The 137th APHA Annual Meeting will be held in November 2008 in Philadelphia. This year’s timely theme is “"Water and Public Health: the 21st Century Challenge."
2009 Section-hosted Sessions
The Program Committee of the Epi Section is gearing up to host a great array of contributed and invited sessions. As you can see with our call for abstracts, we encourage a broad array of submissions related to epidemiologic work on public health topics, including those specifically related to the conference theme, “Public Health and Water” as well as topics related to epidemiologic and biostatistical methods. Musing on the theme, one can well imagine the broad scope of epidemiologic work that could be covered with within “water” theme itself! By the time this newsletter is published, the Feb. 13, 2009 deadline will be right around the corner, and your contributed abstracts will be already submitted or almost ready to go! Don’t miss this chance to share your work and attend the conference! To submit abstracts, view the instructions at http://apha.confex.com/apha/137am/oasys.epl and submit your abstracts to the Epidemiology Section at http://apha.confex.com/apha/137am/epi.htm.
Proposals for invited sessions will be due in the next few weeks after the Feb. 13 deadline. If you have questions or a great idea for an invited session, please feel free to contact Drs. Karyn K. Heavner and Aaron Mendelsohn (see below). Please check the APHA 2009 Annual Meeting Epidemiology Section “Call for Abstracts” Web page for more information. For those of you with pending work, please keep your eyes out for a call for late-breaking abstracts some time in late summer or early fall!
2009 Section Leadership: Welcome to All!
While a few Section leaders have completed their leadership terms this last year, we are delighted to welcome new and returning leaders after some time away from Section leadership. Also, several continuing leaders are taking on different leadership positions on the 30-plus member Epi Section Leadership team in 2009. We are very excited that four of our student leaders are continuing, several of whom also serve in key positions with the APHA Student Assembly. Let me mention the new, returning and continuing leaders and their new roles on the 2009 leadership team.
New and returning leaders are:
--Drs. Cassandra Arroyo, MS, PhD, and Tiffany L. Gary, PhD (both joining as Section Councilors with Dr. Arroyo, also serving as our new Section Webmaster).
--Drs. Christine M. Arcari, PhD,and Catherine L. Troisi, PhD (joining as Governing Councilors).
--Dr. Marian R. Passannante, PhD, returns to the team as the chair of the new Section Membership and Communications Committee and as the Section Representative to the APHA Committee on Membership.
--Christopher Tuohy, MPH (joins as a volunteer Section Councilor Assistant).
Leaders newly re-elected or continuing with new roles include:
--Dr. Toni Alterman, PhD (as a Section Councilor — Thank you, Toni, for your years of great work as the representative to the APHA Committee on Membership!).
--Drs. Victor A. Ilegbodu, MPH, PhD, MD; Resa M. Jones, MPH, PhD; John S. Neuberger, DrPH, MPH, MBA; Anbesaw W. Selassie, DrPH; and John E. Vena, PhD (all as Governing Councilors).
-- Drs. Karyn K. Heavner, MSPH, PhD, and Aaron Mendelsohn (Section Program Committee co-chairs, with Dr. Heavner serving as the lead co-chair this year).
--Ms. LaVette Arms, MPH (serving as Section Program Planning Committee assistant to co-chairs).
--Dr. Anbesaw W. Selassie, DrPH (also serving as Section Policy Committee co-chair).
-- Ms. Heidi Mortensen, Ms. Lisa Oakley, Ms. Hannah Yang, and Ms. Patricia (Trish) Saul (serving as student leaders).
--Dr. Stella-Xiaoxing He, MD, MPH (serving as a new volunteer Section Councilor assistant).
Please keep you eye out for the complete list of all the section leaders soon to be posted on our section Web page.
Please consider serving as an Epidemiology Section Leader! If you are interested in finding out how to get more involved or in joining the Section leadership group, please contact Dr. Stan Weiss, Epi Section leadership nominations chair, or any one of the leadership team during the year. Besides working with a great group of leaders, you can make a difference. Nominations to run for leadership positions (Section Councilor, Section Governing Councilor or other positions as available) are due to APHA VERY SOON in mid-late February. One may nominate oneself. (For more details, please see the related article in this newsletter, and contact Stan ASAP.)
2009 Section Membership and Communications—New Committee Gets Moving
With Dr. Passannante’s return to leadership as the new Membership and Communications Committee chair, our section leadership’s dream to coordinate more effectively the many membership activities and communication with our members is taking shape with a new committee that includes our newsletter editor, new Webmaster, immediate past representative to the APHA Committee on Affiliates, and other leaders. While we are refining our plans for this year, the Committee is hitting the ground running on a couple of key tasks.
Section e-Communities Web site arriving soon:
Many of you may have heard for the few last years from APHA’s The Nations Health that “e-Communities is coming,” but you may not know what that is and when it really might be coming! Just this past January, in preparation for a full roll out to all Section members, APHA Component Affairs conducted a Webinar e-Communities training with Section chairs, chairs-elect, and Webmasters. The next stage is for Section leadership teams to try it out for a period of time before APHA will open up participation to AHPA members.
So what is it? In short it’s an OPT-IN Web-based communication tool for Section members to interact with each other and with Section leaders in three different ways on specific topics: share news in “news areas,” discuss issues in topic-specific list-serve/blogs, and post information and share documents on the bulletin board. Section members who choose to join will be able to sign on and participate in topic-specific discussion and more freely share information with their colleagues. Listserv digests will also be available to quickly view discussions. As yet, APHA is not planning on opening up Section discussions to non-Section members. However, members of APHA Forums will be able to communicate with other forum members if their forum leaders set up forum e-Communities accounts. Please watch for e-mails in the next several months inviting Section members to join and use our Epi Section’s e-Communities resources.
Invitation to Contribute to our Newsletter
We continue to look for your ideas for and contributions to our quarterly newsletter. If you have an important announcement or would like to briefly highlight some important epidemiologic findings, please contact Mr. Oscar Allyne. Help us keep the newsletter relevant to you! The next deadline for newsletter items is May 30, 2009 for the Spring ’09 newsletter.
Call to improve our Section’s Web site
The Committee, with the leadership of Dr. Cassandra Arroyo, our Webmaster, will be reviewing our Web site pages early this year. We know we can do better, but we need your comments on what’s working and what improvements are needed. Please send your comments about and hopes for our Section Web site to Dr. Arroyo and Dr. Passannante by March 30.
2009 Section Policy and Advocacy Activities — Policy Committee Plans Taking Shape and New Policy Resolutions in the Works
Every year the APHA Governing Council, through its members and affiliate organizations, develops public health policy resolutions and statements on important public health issues including those pertinent to epidemiology and its practice. The list of policies passed by the APHA Governing Council is extensive over many years. These can be viewed via this Web site: http://www.apha.org/advocacy/policy/.
APHA uses these policies when advocating public health positions in discussions with Congress and Administration policy-makers. The Epi Section is engaged in several ways, including:
1) offering expertise to review the evidence supporting proposed policies; and
2) writing and working with partner organizations to propose policies.
As a Section, we are dedicated to assuring that APHA policies are evidenced-based. In fact, we are the Section most looked to within APHA to provide the expertise to review policies under consideration.
The 2009 policy development process has already begun. Proposed new resolutions and position papers for the 2009 New Policy Process were due in electronic form to APHA headquarters by 11:59 p.m. (EST) on Feb. 17, 2009. Late breakers are also accepted later in the year. Proposals should be sent to policy@apha.org. (See Preliminary Processing)
Our Epidemiology Section Policy Committee welcomes any of our members and colleagues to volunteer expertise to review proposed policies and to initiate new policy proposals, including proposing appropriate policies already addressed by other organizations. We are also NOW in the process of requesting involvement from members of the Joint Policy Committee of Epidemiology Societies, part of Congress of Epidemiology 2011 collaboration begun in 2006, and their societies’ membership.
How you can help as a Epidemiology Section member?
Please contact our Section Policy Committee Co-Chairs (see below) to:
1) Volunteer to review policies related to your expertise. (Let us know what your expertise is!).
2) Help write policy proposals for the Section.
3) Volunteer to help plan advocacy activities working with our Policy Committee and our APHA Action Board Representative, Dr. Ruth Allen.
4) Help us to identify policies already endorsed by your other epidemiology or professional societies that APHA has not yet weighed in on but should, and help shepherd them through the late breaker process this year or the 2010 policy process next year.
Invitation to Join our Section
Don’t forget, if you are not a member of the Section and wish to be, APHA now allows multiple section memberships. We welcome any colleagues from other sections to also join the Epidemiology Section! Your membership is just a couple Web site “clicks” away.
Call to serve and grow as a Section leader
With so many exciting opportunities and challenges happening, we as a Section need our members involved in multiple ways. If you or your colleagues are interested in finding out about leadership opportunities within the Section, including student leadership opportunities, please contact any of our section leaders as listed below or on our Web site. Please consider nominating yourself or someone else to serve as a Section leader and to run in next year’s Section leadership elections.
The call for nominations for Section Councilor or Section Governing Councilor positions closes soon in February. Dr. Stan Weiss, immediate past chair, is organizing our Section’s nomination process. If February slips by but you are still interested in joining in, please contact me or Dr. Kozinetz about volunteering to serve with us. We especially welcome students that have the time and interest to serve. Check our Web site for descriptions of each of these positions at:
http://www.apha.org/membergroups/sections/aphasections/epidemiology/roster/memberleadership.htm and http://www.apha.org/membergroups/sections/elections/
As chair of the Section, I remain hopeful and excited about new opportunities for public health and our Section this coming year. I am truly delighted to continue leading our Section and working with an incredible leadership group of dedicated colleagues and students. I invite you to get involved early with us in making this a fantastic year for our Section. November is coming up quickly, and we are looking forward to seeing you all in Philly!
Yours truly,
Dr. Jim Gaudino
Chair, APHA Epidemiology Section
james.a.gaudino@state.or.us
Contact Information for several other Section leaders:
(Please check our Web site soon for a complete list of contacts for Section leaders):
kozinetz@bcm.edu
Dr. Stanley H. Weiss
Immediate Past Chair, Epidemiology Section
weiss@umdnj.edu and stan.weiss.74@aya.yale.edu
Mr. Elquemedo Oscar Alleyne
Section Secretary and Newsletter Editor
AlleyneO@co.rockland.ny.us
Dr. Cassandra Arroyo
Section Web Master,
carroyo@georgiasouthern.edu
Section Program Committee Co-Chairs:
Dr. Karyn K. Heavner
Section Program Chair and Chair, Student Awards Sub-Committee
apha_epi@yahoo.com
karynkh@aol.com
heavner@ualberta.ca
Dr. Aaron Mendelsohn
Section Program Co-Chair and Co-Chair, Student Awards Sub-Committee
epid_aaron@yahoo.com
MendelsohnA@macrogenics.com
Dr. Kristopher P. Fennie
Chair, Public Health Practice Award Sub-Committee
kpf2@connect.yale.edu
kristopher.fennie@yale.edu
Dr. Howell C. Sasser
Governing Counil Whip, Epidemiology Section
howell.sasser@carolinashealthcare.org
Section Policy Committee Co-Chairs:
Dr. Sonja S. Hutchins
Co-Chair, Section Policy Committee
ssh1@cdc.gov
Dr. Anbesaw W. Selassie
Co-Chair, Section Policy Committee
selassie@musc.edu
Section Membership and Communications Committee Chair and
Representative to the APHA Committee on Membership:
Dr. Marian R. Passannante, PhD
passanna@umdnj.edu
For more information about the section, please visit the APHA Epidemiology Section Web pages at:
www.apha.org/membergroups/sections/aphasections/epidemiology/
and
Section newsletters, from Fall 2003 on, are archived & accessible to members at:
http://www.apha.org/membergroups/newsletters/sectionnewsletters/epidem/