Title: Message from the Chair-Elect
Author:
Section/SPIG: Occupational Health and Safety
Issue Date:
“SOME THINGS YOU MIGHT LIKE TO KNOW ABOUT APHA”
As Chair-Elect of the OHS Section, I had the opportunity to attend APHA’s annual chairs-elect meeting on June 26-27 in Washington, DC. Along with the chairs-to-be of 19 other APHA sections, I learned a lot about the organization – even though I’ve been a member of APHA for over two decades. I’d like to share some impressions and information with you:
First, this was my initial opportunity to hear from and speak with APHA’s new Executive Director, Dr. Georges Benjamin, former health commissioner of the State of Maryland. He is an impressive person – thoughtful, down-to-earth, and willing to share with us not only his vision for the organization, but the problems we face as well. I look forward to working with him.
As he and APHA President-Elect Virginia Caine noted to us, the organization currently has three priority areas:
- Strengthening the Public Health Infrastructure;
- Improved Access to Care for All; and
- Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities.
Kim Krisberg, Section News Editor of The Nation’s Health, outlined for us how each of these issues has been covered in recent issues of the organization’s monthly newspaper. The paper may appear as an eclectic mixture of public health articles to general readers like you and me, but in fact it consistently focuses on the above three themes. As you might guess, she asked us for articles related to our sections and our professional public health interests. She can’t write the articles that interest us and relate to our special concerns unless she hears from us, either about the health and safety issues we struggle with daily or about local stories related to OHS issues. So let’s contact her with our health and safety stories – I’m going to add her to my e-mail list when I send out OHS articles and commentary to colleagues and other friends. Why don’t you do the same? Her e-mail address is <kimberly.krisberg@apha.org>, and her fax number 202-777-2534. Our lively discussions on e-mail deserve a broader audience, and will help educate our APHA colleagues about the real issues we face in the workplace and community.
So, you want to read The Nation’s Health online, and weekly legislative updates from Washington (say on the Medicare drug bills or banning the use of mercury in thermometers)? Then you need to have access to the members’ section of the APHA Web pages at <www.apha.org>. To get into the members’ section, you need your APHA membership number (it’s on your address label for The Nation’s Health or the American Journal of Public Health) and your password (the first letter of your first name and your entire last name – e.g. mine is dkotelchuck). Then just type in your number when they ask for your name, and your name when they ask for your password! (I do hope it’s changed soon.)
Section officers and other members: Having problems or need information about APHA matters? Then e-mail Frances Atkinson, our new APHA Manager of Section Affairs, at <frances.atkinson@apha.org>. She’ll help you or send you to another staff member who can. Also for federal agency and legislative matters, contact Donald Hoppert, Director of Congressional and Federal Affairs for APHA, at <donald.hoppert@apha.org>.