Public health associates are placed where the work is, not where the agency is

The Public Health Associate Program (PHAP) places associates in host sites
throughout the United States and US territories, and the range of host
organisations is the point:

• State, tribal, local and territorial public health agencies
• Non-governmental organisations — community-based organisations, public
  health institutes and associations
• Academic institutions

Why the spread matters

A federal training programme could place its people in federal offices. This
one does the opposite: associates work **inside the organisations that
actually deliver public health**, most of which are not federal and many of
which are not government at all.

That has two effects. The associate learns public health as it is practised —
in a county health department, a tribal agency, a community organisation —
rather than as it is administered. And the host site gains a trained person for
two years, which for a small agency is a material addition to capacity rather
than a favour done for a trainee.

Where they are

The programme publishes a map of which states and territories are currently
hosting associates and how many are serving in each, with a full list of host
sites by state and territory beneath it.

Reading that list is the most concrete available answer to "what does the
public health workforce look like" — not a national headcount, but the actual
organisations, in each state, that are doing the work and could take somebody
on.

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.