The Strategic Planning Process

The school launched a strategic planning process in November 2022, and selected student, faculty, and staff representatives to serve on the steering committee, led by Department of Epidemiology Chair Dr. Timothy L. Lash. In that first phase, the team spent several months working with Woodruff Health Sciences Center’s strategic planning office to lead the goal-setting process, conduct listening sessions and interviews with internal and external stakeholders, design community surveys, review community feedback, and navigate the plan’s “big picture” to keep everything on schedule.

In phase two of the planning process, steering committee members reviewed survey responses, website feedback, and notes obtained through listening sessions to refine and prioritize six key goals. In phase three, these goals were assigned to working groups, each of which included at least one steering committee representative, who proposed objectives and tactics to meet their goal, refining their work with the help of the steering committee and community feedback.

Throughout this process, members of the Rollins community offered vital input, engaging in an inclusive, transparent process critical to the plan’s authenticity. The five-year strategic plan articulated in this document will determine where we devote our energy and how we invest our resources as we address the most pressing public health challenges on our planet, in our country, in our state, and particularly in our own city—Atlanta.

This work is not over—it’s just the beginning. Starting six months from now, and every six to 12 months thereafter, Rollins will post updates to this site so faculty, students, and staff can see what we’ve accomplished, what tactics have shifted in light of evolving circumstances, and what we’re planning next.

Our strategic planning process is one of the most critical ways that Rollins expresses its mission, vision, and values to guide our work every day. The tactics of any five-year plan will evolve over time, as conditions change, but these ideas always serve as our North Star.