International Health
Section Newsletter
Fall 2004

GREETINGS FROM THE CHAIR

APHA’s Annual Meeting is approaching, and for many of you, that is the most valuable feature of APHA membership. Betsy Bassan and team, building on Marty Makinen’s four years of leadership in strengthening our IH Section scientific program, have put together a menu of about 50 compelling sessions that will make you wish you could be at two or three places at the same time (go to <www.apha.org/meetings/sessions.htm>). They have also added the fun options in the International Film Festival.

Our annual section party, formally known as the Awards Ceremony and Social Hour, is being planned by Kate Tulenko. We are again abandoning the conference environment to hold it in a restaurant/bar known for its 200 varieties of beer. It will be near the conference site on Nov. 8 from 6:30 to 9:00 p.m.

Everyone interested in being active in and knowledgeable about section activities should attend the reporting and business meetings listed in this newsletter. One addition to the agenda this year will be the discussion of important international health issues or controversies relating to the section’s policy and advocacy interests as well as overall APHA hot button issues.

We are excited by our topic for the IH luncheon on Nov. 10, examining the largely overlooked contribution of injury to infant and child mortality and morbidity. We are flattered that the researchers (see note in newsletter) have chosen APHA for the first major U.S. public presentation of their astonishing findings.

The IH Section booth in the exhibit hall will be No. 1452. Hang out there; use it as a meeting place.

This is my last newsletter message as chair. Leading the sixth largest APHA section with a scattered and diverse membership of nearly 1,500 is not all fun and games, but there are plenty of rewards. I thank you all for this privilege and urge you to consider enriching your international health careers by playing active roles in the section. As my title changes to Immediate Past Chair after the November Annual Meeting, I look forward to supporting Joe Valadez’s plans to continue the revitalization of the section.

I want to remind you of three tools that were developed over the last two years that strengthen our section’s capacity and outreach:

1. The blue booklet entitled A Primer on APHA’s International Health Section and How to Get Involved. It is accessible online at <www.apha-ih.org>. You should have a hardcopy as well. Contact us if you want copies to share.

2. The yellow Section brochure. Ask us for multiple copies to hand out to your students or work colleagues.

3. The attractive, 22-page narrative history of our section and APHA engagement in international health, entitled Growth of International Health – An Analysis and History. We are quite proud of this volume. Contact us if you want more copies.

Soon, we will also have an IH Section manual, thanks to the section’s strategic planning process and the energetic leadership and time commitment of Della Dash and Amy Hagopian.

One of my disappointments is that despite these new document resources and the volunteer engagement of many of you, our section membership has not grown. I applaud Joe Valadez’s desire to attract new MPH’s and young professionals and to invest new energy into reaching out to schools of public health.

Thanks to all of you who helped make my tenure as chair a satisfying experience, most notably everyone in both elected and appointed leadership positions listed at the end of this newsletter. In this newsletter, I should especially cite our editor, Josefa Ippolito-Shepherd, who knows better than any of us that assembling the newsletter is not just a pleasant, Sunday afternoon picnic.

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GREETINGS FROM THE CHAIR-ELECT

I very much look forward to taking on the responsibility of IH Section Chair. However, I must admit that Ray Martin is going to be an extremely hard act to follow. So I request your support and guidance as we embark on this new venture.

As the section belongs to the membership, it is exceptionally important that you speak your mind and offer ideas about the direction in which the section should head, and about the objectives we should intend to reach. The IH Section must reflect your interests and your vision if it is to be vital. We need to focus on addressing the needs of our section, while increasing our relevance to and support for international health work throughout the world. There is no reason that these next two years should not be our best years yet. But it will take a collective effort.

During the recent meeting for chair elects, I tried my best to express the section’s collective voice. While I find that we have very supportive colleagues, I must say that we will have to be very creative if we are to successfully engage APHA in supporting our interests. The best way to ensure adequate representation of our section's views within the APHA structure is to have section members named, or nominated and elected, to the many committees that do the association's work. Getting our members in APHA leadership positions should be a major objective for this year. It would also be quite useful for members to volunteer their time and energy by serving on our Section Nominations Committee, which has for many years been ably run by Lani Marquez, and signaling your willingness to serve in elected leadership positions.

I would like to express our deepest collective gratitude to Betsy Bassan and her remarkably committed team at Chemonics. Betsy has served as the program chair during the past year. Her dedication and efficiency has resulted in one of the best and most active programs for the 2004 Annual Meeting. She and her team could be role models for myself and others in the section. During 2005 I hope that we can build on the standard of excellence that she has established.

As a way to encourage diverse participation in the section, I would like to try something new. I will be discussing with the leadership my desire to create a Chair Advisor Position(s). To these I would appoint individuals that can not only provide input in section affairs but who can also bring a new voice or perspective to the section.

During the spring and summer the section leadership met to brainstorm about our future. These sessions have been stimulating and productive. There are several themes that have arisen from them that I would like to share with you, as they will offer direction during the coming year.

The leadership easily reached consensus that the IH Section needs to increase its membership. We note that many professionals who are actively engaged in international community health work have yet to join the IH family. The section will identify various ways that we can enhance the attractiveness of IH to practitioners and provide them with services they are not currently receiving. The section will develop a Needs Assessment Team for this purpose. I would like to see IH develop training packages for section members. Henry Perry and Kate Tulenko have been excellent in advancing this type of work in the section, and I would like to encourage more of this type of work.

In this line, we need to attract new MPH’s and other health professionals. We need to imaginatively think how to reach out to the schools of public health and excite young people to shape the section as well as to join the IH Section team. I am committed to this and invite schools of public health to be proactive in engaging their students to participate. I would like IH to reserve a small amount of funding dedicated to support young professionals who wish to be engaged in the section's affairs.

There are other new initiatives that I hope the section will undertake next year. During the November meetings, Ray Martin has invited the membership to attend several meetings. At that time we will learn about the Annual Meeting theme for 2005. It is not too early to begin to think about your participation in 2005. I would like to invite everyone to begin thinking one year ahead. I would like us to have the most comprehensive set of panels that have ever been presented at APHA for the 2005 Annual Meeting, that reflect our IH professional culture, being diverse and cutting edge. There is no time like the present to begin brainstorming at your own institutions. I encourage you all to submit individual abstracts and to work with the program chair to develop a stimulating set of sessions.

I would like to conclude by wishing you all a most successful and stimulating conference. Please make the IH Section stimulating by joining in section affairs. Be a catalyst for change!

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FROM THE EDITOR

For the first time since I assumed the role of Editor of the IH Section Newsletter in 1998, due to work commitments I could not meet the deadline for the Spring Issue. It was a very difficult decision to make. For this, to all of you who missed the regular newsletter, I wish to extend my apologies. I hope this was a single event that will not be repeated, and that with the help of all you, by submitting articles, we will continue to produce an interesting newsletter for the IH Section.

The IH Section Newsletter is a place for all section members to share our thoughts, creative ideas, and any other information that could be of interest and value to section members, including significant international work experiences. You are invited and encouraged to submit material for inclusion in the next issues.

I take this opportunity to thank all members who provided material for this issue of the newsletter. Special thanks to Ray Martin, for facilitating the submission of significant material contained in this newsletter.

The IH Section Newsletter is published twice a year. The deadline for the Spring Issue is March 1 and for the Fall Issue July 1. Submissions are to be about 400 words, Font Times Roman 12.
--Josefa Ippolito-Shepherd, PhD
Phone: (202) 363-2369 (h) or (202) 974-3639 (o)
E-mail: ippolitj@paho.org.

DOES APHA HAVE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS?
If you are not sure that APHA has your e-mail address on record, send an e-mail to <membership.mail@APHA.org> identifying yourself and asking to be on the list so we can send you information through APHA’s "broadcast e-mail" facility. You will also receive information about the IH Section Newsletter via e-mail.

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IH SECTION PROGRAM AT THE 2005 APHA ANNUAL MEETING

The IH Section boasts an exceptional program for this year’s APHA Annual Meeting. We received more than 325 abstracts, in addition to those solicited for the invited panel sessions. The IH Section will host 40 panel sessions, seven poster sessions, and a student panel. Eight of the panel sessions address this year’s theme: the effects of the environment on our health and well being. Some of the topics of these panels include Population, Health and Environment: What’s the Connection?; Urban Health: A Growing International Crisis; and The Environmental and Health Effects of War in the New Millennium.

The IH Section is also working with many other sections. We are co-sponsoring panels with the Population, Family Planning and Reproductive Health, Maternal and Child Health, HIV/AIDS, Public Health Education and Health Promotion, and Environment sections, among others.

As a welcome addition to this year’s program, we introduce the International Film Festival, offered as an innovative approach to engage our members and those of other sections. Aptly coordinated by Amy Hill, Laura Larsson, and Gary Black, the festival will host four themed sessions on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday in the Technology Theatre.

The IH Annual Luncheon will be a special treat for our members. Curtiss Swezy of The Alliance for Safe Children (TASC) has organized a distinguished panel to discuss injury as the leading cause of child death in developing countries, replacing vaccine preventable diseases, diarrhea, and acute respiratory infection. Be sure to join us on Wednesday, Nov. 10 at 12:30 p.m. We encourage you to invite your colleagues to this session.

Many thanks to all who helped with this year’s program planning; it was truly a team effort. Our thanks to Ray Martin and Marty Makinen for their generous support and time throughout the planning process. The participation of the program committee, with significant contributions by Eckhard Kleinau, Mary Anne Mercer, and Diana Silimperi; the abstract reviewers; those who agreed to be moderators; co-sponsors; and everyone who played a role in program planning all deserve credit for the success of this year’s program. A special thanks also to the APHA staff, especially Donna Wright, for her patience and help in innumerable ways.

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HEALTH ENVIRONMENTS FOR CHILDREN: LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES TO BE PRESENTED AT THE 2005 APHA ANNUAL MEETING

The Pan American Health Organization, Regional Office of the World Health Organization, will have a special scientific session at the Annual Meeting on key topics relevant to healthy environments for children, including reducing risks to environmental pollutants, violence and injuries, smoke-free spaces, and health-promoting schools. This session will be held on Monday, Nov. 8, at 8:30 a.m. at the Washington Convention Center. Information about this panel and about the entire program, including the IH scientific sessions and other meetings, can be accessed online at <www.apha.org/meetings/sessions.htm> (click on “online program”).

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SPECIAL IH SECTION MEETINGS AT THE 2005 APHA ANNUAL MEETING

In addition to attending scientific panels and poster sessions organized or co-sponsored by the IH Section at the Annual Meeting, an important way to learn what is going on in the section and to find out how you can get involved is to participate in the various special meetings of the IH Section.

Please click on the link at the end of this article to view the various opportunities.

If you have an idea or issue that you would like to work on, let us know and we can try to connect you with others who may share your passion. Listed below are a number of opportunities to work with the IH Section, some new, some well-established. Contact us if you want to explore any of these (or other) possibilities.

• Program Committee - This is possibly the most influential and most exciting, but also time-consuming task in the section.
• Membership Chair is vacant. This would be to help promote the section.


• Nominations Committee - to identify potential leaders who would run for various section offices. Become a king (or queen) maker.


• Advocacy Committee – Our section has not come close to reaching our potential in advocacy. We need leaders and activists, both on issues as well as in various states and communities.


• Liaison with other Sections - All the 24 APHA sections include people interested in the international dimensions of their section's discipline. We want to build bridges between our section and those individuals. We need IH individuals interested in the discipline of another section and who might be a liaison between IH and that section


• Web site content development - Our Web site, w, can use a lot of improvement. We need people to identify good material for the Web site. We have a webmaster who knows the technical procedures for uploading material.

In addition to section roles, there are various APHA-wide committees and boards where we would like to see more section representation. They include:

• Action Board draws up Action Plans for resolutions approved by the Governing Council.


• Science Board deals with the scientific basis for APHA's professional and public policy.


• Education Board coordinates APHA's educational activities, both with professionals and the public. APHA is a major provider of Continuing Education Units for public health and medical professionals.


• Publications Board deals with developing and marketing scientific and policy publications.


• American Journal of Public Health Editorial Board provides broad oversight and recommendations to the Journal editors.


• Joint Policy Committee reviews proposed policy resolutions and position papers and makes recommendations to the Governing Council.


• Other key APHA-wide committees deal with Equal Health Opportunity, Membership, Women's Rights, Program Planning, Awards, and The Nation's Health newspaper. Of special interest to many IH members is the International Human Rights Committee. Contact me if any of these roles, either in the IH Section or APHA-wide, appeal to you.

EXPANDED ACCESS TO ANNUAL MEETING SESSIONS:
APHA is expanding the educational experience of both presenters and attendees at the APHA Annual Meeting by investing in LCD projectors, computers and new Web-based technology for all scientific sessions. This new technology will enable voice and PowerPoint presentations to be recorded and uploaded to the APHA Web site following the meeting, thus extending the life of the meeting and providing access to hundreds of actual scientific session presentations that Annual Meeting registrants may have missed while attending other sessions.

Annual Meeting attendees can receive full access to these expanded sessions by registering for E-ssentialLearning on the Annual Meeting registration form through special introductory discounted fees of $25 for Annual Meeting session presenters, $50 for APHA members (who are not session presenters), and $100 for non-members and are in effect for anyone registering for the full APHA Annual Meeting by the Oct. 1 pre-registration deadline. These fees will increase substantially for anyone registering on-site at the Annual Meeting in Washington.

Log-in information and password access to these E-ssentialLearning sessions will be provided to registrants immediately following the Annual Meeting.

Presenters Able to Upload PowerPoint Presentations in Advance
LCD projectors and computers are now included as part of the standard audiovisual package in each session room. This new technology will enable presenters to upload their PowerPoint presentations in advance of the meeting and have them pre-loaded on the APHA session computers. Individual presentations then begin with a click of the mouse. The cost and inconvenience of bringing a computer to the Annual Meeting has been eliminated for presenters, allowing them to take advantage of new technologies and be a part of the E-ssentialLearning experience.
--Frances Atkinson, Manager of Section Affairs/APHA
Phone: (202) 777-2483, Fax: (202) 777-2530
E-mail: frances.atkinson@apha.org

RICH RESOURCES ON APHA'S ONLINE MEMBERS ONLY SECTION
Did you know that you can now update your contact information online and search for other APHA Members? The new online Member Directory allows you to update your e-mail address, place of work and more. With only a first or last name, you can search for summary information on any APHA member. Or you can quickly search for all APHA members in your home city. It is a powerful tool.

In order to log on to the Members Only Area you will need your APHA Membership ID number. To log on, please go to <www.apha.org>, click on "members only" in the upper right corner of the home page and follow the new directions to access these useful features. You will also find in this "Members Only" section a "Report to APHA Membership" with the latest APHA news and committee minutes, information about all APHA sections including their newsletters, the electronic version of The Nations's Health, APHA-approved policy statements and resolutions, APHA's strategic plan and annual report, a staff directory, and many other features.