Transformative Health Equity Leadership Certificate
Orthopaedic Diversity Leadership Consortium + eCornell
WHERE LEADERS LEARN TO TRANSFORM SYSTEMS, CREATE VALUE, AND CLOSE COMMUNITY GAPS.
Welcome to the next evolution in health equity leadership. Advancing meaningful change in healthcare requires leaders who can bridge clinical expertise with the ability to drive systemic transformation.
The Transformative Health Equity Leadership Certificate is designed for professionals who are committed to embedding health equity into the foundation of their organizations, policies, and practices.
What makes this certificate truly unique is its dynamic integration of healthcare economics, value-based care, population health, and policy—a powerful combination that ensures participants gain not just theoretical knowledge, but actionable strategies to reshape healthcare systems for equity and sustainability.
Unlike other programs, this certificate empowers professionals to navigate the complexities of healthcare reimbursement models, regulatory environments, and public health strategy with the goal of achieving lasting, systemic impact.
This program builds on three essential pillars of leadership development:
1. Self
Strengthening personal leadership capacity in the components of healthcare economics and the delivery of equitable care.
2. System
Understanding organizational and structural influences on health outcomes.
3. Strategy
Implementing innovative solutions that drive sustainable, equity-driven change.
Let’s take health equity leadership to the next level—together.
Overview
Who Should Enroll
This advanced certification is designed for professionals across the healthcare industry who seek to deepen their understanding of equitable care delivery and apply it in meaningful ways.
This program is ideal for:
- Learners and healthcare professionals
- Medical technology industry members
- Practicing clinicians
- Quality and safety leaders
- Health system executives
- Anyone seeking a deeper application and understanding of the changing landscape of healthcare economics and policies
What You’ll Love About the Program
Industry Expertise
Develop actionable skills and immediately apply them in your professional environment.
Flexible Learning
100% online format, designed to fit the schedules of busy professionals.
Business Impact
Develop actionable skills and immediately apply them in your professional environment.
What You’ll Earn
- A co-branded certificate from ODLC and Cornell University
- 60 Professional Development Hours (6 CEUs)
- Access to exclusive health equity leadership forums and expert-led discussions
Program Structure
The program includes four core courses and a customized elective track consisting of two courses. Participants will select an elective track based on their interests and career goals, ensuring a tailored learning experience.
Core
Courses
Addressing Healthcare Economics
In this course, Dr. Robert Karpman, a seasoned medical professional, will guide you through must-know information when it comes to surveying the financial and economic opportunities within your organization.
Much of the course will focus on becoming more profitable by reducing costs, evaluating contracts, improving processes, and maximizing reimbursements. In the course project, you will apply best practices and personal experience to real-world scenarios.
PROTECTING PATIENTS OF MARGINALIZED GROUPS
In this course, you will explore specific federal protections and how they have been strengthened by additional legislation. You will also discover how Title VI of The Civil Rights Act and Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act are the principle statutes designed to protect individuals.
You will examine the penalties for healthcare practices that discriminate on the basis of sex, including gender identity, as covered under two principal laws: Title IX of the Education Amendments Act and Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act.
Public Health Foundations
This course offers an overview of what public health is and fosters your understanding of the various factors that impact health as well as the role you can play in improving health outcomes. You will gain the opportunity to build your knowledge, skills, and confidence as you take a more active role in community health efforts as a member of the public health workforce.
Identifying And Fighting Inequity
In this course, you will examine what inequity means to you and how it manifests within the U.S. and your community. You will identify causes of inequity including power differentials, biases, and ineffective development policies, among others. You will also identify an inequity in your community that is important to you and reflect on its causes.
Then, you will discover strategies to create equitable change and hear directly from activists working to do so in their communities. Finally, you will build your own plan for how to advocate to address an inequity in your community.
Courses
Choose one elective track from the options listed below, each consisting of two specialized courses.
ELECTIVE TRACK #1: STRATEGIC CHANGE
LEADING CHANGE IN HEALTHCARE ORGANIZATIONS
In this course, you will learn how to prepare your organization for change at the individual, departmental, and organizational level by focusing on communication and the development of a change management plan.
Cross-Cultural Communication
In this course, you will practice becoming more aware of how your Social Style® is interpreted by others and how that impacts your interactions with others at work.
You will also develop strategies for overcoming social blind spots in order to mitigate the risk of ineffective communication in cross-cultural settings. Finally, you will discover the ways you can adapt your Social Style® without compromising your core values for effective communication.
Courses
ELECTIVE TRACK #2: QUALITY & COMPLIANCE
IMPROVING QUALITY AND
PERFORMANCE OF
HEALTHCARE SERVICES
This course focuses on the processes, standards, measures, and tools that enable you to improve both the quality and efficiency of your healthcare services.
The course begins with a look at expectations and standards upheld by rating services and regulatory agencies, and then considers how inpatient and outpatient performance measures can be implemented. It moves on to address the use of root cause and failure mode analyses as well as efficiency improvement tools relevant to healthcare.
The course concludes with specific steps you can take to improve patient satisfaction scores. The five-part course project helps you apply what you learn to your practice and provides a set of templates and downloadable tools designed to assist you as you implement key concepts in the course.
NAVIGATING THE HEALTHCARE REGULATORY ENVIRONMENT
With a practical focus, this course outlines an approach designed to help you understand and comply with the essential requirements of regulatory agencies.
The course begins with a look at regulations and the government bodies that issue them. It moves on to discuss the role of compliance officers within an organization and the steps an organization can take to ensure regulatory compliance.
The course concludes with a discussion of healthcare liability and how organizations can reduce their exposure, routinely as well as in the case of medical error. The four-part course project helps you apply what you learn to your own situation, and a set of templates and downloadable tools provides resources designed to assist you as you implement key concepts in the course.
Courses
ELECTIVE TRACK #3: PUBLIC HEALTH STRATEGY
ACCESSING AND
IMPLEMENTING PUBLIC
HEALTH
The field of public health has been evolving for centuries, and thanks to research and documentation, you will learn from and build upon the lessons and successes of the past.
In this course, you will explore how public health is funded and administered in the U.S., what some of the key tools and functions of public health are, and who implements this powerful work in our communities.
USING PUBLIC HEALTH DATA
FOR ACTION
In this course, you will build your data- and evidence-based public health skills and confidence. You will explore trusted and reliable sources of public health data and look for themes and disparities that can answer your questions about a community’s health and well-being.
You will identify factors in your own community that contribute to positive or negative public health outcomes and practice supporting your perspective with data.
Finally, you will connect those factors to the organizations and services that can help address them, offering recommendations you can use to serve and improve the health of the community in which you live or work.
Courses
ELECTIVE TRACK #4: POWER AND POLICY
Analyzing Power and Systems
This course delves into how you can take part in this important shift by learning to use the tools of systems thinking and power analysis.
You will create a map of the system that is generating a persistent racial, social, or economic inequity that you aim to change. Using power analysis, you will then identify those actors and institutions that are supporting or blocking change, and you will determine where in this network of power to exert pressure for change.
Finally, you will build a theory of change connecting short-term changes that are possible in the present through a series of logical steps to your vision for a more equitable future.
DESIGNING POLICIES AND POLICY CHANGE
In this course, you will use a number of methods to define a problem your community is facing, determine a policy goal you aim to achieve, and identify someone whom you can influence to create change.
You will discover how to ensure the policy goals you pursue also help to promote change to the social structures and systems that persistently create inequity. You will examine the limits that laws and social norms put on the types of activism you can use to achieve your policy goals.
You will then reflect on examples of groups who have effectively created change and identify the strategies and tactics they used which could also be useful for you.
At the end of the course, you will have developed a policy goal consistent with equitable development as well as a plan for how you could go about achieving that goal, which you can share with others to build collective action for community change.
FAQs
Frequently Asked
Questions
1. Who should pursue this type of certification?
This certification is geared towards professionals, clinicians, and healthcare trainees (including students!) across the entire healthcare continuum. The program is open to ALL medical specialties. It is designed specifically for individuals who are seeking to gain the latest best practices and skills for driving meaningful change, building inclusive and high-performing teams, and championing health equity and inclusion within your organization and beyond. It is perfect for those looking to maximize leadership potential and amplify their impact on health equity and Inclusive Leadership Learning.
2. What makes this program different from other health equity / Inclusive Leadership programs?
The curated combination of Ivy League faculty-developed courses across multiple verticals sets this program apart. The ODLC Inclusive Leadership Certificate is the first customized program of its kind from eCornell. It offers Strategy and Leadership courses from Cornell’s SC Johnson School of Business, Healthcare courses from Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy, and Inclusive Leadership courses from Cornell Industrial Labor Relations college – truly a powerhouse combination!
In addition, this program can be structured for you to complete at your own pace. You can time the course start dates based on your schedule and complete them in a timeline that works for you.
3. Are there scholarships available to help with the tuition?
Yes! Through the generous donations of industry partners, ODLC is periodically able to offer partial tuition scholarships. Applicants will complete a survey application and scholarships are awarded based on the individual’s engagement with ODLC and demonstrated commitment to advancement of health equity, diversity, and inclusion in healthcare.
4. What is the time commitment?
Many students typically spend six to 10 hours per each 2-week course, but the actual time you spend on your courses will depend on your learning style. You do not need to be online at any set time but must complete all course requirements within the two-week course instructional period.
Remember, this program can be structured for you to complete at your own pace to accommodate your schedule!
5. How long do I have to complete the course?
eCornell courses have a two-week instructional period during which course requirements must be completed. Courses start on Wednesdays and end on Tuesdays.
Note that all required assignments must be completed within the instructional period, and must be submitted before the course end. Courses end on Tuesdays at 11:59 PM ET regardless of the student’s time zone.
6. If I register today, do I have to start classes right away?
No! You can sign up today, and select start dates up to a year into the future, for maximum flexibility.
7. What types of assignments can I expect during the course?
All of our assignments are application-based. Each course will have a mix of cohort discussions, knowledge-check quizzes, smaller assignments, and a course project that you work on throughout the course.
Course projects are made up of different short-form response segments, which correspond to the course modules. At the end of each course, you can use your project as an action plan for challenges and opportunities you’re facing in your organization.
Ready to Register?
Visit the intake form and register today.
