Title: REFLECTIONS ON GLOBAL HEALTH AT APHA AND WFPHA 1999-2005
Author:
Section/SPIG: International Health
Issue Date:
First, thank you for the opportunity to offer some reflections of six years I had the privilege to spend with many of you in the IH Section at APHA.
I was fortunate to be present when the IH Section through revitalized leadership – provided by your own leaders – helped return the Section to a dynamic and active status that compelled APHA leaders and other Sections to sit up and take notice. This was reflected in Section leadership in publishing a booklet recently on the history of APHA and international health. It was also recognized when the Section was selected by association leadership to play a key brokering and facilitation role in helping APHA chart a future course on the important issue of global trade and public health. I hope the Section will continue to provide future leadership for the Association in this and other areas.
My time was also witness to the burgeoning importance of global health worldwide but also to its increasing recognition in the United States: you’ll recall the debate we had over whether the Section should stay with International Health or shift to Global Health in its name. In the past six years we have seen new infectious diseases, most notably West Nile and SARS, and today fears are heightened over the avian flu and the possibility on a new global pandemic. Remember – you in the Section provide key leadership in APHA with your valuable experience, expertise and perspective that can help guide the professional public health community in confronting such challenges in the days ahead.
I also encourage Section members to keep your professional colleagues in other countries in mind and when you have opportunities to travel abroad that you seek them out and encourage them and help forge links with them to strengthen the global network to which you all belong. There are opportunities available for collaboration and professional development through the World Federation of Public Health Associations with its Secretariat at APHA.
I wish you all the best of luck and I will be following developments with keen interest. I hope there will also be opportunities to remain in touch with many of you, and indeed, even to work together. I am presently at Interaction [www.interaction.org] as Director of Development Policy and Practice, where we work on a broad array of development issues – including public health -- so I’m confident our paths will cross again!
All the best!
--Allen Jones, APHA Director, Education and Global Health Resources, WFPHA Secretary General
1999-2005