Category: Section Announcements

Greetings, Section members!

A number of other components hold sessions focused on global health at the Annual Meeting each year. We encourage you to explore the programs put on by the following components which have a direct global health focus, and potentially adding a few of their sessions to your Annual Meeting agenda.

Caucus on Refugee and Immigrant Health
Peace Caucus
Human Rights Forum
Trade and Health Forum

Your friendly neighborhood Communications Committee Chair,
Jessica Keralis

(with)

Amy Hagopian, Nominations Committee Chair

The following is from the Section Chair, Laura Altobelli.

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Dear International Health Section members,

Greetings to all!  The year since last November’s APHA Annual Meeting has been, shall we say, unconventional, both at home and abroad.  As global health professionals and students, we take the long view, moving forward with optimism and creativity to improve health worldwide.  Making that journey together in a professional organization provides a sense of solidarity and opportunities for effecting a difference – by developing APHA policy statements, participating in global health policy advocacy, and sharing our global health interests, research, and work experiences.

We are greatly looking forward to seeing many of you in Atlanta at the upcoming Annual Meeting!  The IH Section Program Committee has spent much of the past year organizing an outstanding program of 38 scientific panel sessions and nine poster sessions (with 10 papers each) selected from over 200 submitted abstracts. The APHA Global Health Office will also offer 15 panel sessions on topics related to global health. IH students have organized several special sessions and meetings especially for fellow students and early career professionals.

For your convenience, we have prepared a summary of the IH Section Program that you may download here: IH Program at-a-glance 2017 (PDF).

For those who will be in Atlanta, please come one and all to the IH Section Open House and Networking Session (Session 240.0), to be held on Sunday, November 5 from 2:00 pm to 3:30 pm. We hope that this Open House will energize new (and not so new) IH members with an overview of the workings of the Section, help you get acquainted with the active work throughout the year of our varied committees and working groups, and provide a networking opportunity to meet old and new like-minded friends and colleagues. In a “speed dating” period, you will be able speak directly with chairs and co-chairs of the committees and working groups that interest you most to see how you can get involved. Many of our committees and working groups will also have their own business meetings during the four-day Annual Meeting that newcomers are welcome to attend. Please check the program.

IH Section members are cordially invited to our social event, the IH Section Awards Ceremony and Reception (Session 425.0) on Tuesday, November 7 from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm.

We are very fortunate to have an outstanding keynote speaker this year at the International Health Luncheon (Session 5148.0) on Wednesday, November 8 from 12:30 pm to 2:00 pm.  Paul F. Walker, Ph.D. is the Director of Environmental Security and Sustainability at Green Cross International. You may purchase tickets at the APHA registration desk in Atlanta.

Don’t forget to sign up for the Community-Based Primary Health Care Working Group annual pre-conference workshop on Saturday, November 4 from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm. This year’s –workshop theme is “Community-Based Primary Health Care and Community Health Workers: Underfunded Afterthought or Key to Achieving Universal Health Care?”  Click here for more information on registration: Community-Based Primary Health Care Pre-Conference: Saturday, November 4th.

We look forward to seeing you soon!

Public Health Communicators Workshop & Caucus

Sat, November 4, 2017

12:30 PM – 4:30 PM EDT

Public health professionals help save and improve lives every day – and we can always do a better job telling those stories so that our stakeholders and the public see public health in action. This half-day pre-conference workshop will first provide an interactive session on storytelling for action. Participants will be given tools and a framework, and finish this segment with a clear roadmap for using storytelling to drive action in their work.

Workshop Overview:

If a tree falls in the woods and nobody is there to tweet about it, did it really happen? Public health professionals help save and improve lives every day – and we can always do a better job telling those stories so that our stakeholders and the public see public health in action. This half-day pre-conference workshop will first provide an interactive session on storytelling for action. Participants will be given tools and a framework, and finish this segment with a clear roadmap for using storytelling to drive action in their work. In the second part of the workshop, a “communications caucus” format will allow participants to spend time in small groups where experts will help strategize, troubleshoot, and facilitate sharing of best practices in communications with public health professionals. This will be a highly-interactive session that is appropriate for all public health professionals interested in communications, regardless of familiarity or experience.

Objectives:

• Identify a workshop model to leverage storytelling for action.
• Explain how individuals can create frameworks for action-focused storytelling in their public health work.
• Discuss and share communications practices with peers and communications experts.

Speakers:

Zack Langway, Seed Global Health

Zack Langway is a global health and development professional with deep experience in communications, digital strategy, community organizing, and issue-based advocacy. He is currently the Director of Communications at Seed Global Health. Seed’s unique Global Health Service Partnership strengthens health education and delivery in places facing a dire shortage of health professionals by building local capacity to meet long-term health care human resource needs.

Zack also serves as the Senior Manager for Social Innovation at Johnson & Johnson, a part-time position responsible for developing and stewarding experimental philanthropy activities for the Global Community Impact division.

Eric Hollister Williams, Fenton

Eric Hollister Williams is a Vice President in Fenton’s Washington, D.C. office where he leads accounts in global health, the environment, public lands, and social justice. Eric provides senior counsel to clients in areas of advocacy, strategic communications, and policy. Prior to joining Fenton, Eric worked on Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in Ohio. Eric was a foreign affairs legislative assistant for Rep. Karen Bass and also served as the Democratic staff director for the House of Representative’s subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Human Rights and International Organizations. He has worked at the social impact firm williamsworks, Physicians for Human Rights, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and APCO Worldwide. Eric went to Bowdoin College and holds an MPH from Columbia University.

Trish Garrity, Fenton

Trish Garrity is a global health and development communications professional with a specialty in advocacy, partnership management, and digital engagement. She currently works as a Senior Account Executive at Fenton, advising on digital advocacy campaigns and building communications capacity within non profits, foundations, and the private sector. Trish has worked with clients such as Johnson & Johnson, The Lancet, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Save the Children, and Girls Not Brides. Trish puts her Bachelors of Arts in International Relations from Boston University to work by sitting on the Board of H.E.L.P. International Uganda, a nonprofit school and health center for internally displaced persons in Jinja, Uganda.

Sign up here.

Happy Fall IH members,

The latest issue of Section Connection, the IH Section quarterly e-newsletter, is now available! In this issue you’ll find information on the work the IH section has been doing to advance global health and profiles on a few of our leadership and section members.

You can find the fifth issue of the newsletter here: http://bit.ly/SectionConnection5

If you can’t access the newsletter for any reason please email Theresa Majeski, Global Health Connections Chair, at theresa.majeski@gmail.com.

Hope to see you in Atlanta!