History
With so few resources allocated to public health, the leaders of the Arnold School of Public Health (Arnold School) and the SC Department of Health & Environmental Control (DHEC) believed it was critical that the academic and practice organizations work together. While there had been a long history of collaborative efforts between the two institutions, these efforts had relied on existing, personal relationships. The partnership needed to be strengthened and formalized. Funding and technical assistance provided by the Association of Schools of Public Health (ASPH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) through the Academic Health Department (AHD) program enabled the establishment of the South Carolina Public Health Consortium (Consortium). With AHD program funding in 2003-2004, the Consortium instituted a structure and organization for academic/practice partnerships. When this funding ended, the practice and academic partners in SC decided to continue the collaboration through the Consortium and jointly fund its projects.

Objectives
Our goal is to improve public health practice by providing better structure and organization to academic/practice partnerships through the following activities:

1. Creating a joint structure to coordinate, formalize, and stimulate academic/practice collaborations.
2. Strengthening and formalizing existing collaborations.
3. Exploring new models of collaboration.
4. Through a comprehensive evaluation, harvesting and sharing lessons learned about the collaboration process and outcomes.

Leadership
The Consortium is led by Dr. Lisa Waddell and Dr. Greg Hand. Dr. Waddell is the Deputy Commissioner of Health Services within the SCDHEC. Dr. Hand is the Associate Dean of the Offices of Public Health Practice and Academic Affairs within the Arnold School of Public Health.

Organization
The Consortium objectives are guided by the Consortium Advisory Committee, co-chaired by Dr. Lisa Waddell and Dr. Greg Hand; other advisers; workgroups; and staff. Many of the activities are accomplished through Consortium Workgroups:

• The Professional Exchange and Student Workgroup works on issues related to technical assistance and evaluation activities; development of policy and evaluation and monitoring systems related to student placements; as well as standards for adjuncts and guest lecturers.
• The Research Workgroup identifies research/evaluation interests, grants, and needs; identifies available data sets; develops policies surrounding researcher credentials and joint projects; and assists in the development of the joint research agenda.
• The Curriculum Workgroup is a joint committee of the Consortium and the Office of Public Health Practice. The Curriculum Workgroup is developing an Introduction to Public Health course for DHEC employees, working on identifying other continuing education and academic courses which need to be developed; and developing two certificate programs.

SCPHC Organizational Chart