Graham, C: Assessing the Value of Leadership Development Tra

In 1988, The Institute of Medicine published a report stating that public health leadership was in disarray. As a result, a mushrooming of leadership development programs has ensued, culminating in the tremendous growth of business revenues in the United States. This research study focused on the problem that leadership development training may not translate into personal meaningfulness for participants, which is critical to the utility of new knowledge. To answer the research question of how participants‘ assigned value to training provided by the Florida Public Health Leadership Institute, the hermeneutic phenomenological approach was used. The qualitative research tool used to gather data was a semi-structured interview protocol, and the data analyzed and interpreted using Gadamer‘s circle of interpretation. From the interpretation of the interview narratives, the greatest valued experience acquired was friendship, and the apparent lack of support by the sponsoring organizations was the greatest devaluing factor to the overall meaningful experience of the participants.