Title: Message from the Chair

Author:

Section/SPIG: Community Health Planning and Policy Development

Issue Date:

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As a result of a CHPPD Section Bylaws change we passed this fall through e-mail voting and through the affirmation of the Section Council members at the Annual Meeting, I am pleased to have the opportunity to serve the first two-year term as Section Chair. I look forward to continuing to work with the dedicated individuals who support the activities of our section.

I am using this column to report on our activities at the Annual meeting and to discuss our plans for the next year and the important activities that will be taking place in the future.

At the Annual meeting, the CHPPD Section stood out among all the APHA sections for its contribution to APHA leadership as two members were elected to lead the organization: Walter Tsou, President, and Karen Valenzuela, Executive Board member. In addition to modifying the Bylaws, we elected three Governing Council members: Mara Yerow, Linda Quick, and Peter Rizik, plus two new Section Councilors: Ning Liu and Islara Souto. Congratulations to all!

For this year’s 2004 term, we will be served by some great people:

EmyLou Solomon, Section Council/Membership Chair ESolomon@marchofdimes.com

Ann Umemoto, Awards Chair
umemoto@modimes.org

Toni Pickard, Section Council/Policy Chair
toni.pickard@wichita.edu

Priti Irani, Secretary
pri01@health.state.ny.us

Tom Piper, Chair-elect/Newsletter(next two issues) tpiper@mail.state.mo.us

Amy Carroll, Section Council/Student Liaison
amycarr@ucla.edu

Judy Gorbach, Program Chair
agorbach@post.harvard.edu

Monica Chan, Action Board representative
verdi74@earthlink.net

Mary McCall, Continuing Education Chair
cubammc@aol.com

Susan Myers, Secretary-elect
myers@telerama.com

Carol B. Payne, Section Council
paycaroll@aol.com

Islara Souto, Section Council
isouto@med.miami.edu

Ning Lu, Section Council
ning.lu@wku.edu

Lara M. Jones, Governing Council
lara.jones@att.net

Suzanne W. Nichols, Governing Council
suzanne@health.state.ok.us

Harry Perlstadt, Governing Council perlstad@pilot.msu.edu

Peter D. Rizik, Governing Council peter.rizik@mail.house.gov

Linda S. Quick, Governing Council lquick@bellsouth.net

Mara H. Yerow, Governing Council
myerow@detma.org

Edgar W. Duncan, Affirmative Action
edgar@pitt.edu

It is through the efforts of these people, and others who work with them, that our Section maintains its vitality and relevance. Once again I thank both Judy Gorbach and Monica Chan for their programming and local host efforts that made our San Francisco experience productive and enjoyable. Contact information for Section Leadership is on the last page of this newsletter.

As I discovered last year, there is very little time to recover from the efforts of the Annual Meeting before the never-ending cycle of the section’s activities is presented with critical activities. Two of these are Program Planning and Nominations. We need your input as soon as possible for both of these.

The next Annual Meeting will be held in Washington, DC, Nov. 6-10, 2004. The deadline for abstract submissions to our Section is Feb. 12, 2004. The theme of the meeting is: Public Health and the Environment. Abstracts must be limited to 250 words or less. Please contact Judy Gorbach <jagorbach@post.harvard.edu> if you are willing to be a reviewer. It’s painless and takes less than an hour to review and make recommendations on 10 abstracts online.

I am also very interested in receiving nominations for leadership positions including the President-elect, Secretary-elect, Governing Council and Section Council positions. You do not need to have any previous experience to be considered for these positions; simply the willingness to work with your CHPPD colleagues makes you an excellent candidate.If you are interested, please contact me at <pmeissne@montefiore.org> so I can send you a nomination form. I believe the nominations deadline is in early March.

As we did last year, I plan to schedule quarterly conference calls for section leadership to discuss important issues. The first one was held at the end of January. The next one will be on Friday, April 30 from 3:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m., Eastern. Participation by any member is welcomed, whether you are an official CHPPD leader or just interested. Please contact me if you would like to participate so I can give you the information you’ll need to call in.

I encourage anyone interested in working with our Section to contact me, or any other Section leadership members, to discuss ways to become involved. We have a large section which benefits from the efforts of a few, and we need to add to the pool of people who are active in our Section activities to better engage, serve and represent this diverse community.