I wanted to dedicate this space in our Section newsletter to thank the Section membership for its continued dedication to public environmental health matters and to its endless amount of support to further the work of the Section and support one another on matters related to environmental health advocacy and action.  It has been a pleasure to serve the Environment Section as its chair over the past two years, and I look forward to continuing my involvement as past chair and supporting Rebecca Head as she transitions into this leadership role.  It has also been a pleasure to work with the APHA and its dedicated staff on these matters. 

    For those of you who would like to become more involved in the Section and figure out what APHA and the Environment Section are all about, I encourage you to attend our member meetings at the Annual Meeting (schedule below).  There are many other ways to become more involved as well – serve on the leadership council via elected positions, lead a Section committee, assist in committee matters as a committee member, manage our Web site, write articles for our newsletter or develop a policy resolution on an issue that is timely and absent in the body of policies at the APHA.  The policies serve as an information base for APHA staff and members and are used to inform advocacy strategies related to the specific topic area. 

    To learn more and get involved, please consider attending some, if not all, of our networking events at the Annual Meeting. Please see the highlights section below for these exciting events.  A copy of the Section’s program is included in this newsletter. For more information about the scientific program, please visit <www.apha.org/meetings>.

In Peace and Action,

Jill Litt, Chair, Environment Section

jill.litt@uchsc.edu