Summer is over, and autumn is at our doorstep. As the year closes, the “cycles” of public health begin again. Classes are starting up for students and faculty. Health departments are gearing up for new or continuing initiatives, federal funding year transitions and ’09 state and local legislative responsibilities, and whatever else comes their way — including responding to needs generated by recent impacts of hurricanes in the southeastern United States and stretched budgets. As the rest of us in the United States watches, federal public health officials also face increasingly uncertain times, financially and politically, with pending 2009 federal budget enactments from Congress and upcoming changes in presidential administration. Much has happened that may impact the stability and capacity of public health, including those of us practicing epidemiology.
APHA, the largest public health membership organization in the United States, is also busy and on the watch. Fortuitously, autumn also brings new opportunities to share ideas and scientific and programmatic findings with colleagues, to network, and to renew our energy at APHA’s Annual Meeting (coming up in San Diego, starting Sunday Oct. 24) and at our local state public health association meetings.
Rather than waxing on about the Epidemiology Section’s terrific Annual meeting program, let me just invite all of you to join us in San Diego in October! Thank you to all who submitted abstracts, organized sessions, and are presenting posters/talks and moderating sessions at our upcoming program!
To plan your days there, please take a look at the wide-ranging topics to be discussed at our Section’s Program Sessions, listed at the APHA Annual Meeting Web site link for the most updated program information. We are very excited about the special invited session addressing this year’s important and relevant meeting theme, Public Health Without Borders, from various perspectives. Again, special thanks to Dr. Aaron Mendelsohn, Dr. Karyn Heavner, and the members of our Program Committee for their hard work!
In this newsletter issue, we Epidemiology Section leaders highlight some other Annual Meeting events we hope you and your colleagues will plan on attending while in San Diego. Here are five quick make-the-most-of-your-meeting tips:
· Tip #1: Get acquainted with what the Epidemiology Section and its leadership are up to, and think about getting involved. Come meet some of our continuing and new Section leaders and hear from candidates for APHA’s Executive Board and others (Saturday and Sunday nights only)! Help us plan for next year (esp. on Tuesday morning). Please join us at our working Section business meetings (locations also listed in the APHA meeting program):
1) Business Meeting I, Session 123.0 on Saturday Oct. 25, 7-10 p.m., SDCC (San Diego Convention Center), Meeting Room 28A
2) Business Meeting II, Session 294.0 on Sunday Oct. 26, 6-10 p.m., SDCC, Meeting Room 28A
3) Business Meeting III, Session 402.0 on Tues Saturday Oct. 28, 6:30-8 a.m., SDCC, Meeting Room 28A
· Tip #2: Come celebrate with and listen to some of epidemiology’s best, at our two Epidemiology Section awards sessions.
1. Awards Ceremony (honoring our distinguished career award winners and hearing an engaging Wade Hampton Frost Lecture), Monday at 2:30 p.m., at the SDCC, Meeting Room 6D/E. NOTE: this is earlier in the day than past years!
2. Student Awards and Careers Panel Session (honoring Section Student and the College Board Young Epidemiology Scholarship (YES) Award winners and hearing about and discussing careers in epidemiology with senior epidemiologists working in diverse public health settings), Tuesday at 10:30 a.m., at the SDCC, Meeting Room 31C.
NOTE: We encourage all students and professionals to attend BOTH sessions and then to continue talking at the social! Special thanks to Drs. Claudia Kozinetz, Kristopher Fennie, Aaron Mendelsohn, and the other members of the Awards Committees for selecting this year’s outstanding winners!
· Tip #3: If you want to hear from, and discuss with, leaders in epidemiology where our field might be headed in the next 5-10 years, plan on attending our featured “Future of Epidemiology” Session, organized this second year by the Joint Policy Committee (JPC) of the Congress of Epidemiology Societies, Monday, Oct. 27, 2008, 12:30 - 2 p.m. in Room 7A of the San Diego Convention Center (SDCC). (See more details below.)
· Tip #4: Don’t miss your chance to meet new colleagues and mentors and to continue networking at our Annual Epidemiology Section Social, offsite at the Café Sevilla, close by the Convention Center, 6:30-9 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 28. Space will be limited and you must have tickets this year, available for a nominal price at the Section Booth in the Exhibit Hall for as long as they last. Several Section leaders will have a few tickets on them at the conference’s start, so you might try visiting one of the business meetings, especially Saturday or Sunday night, if you or your colleagues can’t make it to the booth. Tickets usually go fast, so make that one of your first stops when the Exhibit Hall opens Sunday.
· Tip #5: Please visit the Epidemiology Section Booth! Come talk to Section leaders and find out more about the Section, get your Section badge labels and pins, pick up a listing of the Section Program for the conference, buy a ticket for the Social and more! (Check the Exhibit Hall directory for our Booth Number.)
And don’t forget about the coming call for abstracts for the next meeting in Philadelphia next year. Start looking for the call in January 2009 on the APHA Web site.
As Chair of the Section, I give warm thanks to you all for the continued opportunity to lead our Section and for the incredible work and dedication of all of our Section leaders.
See you all in San Diego in October!
Yours truly,
Dr. Jim Gaudino
Chair, Epidemiology Section
james.a.gaudino@state.or.us
Contact Information for several other Section leaders:
(Please check our Web site for a complete list of contacts for Section leaders):
Mr. Elquemedo Oscar Alleyne
Section Secretary and Newsletter Editor
AlleyneO@co.rockland.ny.us
Dr. Kristopher P. Fennie,
Chair, Public Health Practice Award Sub-Committee
kristopher.fennie@yale.edu
Dr. Sonja S. Hutchins,
Chair, Section Policy Committee
ssh1@cdc.gov
kozinetz@bcm.edu
Dr. Aaron Mendelsohn,
Section Program Chair and Chair, Student Awards Sub-Committee
epid_aaron@yahoo.com
Dr. Howell C. Sasser,
Governing Counil Whip, Epidemiology Section
howell.sasser@carolinashealthcare.org
Dr. Stanley H. Weiss
Immediate Past Chair, Epidemiology Section
weiss@umdnj.edu and stanleyweiss@comcast.net
For more information about the Section, please visit the APHA Epidemiology Section Web pages and Section newsletters, which are archived & accessible to members.