The health inequities that we witnessed during the pandemic should be no surprise. In 1984, nearly 40 years ago, the first major report to identify health inequities in the United States, “Health, United States, 1983” was published. This issue has remained intractable, despite years of focus from public health academics and practitioners.

We believe the power, resources and momentum necessary to achieve health equity requires a radical reimagining of public health leadership centered around the power of collective, community-driven efforts. Though the importance of public health leadership was famously emphasized in the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Report’s 1988 report, the Future of Public Health, it has not been reimagined as a means to address health inequities. A new vision is urgently needed as a new generation of public health leaders is hired, nominated and appointed. Public health academics and practitioners must seize this moment to address health inequity and simultaneously revolutionize public health leadership in practice.

Our presentation will include a framework for public health leadership grounded in three leadership models—collective leadership, adaptive leadership, and emergent leadership. In brief, collective leadership is a model that moves towards shared power, adaptive leadership prioritizes community engagement and meeting communities where they are, and emergent leadership focuses on overcoming inequity and systems of oppression. The common thread through these models is building and mobilizing power systematically to achieve a shared goal.

This concept differs from traditional concepts of leadership in three key ways:1) prioritizes leaders with skills to partner with communities and effect meaningful progress towards reducing health inequities; 2) uplifts and includes leaders from the communities who are burdened most by social inequity and 3) facilitates an environment that includes leaders from different fields to engage within public health, recognizing the relevance and impact of non-traditional public health activities on health.

Making meaningful progress towards health equity requires changing frameworks, but also daily practice. From these conceptual frameworks, we will give a list of practical strategies to make our ideas more tangible, such as systems-based views, collaborative/team-based organizational cultures, diversity, community centrism and cultural-humility, transdisciplinary approaches, and social movement-building. It is critical that public health leadership be equitable both in theory and practice.

At the end of this presentation participants will have a new foundation for community centered leadership approach and strategies to achieve inclusive leadership to address health inequities. We hope to present this updated framework for public health leadership, explain the key differences with traditional approaches, and discuss in detail the skills needed to actualize this concept. This content will be useful for those in academia to examine leadership concepts and skills they should instill in their students p to address health inequity. Moreover, this content will benefit public health practitioners as they look to hire new leaders, especially in regards to job descriptions, qualifications, and necessary skills.