Instructor:

Louis Rowitz, PhD

Dr. Louis Rowitz has built a unique career in public health academia via public health practice issues and initiatives. Serving as the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health Deputy Director of its Center for Public Health Practice since it began; he was also the first director of a state-based leadership institute funded by the Centers for Disease Control. Since 1992, that Institute (originally, the Illinois Public Health Leadership Institute) has encompassed as many as four states and is now called the Mid-America Regional Public Health Leadership Institute (MARPHLI) with teams from the partnering state of Indiana and the participating state of Wisconsin in addition to Illinois. The Institute has graduated over 500 Fellows since its inception. He has since added two more leadership training institutes to the Center: The Illinois Institute for Maternal and Child Health Leadership and the Illinois MCH DataUse Academy. In the year 2001, Dr. Rowitz became the Director of the Mid-America Public Health Training Center with its mission to improve public health infrastructure through training of the public health workforce. In addition, Dr. Rowitz serves on the faculty of the International Center for Leadership Development, also located at UIC.

Dr. Rowitz has published a text on leadership in public health based upon his experience in developing the institutes. It is Public Health Leadership: Putting Principles Into Practice (Aspen, 2001) which is now the premier text in leadership courses and institutes across the country. He has been a frequent contributor to the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice. He has also written a new book titled Public Health for the 21st Century: The Prepared Leader. The Center also publishes the Leadership in Public Health journal, and Public Health Practice in Illinois, and the Illinois Board of Health Manual, all of which are edited by Dr. Rowitz. He has also developed a course on Leadership in Public Health for UIC and has served as a consultant to the states of Michigan, Ohio, Mississippi, Alabama, Oklahoma, Louisiana and abroad in Ireland on their leadership program initiatives. In addition, he serves on the board of the National Leadership Network and consults with the Center for Disease Control generally on leadership issues. Dr. Rowitz is currently giving talks on leadership throughout the United States to national and local public health organizations and agencies.

Belzer’s seminars on negotiation, conflict management, communication, and related topics have been conducted for thousands of physicians, nurses, administrators, and other health professionals throughout the United States. She also serves as a professional mediator to hospitals, managed care organizations, community/migrant health centers, state health departments, rehabilitation facilities, and a variety of health-related associations nationwide. She has served on the faculty of the MCH Leadership Skills Training Institute since its inception. Ellen has also served as a consultant, trainer, and mediator to various state Title V programs.

Belzer received her BA degree from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, her MPA degree from the University of Missouri at Kansas City, and has received additional training in negotiation through an intensive university-based program. Prior to starting her consulting and seminar practice in 1986, she as an executive with a national medical specialty association for 12 years where she received a broad background in medical socioeconomics.