Strengthening Responses to the HIV/AIDS Pandemic: Experiences from the Caribbean Health Leadership Institute

The CHLI curriculum uses a range of self-assessment tools related to the practice of leadership, emphasizes personal and small group reflection on common situations encountered by leaders and managers and introduces scholars to the Peter Senge model of systems thinking. It addresses gaps in the training of health care professionals, the majority of whom have had no prior systematic exposure to the principles and practice of leadership. The long-term goals of the program are to establish multidisciplinary networks of health professionals working across the Caribbean region and to foster intergenerational transfer of knowledge, skills and wisdom among members of the public health team. The undergirding philosophy of CHLI is that there is no finishing school for leaders; rather graduates are encouraged to continue to grow as leaders through experiential learning and practice. Leading as a verb is encouraged rather than leadership as a concept.