Strategic Plan 2025–30

Letter From The Director

Dear Colleagues,

Public health is like no other field, and public health agencies are like no other agencies! Together, state and local public health agencies work with communities to protect and improve the health and well-being of the 40 million people living in California.

We lead and support responses to public health threats, both fast- and slow-moving. We conduct field investigations using the scientific method to answer questions about exposures, interventions, and outcomes.

We make real-time decisions, sometimes in the face of deep uncertainty and time constraints. In the COVID-19 pandemic, we mobilized every sector of society, we worked arm-in-arm with communities to address their needs, we built new academic partnerships and deployed cutting-edge data systems and methods to improve our decision making, save more lives, and reduce inequities.

Every year the CDPH Director reports on the state of public health in California. We remind audiences that public health is not health care. The public health approach has four pillars of focus and action:

Socio-ecological
Life course and intergenerational
Equity and health equity
Prevention, especially primary prevention

“To advance the health and well-being of California’s diverse people and communities,” we’re becoming a learning, healing, and impactful organization. In other words, to effectively promote “healthy communities with thriving families and individuals,” we strive to continuously learn and get better, prevent harm and promote healing, and protect and improve the health and well-being of every community and every individual across California.

In a learning organization we become the best at getting better by embracing humility, science and innovation, and continuous improvement. In a healing organization we prevent harm and promote healing by mitigating chronic stress and trauma, promoting equity and justice, and cultivating cultural humility. And, in an impactful organization we protect and improve health and well-being by setting aspirational goals, measuring what matters, and holding ourselves accountable.

We’ve made real progress by using these together, internally and externally, in genuine partnerships with our staff, state partners, local jurisdictions, and communities.

Our work is never done, and public health challenges are growing. Extreme weather events from climate change are increasing. The spread of bird flu into mammals, including cattle, requires us to strengthen our public health infrastructure and be ready for the next human pandemic.

Our population is aging. Mental health disorders are rising due to adversity and harm from behavioral, chemical, and digital addictions (e.g., online gambling, nicotine vapes, alcohol, opiates, methamphetamines, high-potency cannabis and social media). Public health has an increasing role in protecting and promoting social and emotional health and well-being, especially in children, adolescents, and young adults.

Promoting equity and reducing inequities remains our north star.

In the CDPH Strategic Plan, we outline our vision and goals for the next five years to continue our efforts laid out in the Future of Public Health framework and to strengthen our identity as grounded in our core values. With this plan, we invite you to join us on this journey towards collective learning, healing and impact.

Serving with you,

Dr. Tomas Aragaon's signature
Tomás J. Aragón, MD, DrPH