funding environment. What began as a calculated bet on a future in health policy research became a lesson in adapting to delayed grant reviews, disappearing opportunities, and shifting expectations.

In Work Interrupted: Voices from the Field, Siham Ahmed reflects on the abrupt termination of her Payne Fellowship and the uncertainty that followed. Just as she was beginning to build the future she had envisioned, a single email changed everything, . Her story is a reminder that while opportunities may be interrupted, purpose and commitment to public service can endure.

Coming from Canada, Laura Yudo expected to hear that a single-payer system was the fix for U.S. health care's biggest problems. Instead, conversations with scholars from France, Ghana, Rwanda, Nepal, and beyond convinced her that no country has it all figured out, and that the real value lies in learning from each other's trade-offs.

In this reflection for Work Interrupted: Voices from the Field, Hannah Scott writes about losing her mother during graduate school and, just as life began to feel possible again, losing her job. What follows is an honest account of grief, disruption, and the ongoing process of rebuilding when the ground shifts more than once.

Global health conversations usually ask what developing countries can learn from wealthier ones. But decades of doing more with less have made many resource-constrained health systems quiet innovators—offering lessons in workforce strategy, data use, and research-to-practice speed that developed systems are only now catching up to. The author has made this post available in English, Spanish, and Portuguese; all three versions appear below.

Professional Development Council panelists share insights from 2026 ARM Session, emphasizing leadership as a practice, offering perspectives on five types of leadership challenges, and describing attributes and skills that leaders can use to manage through uncertainty and instability, and create adaptable, resilient teams.

In this final installment of our three-part series, IRL alumni reflect on emerging opportunities and what will be needed to ensure that community-engaged research (CER) continues to thrive in the years ahead.

In Work Interrupted: Voices from the Field, Dr. Debra Houry reflects on what happens when the work that defines you is suddenly upended. For many in health care and public health, work is inseparable from identity, so when it’s disrupted, the loss extends far beyond a title,