Title: GREETINGS FROM THE CHAIR
Author:
Section/SPIG: International Health
Issue Date:
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.