June 2010

Message from the Chair

Hello APHA Epidemiology Section Members,

This newsletter will reach you as you are planning or even on your summer break. I hope you are able to take advantage of the summer months and participate in activities you enjoy with your family and friends.

I want to inform you that we are currently developing a membership survey with a goal of posting it for your responses within the next few months. Under the leadership of Section Membership Chair Marian Passannante, the Membership Committee wants to learn how best to maintain, or possibly regain, your interest in the Section. Please help us by completing the survey and providing your comments and suggestions. We will use the results during our strategic planning sessions, "The Future of the Epidemiology Section" at the Annual Meeting this November.

By now you should have received the preliminary program for the APHA Annual meeting. Under the guidance of our Program Planning team, Karyn Heavner, Aaron Mendelsohn and LaVette Arms, the Section’s program contains some fascinating sessions including: ‘A Public Health Focus on Infertility’, ‘Data Driven Public Health Practice: A Matter of Social Justice’, and ‘Epidemiological Criminology: A New Paradigm Promoting Innovative Practice and Policy-Based Solutions for Social Justice’. Continue reading this Newsletter for further program details.

Reviewing recent events across the United States emphasizes the need for diversity among epidemiologists and, in turn, the need for this Section to be award of your diverse needs. Occupational concerns of miners, vaccine refusals creating reservoirs of susceptibility, oil spilling throughout the Gulf of Mexico, urgings for salt reduction and the H1N1 pandemic (still a threat?) are examples of the broad focus of your public health endeavors. Please continue to share your issues, critiques, and news from your world of epidemiology and the public’s health. We can post your input to the Section’s:

a) Newsletter [http://www.apha.org/membergroups/newsletters/sectionnewsletters/epidem/],

b) Web page [http://www.apha.org/membergroups/sections/aphasections/epidemiology/], and/or, c) Facebook [http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=174123809555].

Stay involved – the Epidemiology Section needs you!

Claudia Kozinetz, PhD, MPH

Chair, APHA Epidemiology Section