This week, Tulane University’s Region 6 Center for Health Security & Response Readiness (CHSRR) participated in two exciting sessions at NACCHO's 2026 Preparedness Summit Conference in Baltimore, Maryland. The Center's faculty and staff from Tulane University CSW School of Public Health and the Texas A&M University School of Public Health highlighted the Center's innovative training program (also developed in collaboration with the OU Hudson College of Public Health) in the quick hit session “Advancing Crisis Decision-Making Capacity: A Novel Training Program for Public Health Emergency Practitioners." The session shared how the project was conceptualized, its adaptation to the complex operating environments of Region 6 public health agencies, and key lessons learned from design to implementation.

CHSRR also joined the National Network of Regional Centers as panelists to discuss critical public health topics, including crisis leadership and partnership building, during the “What Works and What We’re Learning: Network of Regional Centers for Public Health Preparedness and Response Townhall.”

For more on CHSRR's work, please visit the CHSRR website.

A new training, "How Is This Still A Thing?, Act Now to End the Crisis of Syphilis & Congenital Syphilis", will be available for pilot testing later this month.

A description of the training is listed below:

This course will help learners to work to end syphilis in communities. Syphilis is a curable bacterial infection. Doctors have been able to cure syphilis since the 1940s. The treatment is penicillin, a well-known antibiotic. Today, syphilis in adults and in babies is a growing problem. Many infected people are not receiving treatment. People living in underserved communities are suffering more than other groups. This course will offer information and raise awareness to stop the growing crisis. 

This training is intended for anyone who works in a public health or social services setting. This audience includes social service providers, health department staff and others. Community Health Workers (CHWs) may find this course especially useful.

If you are interested in testing the Syphilis training, please email us.

Photo credit: NASA (via Artemis II)

Earth Day 2026 will be observed on Wednesday, April 22nd. To honor our planet, we've put together resources on environmental health and sustainability to help support efforts to keep our home healthy for future generations.

"On Earth Day, we celebrate all the gifts the world and nature make available to us. We recognize our complete dependence on its bounty. And we acknowledge the need for good stewardship to preserve its fruits for future generations."

- John Hoeven

Congratulations to Dr. Stephen Murphy, Principal Investigator for the Region 6 South Central Public Health Training Center, on his appointment to the Standing Committee on Emerging Infectious Diseases (SCEID) and 21st Century Health Threats at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

In this role, Dr. Murphy will contribute to efforts that support the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) at HHS by providing timely, evidence-based guidance to inform decision-making on emerging infectious diseases, as well as broader public health and national security threats.

The committee serves as a key forum for examining scientific, technical, and policy issues related to emerging health threats, public health preparedness, and response. Congratulations Dr. Murphy!

Course Spotlight:

Conflict Management

Course Description:



The purpose of the training is to provide practical, hands-on experience in conflict management. The course will focus on how conflict management can be used in a variety of work settings. The training features an interactive discussion led by an expert in conflict management.

Learning Objectives:

• Define conflict and resolution

• Know how to structure a conflict management process

• Feel more confident about approaching conflicts

For more info about this training,

please click here.

Featured Course Bundle:

Safe Water Program Improvement e-Learning Series (SWPI)

Course Bundle Description:

Take CDC’s Safe Water Program Improvement e-Learning Series (SWPI) for safer well water through stronger public health programs.

SWPI helps health department programs strengthen services to people that use wells, cisterns, springs and other private drinking water systems not covered by the Safe Drinking Water Act. Oversight for these systems vary, but core elements of successful, sustainable programs are similar. SWPI walks through the 10 Essential Environmental Public Health Services and the Environmental Public Health Performance Standards and provides examples of using them to identify and fill program gaps in these types of drinking water programs.

Trainings in this course bundle include:

• SWPI101: Introduction: The 10 Essential Environmental Public Health Services and Unregulated Drinking Water Programs

• SWPI102: Assessment: Monitor Health

• SWPI103: Assessment: Diagnose and Investigate

• SWPI104: Policy Development: Inform, Educate, Empower, and Mobilize

• SWPI105: Policy Development: Policies and Plans

• SWPI106: Assurance: Laws and Regulations

• SWPI107: Assurance: Linking People to Services

• SWPI108: Assurance: Assuring a Competent Workforce

• SWPI109: Assurance: Evaluation and Research

For more info about the SWPI course bundle, please click here.

Follow the Region 6 South Central Public Health Training Center on social media!

Visit the Region 6 South Central Public Health Training Center website!