Partnerships

Partnerships are fundamental to building a resilient and effective public health system in Illinois, enabling IDPH to leverage collective expertise, resources, and innovation across multiple sectors as part of the CDC Public Health Infrastructure Grant (PHIG). Through strategic collaborations with academic institutions, technology partners, federal agencies, local health departments, and others, IDPH is advancing critical priorities in workforce development and data modernization that no single organization could accomplish alone.

These partnerships ensure that public health initiatives are grounded in real-world needs, responsive to local communities, and designed for long-term sustainability. By fostering coordination across governmental, academic, and private sector partners, IDPH is creating a modern, interconnected public health infrastructure capable of proactive response and equitable service delivery throughout the state.

Building and supporting the public health workforce remains a top priority for IDPH. We are committed to strengthening competencies across the system, creating sustainable career pathways, and addressing long-term workforce needs. Our approach combines targeted training programs, career development opportunities, and strategic partnerships—all informed by workforce assessments and strategic planning to meet real-world needs.

• University of Illinois Chicago School of Public Health (UIC-SPH)
  • New to Public Health (N2PH) Residency Program
  • Public Health Leadership Institute for Systems Change
  • Supervisory Skills Training Series (IPHA)
• Southern Illinois University-Carbondale (SIU) — to strengthen IDPH professional development and continuing education opportunities
• LinkedIn Learning — to offer flexible, on-demand professional development opportunities for staff

• University of Illinois System — providing internships for undergraduate and graduate students at IDPH
• Junior high and high schools across the state— introducing students to public health careers through early engagement programs, such as: Discover Public Health

• Northern Illinois Public Health Consortium (NIPHC)
• Southern Illinois Public Health Consortium (SIPHC)
• Illinois Association of Public Health Administrators (IAPHA)
• Illinois Public Health Association (IPHA)

This is just a snapshot of the work taking place to align workforce planning, training, and recruitment internally and across the state, ensuring a coordinated and sustainable public health system prepared to meet Illinois’ evolving needs.

IDPH is transforming how we collect, analyze, and share public health data through a robust network of strategic partnerships at the federal, state, and local levels. Data Modernization is a massive, multi-year undertaking, one that cannot be accomplished by alone. We recognize that success depends on strong, sustained partnerships.

In addition to the Illinois Department of Innovation and Technology (DoIT), Gartner, Snowflake, AWS, and the CDC Foundation, we are deeply engaged with local health departments (LHDs), academic partners, and community-based organizations to ensure our modernization efforts are responsive, equitable, and grounded in real-world needs. Local collaboration is foundational to our strategy. Through technical workgroups and the DMI Advisory Committee, with direct representation from LHDs, we are co-designing solutions that strengthen local data systems, improve interoperability, and close equity gaps. These local voices help shape our priorities and ensure that new tools and systems deliver timely, actionable insights where they are needed most. Together, we are building a modern, scalable infrastructure to better monitor health trends, detect emerging issues, and respond rapidly and effectively.

• Snowflake serves as our secure cloud data platform, enabling scalable storage, rapid data integration, and advanced analytics to support real-time decision-making and cross-program insights.
• AWS (Amazon Web Services) powers our cloud infrastructure, delivering flexibility, scalability, and security to support high-performance public health applications and services.
• Through innovation partnerships with the CDC Innovation Center and the CDC Foundation’s Workforce Acceleration Initiative, we are advancing forward-thinking approaches, including rapid workforce development and emerging technologies.
• DoIT is a partner that work together with us on all DMI efforts and ensures that all technology enhancements follow state IT standards and are designed for interoperability, security, and long-term sustainability.
• Gartner provides technology research and strategic guidance to inform application modernization and support the development of a sustainable roadmap for integrated public health information systems.

• The DMI Advisory Committee, which includes representatives from local health departments (LHDs), ensures that modernization priorities align with frontline public health needs.
• Collaboration with the State Medicaid Agency supports efforts to standardize race and ethnicity fields, explore integration of mental and behavioral health data, and incorporate Medicaid data into the Master Person Index (MPI) for more connected care.
• We are actively engaging academic institutions and technology companies to explore responsible applications of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to support disease surveillance, forecasting, and public health decision-making.

Our ultimate goal is to transform the entire public health data ecosystem from one that is reactive to one that is predictive empowering us to act proactively, allocate resources more effectively, and prevent adverse health outcomes before they occur.