Roman Public Health Consulting: 2025 Reflections and 2026 Planning
Happy New Year!
I hear from my blog readers and LinkedIn connections that they really enjoy my annual reflections and business planning for the upcoming year, so I’m happy to make it an annual feature on the blog.
Re-visit my posts from 2024 and 2025.
I preface this post by saying that it was an incredibly hard year in public health. We lost many trusted and talented professionals from our workforce. We lost funding for essential services, research, and emerging threats.
This public health landscape strongly impacted my consulting work in 2025.
As always with reflection, I start with the data:
Finances
Annual gross income, expenses, and net income.
I look closely at this data by quarter, to get a sense of business/income flow and the times of year that I have larger expenses. For example, I pay a number of my expenses annually vs. monthly in order to save money on the overall cost. I also look at how much money I’m contributing to retirement and other savings.
I look at how my total income breaks down by service type. This can be really helpful for figuring out if you want to expand or reduce certain types of services. It may inspire you to dig deeper into certain questions, for example- if a service has become less popular- why is that?
Consider: Are there any expenses that I can reduce or eliminate?
Bonus: It’s great to get this all organized by late December/early January so that I have all my numbers ready for my tax accountant.
Time Tracking x Finances
Even though I primarily price projects by value/deliverable or retainer, I still track my time. This helps me confirm that my project estimates are on target both in terms of price and scope. It also helps me track the number of non-billable tasks that I do in my business. There are a lot: marketing/networking, professional development activities, business development/proposal writing, etc.
I look at each project time tracker summary and include it in the debrief I conduct with my project coordinator. We talk about what we might improve next time in terms of efficiency or pricing. For example, we document delays or if a particular client has a longer start-up process that we need to build in more time and budget to accommodate.
Time tracking can also be really helpful when you’re thinking about hiring support, so you can easily identify groups of tasks and how long they take. That makes it much easier to hand them off to someone else.
Professional Development
I hold two certifications that require ongoing continuing education (CEUs). As a master certified health education specialist (MCHES) and certified professional in accessibility core competencies (CPACC), I have CEUs that I need to complete each recertification cycle.
In December/January, I always do a status update on how I’m doing. This helps me develop a professional development budget and plan for the following year. My MCHES recertification date is March 31, 2026, so I’m busy wrapping up those CEUs now!
Clients & Collaborators
I review the number of projects and the diversity of my project portfolio (types of clients, organizations, service types, etc.) I look at how many projects I had as the primary consultant vs. subcontractor.
I review the referral sources for each client project. This helps me direct my marketing efforts for the coming year.
After looking at the hard numbers, I review some reflection questions. For example:
What projects were my favorites? What projects (if any) did I dread or breathe a huge sigh of relief when completed? What did I like about the favorite projects?
Were there any clients that were difficult to work with? Either because of project scope, client personalities, communication, or payment issues? Are any of these issues deal breakers for future projects?
Who were my favorite fellow public health consulting collaborators?
When reviewing my project notes and time tracker: are there any tasks that I can automate or outsource in the upcoming year?
How was my schedule in the past year? Did I have enough work hours for the projects that I took on or was I stressed on deadlines? Did I have enough childcare for the work hours that I needed?
What 2025 accomplishments am I excited to celebrate?
2025 Findings
Money
My income was lower in 2025 compared to 2024. This is not shocking given disruptions in public health staffing and funding. Thankfully, there was enough consulting work to stay profitable, sustain my project coordinator position, and contribute to my retirement fund (although in a smaller amount!) But honestly, it still feels like a win.
Popular Services
Hands On Instructional Design (HOID) projects continue to be my most popular service. This year, they ranged from custom health education accessibility audits to learning needs analysis to learning management system (LMS) research and recommendations.
Referrals & Collaborators
Fellow public health consultants continue to be my number one referral source and collaborator. I’m honestly not sure how this year would have gone without their support!
In 2025, I really enjoyed serving in the role of subcontractor. This often provides the opportunity to really focus on niche accessibility work, which I love!
I was very pleased to join fellow consultant Dr. Joyee Washington on her podcast in 2025 to share about my work:
Professional Service
I continue to volunteer significant time towards professional service to the field. In 2024, I was elected to a five-year term on the Division Board for Professional Development for the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing Inc (NCHEC). This position allows me to build on my leadership skills and expand my understanding of the current challenges, benefits, and trends within public health and health education continuing education programs.
2026 Planning
Continue offering my popular hands-on instructional design projects, as clients really like the opportunity to work together to customize the scope to their needs and timelines.
Launch new “Pick My Brain” digital accessibility strategy sessions. These are a fantastic resource for any public health individuals or teams tasked with meeting upcoming compliance requirements for Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Title II.
Identify new opportunities to teach and support public health professionals around integrating digital accessibility into their work (e.g., through podcast interviews, panel discussions, conference presentations, etc.) If you host such opportunities, please reach out!
Continue to monitor the ever-changing public health landscape in terms of funding trends, project opportunities, and identifying creative ways to get this important work done!
There is so much more to my findings and 2026 plans than I can include in this post. But I wanted to share the highlights!
I’d love to hear from you!
What questions (and data) do you like to review at the end of the year? Either as a public health individual or business owner?
What achievements are you celebrating? What changes are you making in the upcoming year?
Post Author: Leah A. Roman, MPH, MCHES, CPACC
Last Page Edit: January 22, 2026