There’s a moment in every good training when something clicks — when the slides fade into the background and the room leans in. For Chris Garcia, Disease Intervention Trainer at the California Prevention Training Center (CAPTC), those moments are what he shows up for.
CAPTC is a national training and technical assistance organization dedicated to strengthening the capacity of public health professionals across the United States and its territories.
Their reach spans health departments, community-based organizations, academic institutions, health plans, and the private sector, serving everyone from frontline outreach workers and peer navigators to the clinicians treating patients every day.
“We train health care and public health professionals across the country,” says Dana Cropper, Director of CAPTC. “Our mission is to strengthen their capacity, specifically those working in STI, HIV, sexual and reproductive health.”
In addition to capacity building, CAPTC operates across clinical, family planning, and behavioral health teams, with growing programming around burnout and cultural sensitivity. As Cropper puts it, they are “the trainer of trainers” — experienced practitioners who have done the work themselves and now help others improve their skills.
Garcia came to CAPTC with more than 15 years of public health experience, including at both county health and state health departments, and brings all that he has learned into his work. On any given day, he might be meeting with subrecipient organizations about contracts and funding, developing curriculum, strategizing around outreach, or leading a live training halfway across the country.
“I’m really fortunate for my experiences, both working in public health leadership and on the front lines,” Garcia says. “They’ve really helped me be comfortable in this position.” Cropper echoes this: “He really knows the communities that we serve. It’s really important to be very experienced in program nomenclature and processes when you’re doing this work.”
Much of Garcia’s career has been rooted in STI and HIV prevention, which means he’s spent years navigating conversations many people find uncomfortable. “A lot of times those are topics that people aren’t comfortable discussing openly,” he says. “That even unfolds in the clinical environment, face-to-face with patients.” He knows what it’s like to be the person who has to start that conversation and to make space for others to have it. “If we’re not bringing it up as healthcare professionals, our patients are likely not going to bring it up either.”
Teaching others to do the same, to stay present and meet people where they are, is at the heart of what Garcia does.
One story captures Garcia’s approach perfectly. He and a colleague traveled to Atlanta to train local health department staff on field safety, specifically, how to handle resistant patients while protecting their privacy. The content was solid, but something wasn’t quite landing.
“You could feel it,” Garcia recalls. “Sometimes as a trainer, you get that gut instinct that something isn’t registering.” So, Garcia leaned in, put down the mic and asked for a volunteer to role play a difficult field visit.
Garcia admits that the conversation got intense, but that it helped bring the training off the presentation slides and into the real world. “People came up to us afterward blown away. They said the conversation felt real. That we weren’t talking at them, we were talking with them, the way you actually talk with patients.”
It’s a philosophy Garcia carries into every room: the best training doesn’t just prepare people for the textbook scenario. It prepares them for the moment a patient’s mom answers the door, or someone hands you a phone unexpectedly. “It’s like improv theater,” he says. “You really have to think creatively and quickly.”
Ask Garcia what keeps him motivated, and he’ll point to a mentor he met in 2007 — the person who first trained him as a Disease Intervention Specialist when he was barely 21. Years later, when Garcia joined CAPTC, that same person was his boss.
“There were really good people throughout my career who believed in me firmly. And so that motivates me to believe in people firmly. I believe that everybody shows up to work. And if you keep showing up, it means you keep wanting to try. And if you keep giving me that, I’m going to keep being right behind you or right alongside you,” he says.
It’s a mindset that extends well beyond any single training room, and one that CAPTC, as an organization, embodies at every level.
At a time when funding cuts are leaving health departments with unfinished training programs and workforce gaps, CAPTC’s work has never been more critical. Their services are available to public health professionals anywhere in the country.
“Just give us a call or send us an email and we can figure out how we can best meet your needs,” Cropper says.
Click here to learn more and connect with CAPTC.
