Sharon Munroe, DrPH, MPH, MBA, CHWI, did not enter public health education through a straight line. Before becoming a health educator, instructor, curriculum developer, and university professor, she spent more than 25 years working in business communications and marketing. But over time, she found herself drawn again and again toward health-related work, especially the kind of work that could improve health at the population level.
That pull eventually led her to public health education, where her background in communication, audience engagement, and message development became a strength. Today, Sharon’s work spans university teaching, Community Health Worker instruction, Mental Health First Aid® training, health curriculum development, and adolescent health education. In August 2026, she will begin a full-time teaching faculty role in public health at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s College of Health Professions in Brownsville, Texas.
Finding Her Identity as a Health Educator
How do you describe your professional identity today?
Overall, I identify as a health educator in all my work, whether I am teaching college or graduate students public health, lecturing in a high school health education class, developing a course for Community Health Workers (CHWs), or instructing K-12 or college educators and staff in mental health awareness.
What first drew you into health education and public health, and how has your career vision evolved over the past six years?
After working in several business communications and marketing roles for more than 25 years, I kept gravitating toward the health field. Still, I wanted to work to improve health for many people and the population, rather than in specialty healthcare, where I had some work communications and marketing experience.
When I was developing communications campaigns and materials for Texas Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) and Children’s Mental Health Awareness in 2019, I learned a great deal, including what I did not know about public health. I sought to be a subject-matter expert in maternal and child health and a professional communicator and found teaching and course writing highly aligned with my skills and interests.
The Role of MCHES® Certification
For Sharon, MCHES® certification came at a pivotal point in her education and career transition. After completing extensive graduate coursework in public health, she saw the exam as a way to bring together what she had learned and demonstrate her readiness for advanced health education roles.
What motivated you to pursue MCHES® certification during that stage of your career?
Having recently completed more than 50 hours of coursework for my DrPH and 45 for my MPH by October 2024, I had fresh knowledge, making it an ideal time to put it to the test. My teaching mentor, professor, and supervisor, Dr. J. Michael Wilkerson, highly recommended that I take the MCHES® Exam.
Looking back, how has MCHES® certification helped you clarify, strengthen, or expand the work you do as a health educator?
Preparing for the exam was one of the culminating steps for my graduate education. It reminded me of the skills and knowledge I had recently acquired and helped me steer towards a career in health education and earn a widely recognized credential.
What would you say to current CHES® or other professionals who are eligible for MCHES® but are hesitant to take that step?
CHES® and MCHES® are accepted as credentials for health educators in both academic and practice-based settings. The certification is a requirement for teaching at the university level, I have found. MCHES® is the appropriate credential if one’s MPH or doctoral coursework has included additional skill-building, including in research and evaluation.
You’ve described being glad you took the time to become MCHES® certified, a Community Health Worker Instructor, and a Mental Health First Aid Instructor. What value has that combination of credentials brought to your career?”
In today’s job market, flexibility and having a range of core skills and subject-matter expertise are needed. Upon graduating in August 2025, I held several part-time roles, each requiring one of the three credentials, while I sought full-time work.
In August 2026, I will begin my full-time role as teaching faculty in public health at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s College of Health Professions in Brownsville, Texas. The college requires current CHES® or MCHES® certification for this position, and I cannot wait to get to work and meet my undergraduate students!
For professionals who are weighing whether to pursue CHES® or MCHES® certification, especially while managing school, work, or career transitions, what advice would you give?
It’s a good idea to study using the NCHEC materials, including the practice exam, and take the exam close to the time you are completing your degree coursework. Join a study session with others. Several instructors offer free, online synchronous training, and the training dates are posted on the NCHEC website.
Preparing the Community Health Worker Workforce
Sharon’s recent work also includes developing and teaching curriculum for Community Health Workers. In May 2025, she was hired by a university to revise its CHW Certification Course and add 20 hours of content on evaluation and research skills to meet new Texas requirements.
The project allowed her to apply her public health training, research background, and health education competencies in a practical workforce development setting.
What was involved in revising the CHW Certification Course?
After reviewing the specific competency areas, I drew upon recent coursework in program evaluation and my research skills to create training modules that were both accessible and comprehensive, including activities and discussions, and used plain language suitable for CHW trainees with some high school education. CHWs are playing a role in more research and evaluation projects and require foundational knowledge and core skills before joining a work project team.
What health education competencies showed up most clearly as you revised and expanded the CHW Certification Course?
The Texas CHW Certification covers nine core competencies closely related to health education principles. We prepare CHWs to work in their own communities in several roles, including serving as participant liaisons on health education teams, health navigators, and case or care managers in both healthcare and social services agency settings.
You are teaching the CHW course online asynchronously to adults and taught 16- and 17-year-olds in Austin to become Texas CHWs and Mental Health First Aiders. What has that experience taught you about preparing young people for community health roles?
Lessons for youth participants need to be delivered at a slightly lower literacy level, with more terms explained with relatable real-life examples. Also, in person, youth need more interaction and activities to grasp the material than adult learners already in the field who are taking the course asynchronously online. During summer, youth need regular breaks from classroom-based instruction, so service-learning, such as participating in volunteer work alongside local CHWs, is valuable.
CHW and CHES®/MCHES® Roles: Different, Valuable, and Complementary
Because CHWs and CHES®/MCHES® professionals may work in many of the same settings, employers and professionals in adjacent fields can sometimes confuse the credentials or assume the roles are interchangeable. Sharon sees value in each, while also emphasizing that they represent different types of preparation and practice.
There can be confusion in adjacent fields about the difference between a Community Health Worker and a Certified Health Education Specialist. How do you explain the distinction between CHW and CHES®/MCHES® roles? Where do you see CHWs and CHES®/MCHES® professionals complementing one another in public health practice?
All of the certifications are valuable for several professional roles. CHES®/MCHES® demonstrate mastery of health education competencies in both higher education and practice-based settings. CHWs may have achieved higher education degrees, but they are not required, and CHWs can be as young as 16 in Texas. CHW and CHES®/MCHES® credential holders may work together in public health and healthcare clinical settings on evaluation and research projects. CHWs often collaborate with more experienced health educators to run community-based courses, such as presentations at health fairs or community centers. The CHWs often take the lead on outreach, engaging participants, and follow-up for the community’s benefit.
For employers, that distinction is important. CHWs often bring deep community connection, outreach experience, and participant-engagement skills. CHES® and MCHES® professionals bring demonstrated competency in health education planning, implementation, evaluation, research, communication, advocacy, and leadership. When these roles are understood clearly, they can strengthen one another and help organizations build more effective public health teams.
Global Women’s Health and Culturally Responsive Teaching
During her DrPH program, Sharon completed global women’s health fellowships in New Delhi, India, and the Western Highlands of Guatemala. Those experiences shaped her understanding of health education across cultures and deepened her focus on maternal health literacy, self-efficacy, and culturally competent instruction.
How did your global women’s health fellowships shape the way you think about health education, culture, and community engagement?
Being immersed in two cultures and healthcare systems, along with my U.S. professional and personal experience, I see the importance of building maternal health literacy and self-efficacy to reduce health risks and improve well-being.
Participating in one’s own reproductive health, perinatal, and postpartum care requires that one gain knowledge and skills in a safe and supportive environment from culturally competent instructors. Few women have the chance to learn enough at home or in their primary and secondary education. Women’s health and mental health education programs delivered by skilled instructors are a gap in all three cultures.
What lessons from your global women’s health work have influenced your teaching or course development back in the United States?
I have learned to tailor all health education lessons to my audience, using plain language at an appropriate literacy level, free of jargon, and with numerous examples. I work hard to build rapport and gain cultural competence before engaging with a new population.
For example, I have taught three cohorts of CHWs in 2026, with varying health literacy levels in each class, and regularly check for understanding through discussion and assessments.
Shaping the Health Education Workforce
For Sharon, health education is not limited to one setting or one audience. It can happen in a university classroom, a high school health education course, an online CHW training, a Mental Health First Aid session, or a community-based program. What stays consistent is the need to meet learners where they are.
Her career path shows how MCHES® certification can support professionals who are moving into advanced roles or building careers that combine teaching, evaluation, research, and community-based practice.
“We truly have an important role in shaping and educating the health workforce,” Sharon said. “I am proud to be a health educator and to help build capacity at many levels of our health workforce.”