Amy Coates and Louise Clark
Tasmania is at a turning point. Our communities face significant and enduring health challenges – high rates of chronic disease and persistent inequities that demand bold, collective action. With the state’s landmark 20-year prevention strategy soon to launch, there has never been a more important time to grow and strengthen our public health leadership. It was in this spirit that the PHAA Tasmania Branch organised a leadership training course.
Over three and a half days in November 2025 and February 2026, public health leaders gathered in Nipaluna / Hobart to connect and invest in their skills. It was convened by Branch Secretary Holley Jones and former Branch President Louise Clark, whose vision and energy drove the project from concept to reality.
Facilitated by Rob Moodie and Zahra Aziz, the course brought together 24 public health leaders from across government, universities, and the NGO sector, working across everything from nutrition, disease prevention, mental health, health promotion, environmental health, and health policy.
The first day began with Speed Networking Bingo. It was playful and got us talking and collaborating before the more substantive work began. From there, the group explored models and styles of leadership, the essential role of emotional intelligence, and the concept of psychological safety and trust within teams.
In small groups, we began working on a shared real-world scenario that would thread through all three days. This ensured learning was always tethered to collaborative practice, not theory.
Day two covered coaching and mentoring, influencing and advocacy, conflict management, and the art of giving constructive feedback. The GROW model (goal, reality, options, way forward) – stood out as a practical, immediately usable coaching framework. The day also explored the Influence Equation (evidence, economics, and emotion) and how to tailor messages to different audiences, culminating in an ‘elevator pitch’ exercise where participants practised articulating their work in a way that is short, sharp, and compelling.
Days three and four brought everything together. Participants presented their group work exercise and explored concepts of sustainable partnerships, networking, and collaboration. The course closed with each participant developing a personalised leadership skills plan for the next 6-12 months based on what they had learned.
The moment that mattered most
If we had to choose one moment that captured the course’s essence, it would be the skills self-assessment sessions on day one. There is something quietly powerful about sitting in a room full of accomplished professionals and being asked, honestly, to name what you are not yet good at. To map your deficits alongside your strengths. As participants shared their personal reflections, it became clear that the room held enormous collective capacity. Skills that one person was working to build were already well-developed in someone else. Challenges that felt isolating turned out to be widely shared. The group began to see itself not just as 24 individuals on a learning journey, but as a network, a collective, a resource for one another today and tomorrow.
From the course room to the workplace
In evaluations, participants described genuine confidence gains – not vague feelings of inspiration, but a sense of being equipped with frameworks they could actually use. Many planned to introduce coaching conversations into their teams. Others committed to seeking out peer mentors or becoming mentors themselves. Several named conflict resolution and meeting facilitation as immediate priorities. Others spoke of becoming more intentional networkers, building the cross-sector relationships that Tasmania’s interconnected public health challenges demand.
Perhaps the clearest theme across the evaluations was that leadership is not a destination – it’s a career-long practice of development, reflection, and renewal. Participants didn’t leave the course believing they had arrived anywhere – they left knowing, more precisely than before, where they were going, and with a clearer sense of how to get there.
As one participant simply put it: “Just knowing myself more and having a clear picture of the type of leader I want to be, and some idea of how to get there. That’s pretty empowering.”
What comes next
The appetite for ongoing Tasmanian public health leadership collaboration was one of the strongest signals to come out of the course. Participants want to keep working together, to share knowledge, support each other’s growth, and amplify their collective impact. We are determined to honour that appetite. Building a connected, active leadership community in Tasmania is not just a nice-to-have; in a state where the public health workforce is small and the challenges are big, it may be one of the most strategic investments we can make.
We also hope the course inspires more Tasmanian public health practitioners to engage with the PHAA. Our branch is a place of connection, advocacy, and professional development. As we grow, we can contribute more to a healthier state.
We thank the course facilitators, new PHAA President Silvana Bettiol, and long-standing Treasurer Michael Bentley for their support and leadership.
Tasmania’s public health challenges are significant, but so is our capacity and determination to meet them, together.
Amy Coates is Vice President of the PHAA Tasmania Branch, and Louise Clark is the former President of the PHAA Tasmania Branch.
Contact: amy.coates@utas.edu.au / tas@phaa.net.au
Photo shows some of the participants in the leadership course, with Rob Moodie (facilitator), back left. The Tasmanian Public Health Leadership Training was held in November 2025 and February 2026. Photographer: Cohen Clarke-Jones (age 7).
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