262: The Power of Photovoice to Elicit Meaning from Leaders Pursuing Community Engagement and Health Equity

What happens when public health collectives across 14 states engage in a collaborative leadership experience to advance equity in their communities? As the public health landscape dramatically changes, leaders must develop the skills to undertake new challenges through regenerative practices. The Public Health Regenerative Leadership Synergy (PHEARLESS) aims to better prepare health department leaders and staff to support communities by developing a local, culturally responsive public health initiative. This session uses findings to demonstrate an innovative photovoice evaluation to understand the impact of the PHEARLESS initiative. Presenters, including a PHEARLESS community participant, the funder, and the evaluation team, will talk about what motivated the initiative, why the evaluation team felt photovoice was the appropriate method to elicit learnings, and what it was like to participate in the novel approach. Participants will learn about the team’s trust-based approach and lessons learned from leaders’ experience.