Member of APHA ATOD/Trade and Health Forum on US Delegation to Russia

One of our ATOD members, Donald W. Zeigler, who is also an APHA Governing Council member, has been invited to serve on a U.S. delegation to the Civil Society Summit in Moscow on July 6-7. The meeting is sponsored by the Eurasia Foundation and coincides with the U.S.-Russia Presidential Summit between Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev.

U.S.-Russian relations have deteriorated in recent years. Now that both governments have signaled interest in improving the relations, discourse between key sectors of civil society can help put bilateral relations on a more solid footing. The Civil Society Summit: An Initiative to Renew Collaboration Between US and Russian Civil Society will foster engagement beyond formal relations at the government level by gathering nongovernmental experts to explore ideas for a new era of collaboration between both nations.  The gathering will have 50 invited nongovernmental experts and practitioners from both countries to develop recommendations for collaboration on six themes: press and new media; community development; the environment; human rights and rule of law; next generation (youth empowerment/civic engagement and education); and public health.

Don was invited to serve on the Public Health group, which will likely focus on population health, prevention, non-communicable diseases, and management of chronic disease. The six groups will present their initial framework and agenda for future collaboration to Obama and Medvedev at their presidential summit.

Following the July meeting, the plans will form the core of future projects of long-term professional interaction to solve real, shared problems, with the overall aim of accelerating the shift from traditional assistance to a relationship based more on mutual engagement of problems confronting both societies. Engagement that is more organic and driven by local demand will help make U.S.-Russian cooperation more meaningful to everyday citizens, more diverse, more reciprocal, and more sustainable.

Don hopes that his background in public health, ATOD, trade and health, health promotion, community-level interventions, public policy, international interest and work, as well as his experience with health trends at the American Medical Association, will be useful to the meeting planners. Don has a PhD in public health and health promotion and is director of long range health care trends at the AMA. He represents ATOD on the APHA Governing Council and the Trade and Health Forum.

Congratulations to Don on this amazing opportunity to further serve the public’s health!

For more information, please contact Don at Donald.Zeigler@ama-assn.org.