While the Institute has had numerous partners over its ten year history, three early examples deserve special mention.

Now considered an innovator in public health leadership and management training in the practice arena, the Institute began its focus on leadership training for practitioners with the Tri-State Public Health Leadership Institute. Linking the workforce development experts of Virginia, West Virginia, and North Carolina, and supported by CDC, Tri-State set a standard for teaching skills, exposing up-and-coming managers to senior public health leaders, and establishing collaborative networks. Tri-State grew to become the seven-state Southeast Public Health Leadership Institute, which has graduated more than 414 scholars.

One of the Institute's main partners is the North Carolina Division of Public Health--North Carolina's state health department. Just one month after the Institute was officially launched by the UNC School of Public Health, Hurricane Floyd with its 20 inches of rain struck eastern North Carolina. The State called on the School and its new Institute to help with this public health disaster. Whole towns were under water; livestock drowned, water treatment plants failed, and water supplies were cut off. The Institute organized nurses, environmental health specialists, public health social workers, and graduate students to help the affected counties. Over 7,000 homes were destroyed in the state, another 56,000 homes were damaged, and more than 500,000 customers were without electricity, some of them for weeks. Thirty-five deaths were directly attributed to Floyd. Disaster forged a strong new alliance between NCIPH and DPH, and the new Institute demonstrated in 1999 that it could be counted on to get things done.

NCIPH staff with members of the Northeast North Carolina Partnership for Public Health