Title: Message from the APHA Environment Section Chair
Author:
Section/SPIG: Environment
Issue Date:
Greetings! Now that summer is beginning to arrive the reality of the APHA 133rd Annual Meeting is closing in quicker than we can imagine. We as a Section have a great deal to be proud of. Compared to just last year we have effectively stepped up our organization and defined our policies and processes even more. On April 6 we held our Mid-Year Meeting in Washington, D.C., which proved to be very helpful to the advancement of our Section goals and priorities. For the second year in a row we were able to include Section members who could not be in the D.C. area that day by teleconference. We were pleased to be joined by APHA’s Executive Director, Georges Benjamin, along with Susan Polan, Brian Williams, Fran Atkinson, Tracy Kolian, and additional staff members. All were very helpful in laying out APHA’s three program priorities, which are: (1) increasing access to health care, (2) infrastructure development, and (3) decreasing health disparities. A good amount of environmental justice work is now being done by APHA in an effort to address health disparities, resulting from efforts that came out of the 132nd Annual Meeting. It was suggested that as we continue to define our Section’s policy priorities in the future, we should be mindful of APHA’s priorities when we are looking to have APHA take an active stance within an issue.
It has been a great pleasure to see the value and benefit to the Section’s work by having the Chair take on a second term.
At the Mid-Year meeting we officially adopted our revised Section Bylaws (great thanks to Pat Elliott) and also accepted our Strategic Plan for the next two years! Our Policy Committee provided a list of suggested priorities for the next two years, which will also prove to be very helpful to the Section’s future direction.
(Editor Note: For copies of these documents, please contact Nse or Derek and/or visit our Section Web site at: <http://depts.washington.edu/aphaenv/index.htm>).
It has also been very encouraging to see additional articles focused on environmental health protection in the APHA newspaper, The Nation’s Health. The May 2005 edition covers the National Children’s Study and the new USEPA rule on mercury pollution from power plants, both starting on the front page!
Looking toward New Orleans this fall, the Environment Section has been keeping very busy. Our Program Planners have been working tirelessly to arrange another great scientific program. The Awards Committee has been researching and gathering potential candidates for the Annual Calver Award and the Distinguished Service Award. The Membership Committee has created a useful questionnaire to gather insight into how members view the work of the Section and, more importantly, how we can improve. The Field Trip Committee has been working to provide an incredible experience on our New Orleans tour, and the Newsletter Committee has received positive feedback on the quality and new format of our Section newsletters. The Student Involvement Committee has also been working very hard to find additional matching funds for the now Annual Student Scholarship Awards. The goal is to double the amount of awards provided last year so that an estimated 45 students can receive some financial assistance to attend the November Annual Meeting.
As always, thank you for your hard work, passion, and continuous dedication to the important work of environmental public health protection. If you are interested in joining one of the Environment Section’s active committees, please get in touch with any Section officer for more information.
In Peace and Health,
Nse