Making the Public's Health a National Priority

APHA's Public Health Awards Ceremony and Luncheon recognized individuals who received the association's most distinguished awards. APHA honors those who exemplify professionalism and dedication to the field of public health.

Meet the 2025 Award Winners 

APHA Distinguished Public Health Legislator of the Year Award
Recognizes a legislator at the federal, state or local levels who strongly supports of public health.
Recipient: U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-GA | View Bio

Sedgwick Memorial Medal for Distinguished Service in Public Health
Honors an individual for their distinguished service to advance public health knowledge and practice in the field of research, administration, education, technical services or a specialty field of public health practice. The Sedgwick Memorial Award is the Association’s oldest and most prestigious honor.
Recipient: Amelie Ramirez, DrPH | View Bio

APHA Presidential Citation
Recognizes a person or organization in recognition of outstanding contributions to the advancement of public health or the public health profession.
Recipient: Democracy Forward | Learn More

APHA Award for Excellence
Recognizes an individual for making a significant and well-recognized contributions to the improvement of community health by utilizing scientific knowledge or innovative organizational strategies.
Recipient: Alister Martin, MD, MPP | View Bio

David P. Rall Award for Advocacy in Public Health
Honors an individual who has made outstanding contributions to public health through science–based advocacy. The award is a tribute to David P. Rall, MD, PhD, whose scientific-based advocacy efforts advanced public health and prevention across many fields and in many forms.
Recipient: Ami R. Zota, ScD, MS | View Bio

Helen Rodriguez-Trias Social Justice Award
Honors an individual who has worked toward social justice for underserved and disadvantaged populations. The award is named after the late Dr. Helen Rodriguez-Trias, past president of the American Public Health Association.
Recipient: Y. Tony Yang, ScD, LLM, MPH | View Bio

Milton and Ruth Roemer Prize for Creative Local Public Health Work
Honors a local health officer of a county, city or other unit of local government who has demonstrated creative and innovative public health work.
Recipient: Danny Scalise II, MBA, MPH, CPH, FACHE, FRSPH | View Bio

Ayman El-Mohandes Young Professional Public Health Innovation Award
Recognizes a young public health professional who is making a significant, innovative contribution to the public health field. The award is endowed by Ayman El-Mohandes, MPH, MD, MSc, MBBCh, a former APHA Executive Board member.
Recipient: Natalia Rodriguez, PhD, MPH, MSE | View Bio

Lyndon Haviland Public Health Mentoring Award
Recognizes an individual for their essential role of mentoring in public health and leadership development.
Recipient: Dhitinut Ratnapradipa, PhD | View Bio

Giorgio A. Piccagli Leadership Award
Recognizes an APHA student or early-career professional who demonstrates outstanding leadership and initiative. This award acknowledges the lifetime contributions of Giorgio A. Piccagli, a long-standing APHA and Affiliate leader who served in numerous leadership roles.
Recipient: Mareyba Fawad, MPH | View Bio

Martha May Eliot Award
Honors a professional worker from the field of maternal and child health. The award is named after the late Dr. Martha May Eliot. past present of the American Public Health Association and a moving force in APHA’s Maternal and Child Health Section.
Recipient: Carol Sakala, PhD, MSPH | View Bio

Sommer Klag Advocacy Achievement Award
A partnership of APHA and the Lerner Center, the award goes to a person who understands the importance of advocacy in academic public health training.
Recipient: Apryl Alexander, PsyD | View Bio

2025 Executive Director’s Citation 
Honors an APHA member for their exceptional service to the Association
Recipient: Staff of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Current and In Exile | View Bio

Award Recipient Bios

2025 APHA DISTINGUISHED PUBLIC HEALTH LEGISLATOR OF THE YEAR AWARD

U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-GA, is the winner of the 2025 APHA Distinguished Public Health Legislator of the Year Award for his dedication to protecting the nation’s public health before and after the threats from the current presidential administration.

The award goes to a lawmaker who has made vital improvements to the public’s health. Since his election to Congress in 2021, Senator Warnock has introduced legislation to help vulnerable communities access health care, such as the Medicaid Saves Lives Act to expand coverage to over 4 million Americans. He also introduced the Kira Johnson Act in 2021 to fund community organizations and grants that boost maternal health equity and tackle bias and racism in maternal health care. The act was named after Johnson, a Black woman from Los Angeles who died after a scheduled C-section in 2016. 

Warnock continued to show leadership in the face of massive public health cuts across the Department of Health and Human Services. This May, he was the lead on a letter to the congressional Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies urging them to allocate over $9.6 billion in Centers for Disease Control and Prevention funding to ensure the U.S. is prepared to monitor and prevent outbreaks that could threaten the nation’s health and security.  

He also led the way in demanding President Trump and Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. answer for the tens of thousands of layoffs across HHS including jobs lost at the Atlanta-based CDC. Throughout the chaos, Warnock sponsored several bills in 2025 to promote the health and well-being of Americans, including bills to cap prescription drug costs, provide rent relief and support school-based mental health and substance use services. 

Warnock made history as Georgia’s first Black senator and has been the pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta since 2005.

2025 APHA AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE

Alister Martin, MD, MPP, is the winner of the 2025 APHA Award of Excellence for his innovative evidence-based interventions to improve health through addiction treatment reform, civic engagement and expanded internet access.

This award goes to a person who has made and will continue to make significant achievements in improving public health through the marriage of science and innovation.

Since 2022, Martin has been CEO of A Healthier Democracy, which brings civic engagement opportunities to health care patients. He spearheaded VotER, a non-partisan program that encourages patients from underserved communities to register to vote. As a result, there have been over 250,000 new voter registrations across the country. Through his GOTVax initiative, Martin adapted voter outreach strategies to encourage 10,000 Boston-area residents from marginalized backgrounds to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

Martin was also instrumental in getting rid of barriers to opioid use treatment in emergency medicine. His Get Waivered campaign made it easier for over 5,000 emergency medicine physicians to be trained on the use and prescription of buprenorphine for people with opioid use disorder. His efforts were part of a larger movement to eliminate a Drug Enforcement Administration X-waiver that made it harder for physicians to prescribe addiction treatment medications.

In addition, Martin helped develop Link Health which connects low-income patients in emergency departments with community health workers to see if they’re eligible for Lifeline, a federal benefit that provides a discount on phone and Internet services to bridge the digital divide. The program also helps patients apply for other safety net programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Named a 2021-2022 White House Fellow, Martin also served as a senior advisor to former Vice President Kamala Harris in areas such as opioid policy and health care equity. Today, Martin is an emergency medicine physician at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, an assistant professor of emergency medicine at Harvard Medical School and senior fellow at Northeastern University’s Burnes Center for Social Change. 

2025 APHA PRESIDENTIAL CITATION

Democracy Forward is the winner of the 2025 APHA Presidential Citation for assembling an army of legal experts who continue to push back against the dismantling of U.S. public health infrastructure.

The APHA Presidential Citation is given to an individual or organization for outstanding advancements in public health or its profession.

Headquartered in Washington, D.C., Democracy Forward is a national organization that uses the law to fight harmful policies that hinder social progress and democratic ideals. The team of legal, policy and research experts provides free assistance to clients that span community organizations, unions and public health experts such as APHA. 

Under the leadership of its president and CEO Skye Perryman, Democracy Forward has filed over 710 actions against the current Trump administration, some which include APHA as a plaintiff. Among these lawsuits is one that challenged the Department of Government Efficiency’s deep and harmful cuts to the public health workforce and critical programs. Thanks to Democracy Forward’s work, the Office of Management and Budget in January rescinded a call to freeze federal funding that would have impacted health care for seniors, housing assistance and food assistance. 

AYMAN EL-MOHANDES YOUNG PROFESSIONAL PUBLIC HEALTH INNOVATION AWARD 

Natalia Rodriguez, PhD, MPH, MSE, is the winner of the 2025 Ayman El-Mohandes Young Professional Public Health Innovation Award for combining biomedical engineering and public health practice to advance disease detection.

The award goes to a public health professional who is aged 40 or younger and finds creative solutions to complicated public health issues. El-Mohandes endowed the award in hopes of recognizing public health workers who have made an early and meaningful impact on public health through innovation.

Rodriguez’s work has been rooted in community-based participatory research. Her research on cervical cancer disparities among Hispanic women, efforts to identify barriers to cancer screenings and collaboration with community health workers on patient education helped Rodriguez develop a rapid HPV test to detect cervical cancer. As a member of the Indiana Cancer Consortium Early Detection Committee, her public health approach to diagnostic testing was also valuable in identifying priorities for the 2023-2027 Indiana Cancer Control Plan.

Her interdisciplinary and human-centered design approach also helped expand COVID-19 testing for vulnerable populations. Rodriguez partnered with community health workers to encourage COVID-19 rapid antigen testing for people living in homeless shelters thanks to a National Institutes of Health grant aimed at expanding testing for underserved populations. In 2023, she was awarded the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award to expand rapid HPV testing in homeless shelters. 

“She is able to bridge technological developments with translation, while demonstrating real consideration of the social and cultural context of the communities most in need of these health technologies,” said Erin Kobetz, PhD, MPH, the John K. and Judy H. Schulte Senior Endowed Chair in Cancer Research at the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine. “I look forward to continuing to witness the indelible impact of her work on our field.” 

Rodriguez is an associate professor of public health and biomedical engineering at Purdue University.

HELEN RODRÍGUEZ TRÍAS SOCIAL JUSTICE AWARD 

Y. Tony Yang, ScD, LLM, MPH, is the winner of the 2025 Dr. Helen Rodríguez Trías Social Justice Award for his many community-based public health approaches to achieving health equity.

Named in honor of the late Rodríguez-Trías, a past president of APHA, the award recognizes a public health professional’s leadership, advocacy work and mentorship in seeking social justice for underserved populations.

Yang’s work with vulnerable communities includes a $2 million federally-funded project to expand COVID-19 vaccination in Washington, D.C., and address barriers to vaccine uptake. His work in Washington, D.C. also includes the creation of “It’s a Dad Thing,” an initiative that uses policy and community outreach to engage Black fathers and reduce maternal mortality. 

Yang also helmed a $1.5 million federally-funded initiative where community health workers helped Yang create a trusted and culturally appropriate campaign to increase hepatitis B screenings and vaccinations in vulnerable immigrant communities. Outside of his research projects, Yang continues to help underserved populations as a mentor to young public health professionals from underrepresented backgrounds. 

In addition to being published over 170 times, Yang also authored “Achieving Health Equity: The Role of Law and Policy” in 2024, which outlines how policies create health disparities among marginalized populations and offers strategies that can eliminate health inequity. 

“In the spirit of Dr. Helen Rodríguez Trías, Dr. Yang combines fierce intellectual leadership with authentic engagement and compassion,” said Richard Ricciardi, PhD, CRNP, FAANP, FAAN, a professor and executive director for the Center for Health Policy and Media Engagement at George Washington University. “He has reimagined what inclusive public health can look like — rooted in community, guided by law and ethics and driven by a moral imperative to dismantle inequity.”

Currently chair-elect of APHA’s Law Section, Yang is an endowed professor in health policy and the associate dean for health policy and population science at the George Washington University School of Nursing.

DAVID P. RALL AWARD FOR ADVOCACY IN PUBLIC HEALTH 

Ami R. Zota, ScD, MS, is being honored with the David P. Rall Award for Advocacy in Public Health for translating environmental health hazard research into life-saving policies that address environmental justice.

Named for Rall, whose scientific research was a boon to prevention and environmental health policy, the award is given to a mid-career public health professional who has used science-based advocacy to influence policy change.

Notably, Zota’s research revealed how women of color are disproportionately exposed to toxic levels of chemicals, such as lead, in personal care and beauty products. Her findings rang alarm bells as a public health and environmental justice issue. Zota has also studied the links between food packaging and exposure to chemicals such as phthalates, which have been linked to increased rates of asthma and cancer.

Zota has testified before state and federal lawmakers about her cosmetics research, and federal lawmakers have used her food safety research to urge the Food and Drug Administration to take action to reduce phthalates exposure. The advocacy group Toxic-Free Future used Zota’s research to advocate for the eventual passing of Washington state’s Toxic-Free Cosmetics Act, which bans chemicals such as formaldehyde and phthalates from cosmetics and personal care products. Thanks to Zota’s research, a similar act was also passed in California.

She also created the Agents of Change in Environmental Health program in 2019, which nurtures early career professionals to become the next wave of research advocates through lessons about research translation and science communication. The program lives at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and partners with Environmental Health News. 

“When I think of public health researchers who have truly dedicated themselves, day-in and day-out, to

conducting meaningful science and then contributing to science-based advocacy, Dr. Zota is at the top of

the list,” said Jonathan Levy, ScD, professor and chair of Boston University School of Public Health’s Department of Environmental Health. “Her scholarship is top-notch, and she always makes sure to design studies that are intended to inform public health improvements among populations who are not often represented in either scientific studies or environmental advocacy.”

Zota is an associate professor in environmental health sciences at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. 

SEDGWICK MEMORIAL MEDAL FOR DISTINGUISHED SERVICE IN PUBLIC HEALTH 

Amelie Ramirez, DrPH, is being honored with APHA’s 2025 Sedgwick Memorial Medal for Distinguished Service in Public Health for her decades-long work in cancer disparity research, prevention strategies and clinical trial participation among Latinos and all communities.  

The award, one of APHA’s highest honors, was named in recognition of the late Professor William Thompson Sedgwick, a former APHA president and the head of the department of biological and public health at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It recognizes outstanding achievements in the field of public health.

Ramirez’s chronic disease and cancer research began in the 1980s, where she harnessed health communication and health promotion to reduce tobacco use and cancer risk in South Texas. From there, Ramirez worked under the National Cancer Institute to assess cancer risk across U.S. cities with large Latino populations. Her work grew under Redes En Áccion, a National Cancer Institute Latino cancer research network which held over 2,400 events, published over 300 studies and benefited from over $232 million in research funding. Through Redes En Áccion, Ramirez’s research included a push for culturally competent communication and bilingual patient navigators, which in turn led to increased participation in clinical trials and screenings.  

Ramirez founded Salud America! in 2007, a national group and network of over 400,000 researchers, community advocates, parents and school leaders that promotes healthy habits that create healthy communities. With support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Salud America! has been a research leader on issues such as Latino childhood obesity while continuing to offer free resources such as toolkits, webinars and blogs for people who want to create healthier families.

Today, Ramirez is director of the Institute for Health Promotion Research at the University of Texas at San Antonio Health Science Center. Under Ramirez’s leadership, the institute holds its biennial Advancing the Science of Cancer in Latinos conference. Since 2018, the conference has already hosted over 1,000 attendees from 25 states, as well as 140 guest speakers who focus on professional training, best practices and evidence-based interventions to help reduce cancer risk. 

Ramirez has also nurtured the development of cancer researchers who work as research faculty at universities across the country. She has mentored over 300 emerging health professionals and academic faculty members and has trained over 200 master’s students seeking a doctoral degree as a part of the NCI-funded Éxito! Latino Cancer Research Leadership Training program.

“Few individuals have had such a sustained, multifaceted and nationally-recognized impact on public health as Dr. Ramirez,” said Laura Fejerman, PhD, a professor at the University of California-Davis School of Medicine’s Department of Public Health Sciences and associate director at the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center. “Her work has reshaped the landscape of cancer prevention and health communication in Latino communities, strengthened the pipeline of diverse public health professionals and elevated community-based solutions to national prominence.”

Ramirez is a professor and chair of the University of Texas at San Antonio Health Science Center’s Department of Population Health Sciences.

MILTON AND RUTH ROEMER PRIZE FOR CREATIVE LOCAL PUBLIC HEALTH WORK 

Danny Scalise II, MBA, MPH, CPH, FACHE, FRSPH, received the 2025 Milton and Ruth Roemer Prize for Creative Local Public Health Work for his ground-level public health interventions and commitment to expanding the public health workforce.

APHA members Milton Roemer, MD, and Ruth Roemer, JD, endowed the prize to recognize innovative public health work. 

Scalise has served as public health director for Burke County, North Carolina, since 2021. Under his leadership, the Burke County Health Department has created interventions to combat substance use disorder and homelessness. The department created street medicine and harm reduction programs, as well as an Opioid Fatality Review/Public Health and Safety Team to prevent overdose deaths through systems change and public health interventions. Scalise also linked the Burke County Health Department to North Carolina’s NCCARE 360 network which connects wraparound services such as housing, food and transportation to North Carolinians in need. 

In addition, Scalise is dedicated to training the next generation of public health practitioners through an academic health department model that engages health professions graduate students and faculty in local public health response. The collaboration played a role in the Burke County Health Department’s response to the aftermath of Tropical Storm Helene. He continues to be a mentor to emerging public health professionals as adjunct faculty of Campbell University and West Virginia University 

Because of Scalise’s leadership, Burke County is only one of two North Carolina counties to earn dual reaccreditation from both the Public Health Accreditation Board and the North Carolina Local Health Department Accreditation Program. In 2024, the department was named a Healthy People 2030 Champion by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Dr. Sarah Taylor Morrow Health Department of the Year by the North Carolina Public Health Association.

MARTHA MAY ELIOT AWARD 

Carol Sakala, PhD, MSPH, will receive the 2025 Martha May Eliot Award for her decades-long research and advocacy surrounding evidence-based, person-centered maternity care.

The Martha May Eliot Award recognizes excellence in maternal and child health and achievements that raise the field’s profile. The award honors the late Dr. Eliot, a former APHA president, a Maternal and Child Health Section leader and chief of the Children’s Bureau of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.

Sakala is recognized for her ability to translate research into action that maternal health advocates and policymakers can use to create systems change and promote healthy families. She spent more than a decade as director of programs for Childbirth Connection, formerly Maternity Center Association, a national organization focused on evidence-based maternity care. During that time, she served as an investigator for Childbirth Connection’s national Listening to Mothers surveys, which capture the real-life birthing and postpartum experiences of pregnant women. The survey, which has run since 2002, has been used as the basis for U.S. maternity care initiatives and surveys done in other countries, such as Brazil and Japan. Sakala’s leadership was key in developing Childbirth Connection’s Transforming Maternity Care initiative to improve maternity care outcomes and quality and eventually led to the publishing of the influential “2020 Vision for a High-Quality, High Value Maternity Care System” and “Blueprint for Action: Steps Toward a High-Quality, High Value Maternity Care System.” 

In 2014, Childbirth Connection later became a program under the National Partnership for Women and Families, where Sakala was named director of Childbirth Connection programs and later senior director for maternal health. After joining the partnership, Sakala was instrumental in several evidence-based reports on topics such as insurance coverage for doula care, maternal health disparities, maternity care payment reform and the role hormones play in childbirth.

Sakala has also served on over three dozen advisory boards, committees and task forces aimed at improving perinatal care and maternal health care affordability, particularly for women of color who experience higher maternal mortality rates. Her research has been invaluable to state and federal policymakers looking for proven approaches to improving maternal health outcomes. 

“Her work has helped thousands of women make informed decisions about their care, educated and mentored many students and young professionals, and informed research, policy and practice on behalf of women and their families,” said Maureen Corry, MPH, former executive director of Childbirth Connection. 

LYNDON HAVILAND PUBLIC HEALTH MENTORING AWARD 

Dhitinut Ratnapradipa, PhD, is the winner of the 2025 Lyndon Haviland Public Health Mentoring Award for promoting networking opportunities for new public health professionals and giving them the tools to advance throughout their careers.  

The award is given to accomplished professionals who are dedicated to mentoring the future public health workforce by helping students and early-career professionals with resume-building work such as research and professional development.

Ratnapradipa has been an invaluable resource for emerging public health professionals, particularly students interested in environmental health promotion and risk communication at universities such as Southern Illinois University, Sam Houston State University and New Mexico State University. From one-on-one sessions to numerous letters of recommendation and advice on finding research funding, his students past and present credit his personal touch as the key to their professional achievements. Ratnapradipa also gives his students opportunities to get their work published by offering them the chance to contribute writing on manuscripts he works on. His mentees credit his guidance on writing composition and data analysis to the success of their own published research.  

Additionally, Ratnapradipa is big on the power of networking. He encourages his students to join APHA and network with other professionals at APHA’s Annual Meeting and Expo, where he also sponsors a table as director of Creighton University’s master of public health program.

“Beyond my own success, I have seen firsthand how his mentorship has propelled many students to present at APHA and make significant contributions to public health,” said Justin McDaniel, PhD, a former student of Ratnapradipa and an associate professor at Southern Illinois University’s School of Human Sciences. “Inspired by his example, I am committed to paying it forward — mentoring future generations of public health researchers and helping them navigate the complexities of academia and public health practice just as he did for me.”

Ratnapradipa is a professor at the Creighton University School of Medicine’s Department of Clinical Research and Public Health.

2025 GIORGIO A. PICCAGLI LEADERSHIP AWARD

Mareyba Fawad, MPH, is the recipient of the 2025 Giorgio A. Piccagli Leadership Award for her work growing the reach of two APHA Affiliates through young professional outreach, strategic planning and networking opportunities.

Named for the late Piccagli, a noted APHA Affiliate and board leader, the award celebrates the exceptional leadership skills of an early-career professional or student member of APHA. Piccagli served in many roles across the Association, including as chair of the Council of Affiliates, Health Administration Section and APHA’s Executive Board. 

In 2023, Fawad, as the Oklahoma Public Health Association’s youngest conference planning chair, led a 40-person team and six committees to present the Affiliate’s first in-person conference since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Approximately 300 people attended, and the Affiliate continues to use Fawad’s conference planning model today. She also helped organize the Oklahoma Affiliate’s Public Health Advocacy Day at the state capitol and influenced the Affiliate’s annual policy agenda as a health policy co-chair. 

Within two months of being elected vice president of the Southern California Public Health Association, she took the lead in planning the SCPHA Virtual Conference in 2024, in which she created marketing materials, invited speakers and developed a social media campaign on her own. Fawad also prioritized the Affiliate’s long-term stability by tackling its complex financial issues and spearheading its 2024-2025 strategic restructuring plan.

Fawad also increased opportunities for young professionals across both the Oklahoma and Southern California Affiliates. She created the Oklahoma Affiliate’s first undergraduate involvement program and an undergraduate award of excellence. Since becoming vice president of SCPHA, she created its first internship program which attracted 30 students from several southern California universities.   

Throughout her hundreds of hours of volunteer work across two Affiliates, Fawad maintained a full-time job in federal health care consulting where she’s committed to advancing patient safety and health equity in Medicare. In honor of being an early career professional committed to global gender equity and public health advocacy, Fawad was selected this year as a head delegate to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. 

“What makes Ms. Fawad stand out is her ability to combine systems perspectives with an unwavering commitment to mentorship, equity, and service.” said DJ McMaughan, PhD, a former Oklahoma Public Health Association president and associate professor of public health at Oklahoma State University. “She sees public health not only as a discipline but as a community — and she invests in that community wholeheartedly.”  

SOMMER KLAG ADVOCACY ACHIEVEMENT AWARD 

Apryl Alexander, PsyD, is the winner of the 2025 Sommer Klag Advocacy Achievement Award for her work in violence prevention, juvenile justice reform and LGBTQ adolescent health.

A partnership of APHA and the Lerner Center, the award goes to a person who understands the importance of advocacy in academic public health training.

Alexander’s advocacy work with vulnerable youth was inspired by her early research on Alabama youth 

in residential treatment programs for sexual offenses. As an assistant clinical professor at Auburn University, she observed the impact of unfair treatment and a separation from one’s community on mostly minority youth.

After leaving Auburn to become a professor at the University of Denver, Alexander’s advocacy leveled up on behalf of Colorado LGBTQ groups. Her legislative testimony and published articles on the unethical practices of conversion therapy for minors ultimately led to the cities of Wheat Ridge, Colorado, and Denver passing laws to ban conversion therapy in their city limits. She has also testified in favor of Colorado legislation that makes sex education LGBTQ-inclusive and cover the topic of consent. At the federal level, Alexander has laid out evidence-based research about the effects of trauma on adolescent development in amicus briefs for state-level and U.S. Supreme Court cases involving juvenile life sentences. Last year, Alexander joined the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues Courtwatch committee, where she writes about the impact of Supreme Court decisions on society, such as rulings that further criminalize homelessness.  

Alexander has served on numerous task forces, advisory groups and oversight boards covering topics such as racial justice, sexual health and family policy. As a board member of the Colorado Juvenile Defender Center and the Colorado Criminal Defense Institute, she advocated for a new state law to get rid of juvenile court fees and fines, and to change existing law to stop youth from being placed on the sex offender registry. 

Today she is an associate professor at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte’s Department of Health Management and Policy and a founding director of the UNC Charlotte Violence Prevention Center. She has made over 160 appearances across print, TV and digital media, and encourages master of public health students she teaches to submit op-eds about public health issues and become advocates themselves.

2025 EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S CITATION

This is to acknowledge the current and former professional and administrative staff at the U.S. Center’s for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), for their heroic efforts in the face of extreme adversity. Attacks to their reputation, scientific knowledge and even on their wellbeing have unacceptability occurred. CDC is a core component of our nation’s health security team, and you are hereby recognized for your work “Saving Lives and Protecting People.” To those employees that are still there we say “we have your back;” for those that are in exile we say, thank you and we await your return when we have returned the agency to its hallowed place in the world.

A Special Thanks to Our 2025 APHA Committees

APHA Awards Committee
Donna K. Beal, MPH, MCHES – Chair
Joyce Gaufin
Ayaz Mahmood Khan, MD, MPH, MBA, FACHE, CPE Jonathan Smith, PhD
Jonathan Smith, MPH, MA
Irene Tami-Maury, DMD, MSc, DrPH

Martha May Eliot Award Committee
Arthur R. James, MD – Chair
Beth A. Blacksin, PhD, RN
Jodi Bower, DHA
Jeannette R. Ickovics, PHD
Jennifer Schindler-Ruwisch, DrPH

Milton and Ruth Roemer Prize Committee
Beth M. Roemer, MPH – Roemer Representative
Scott A. Clardy – City/County Health Official
Brooke Cunningham, MD, PhD – State Health Official
Cody J. Mullen, PhD – Chair, Medical Care Section
Takiyah Wilson, PhD, MBA – Chair, Health Administration

Student Assembly Selection Committee for the Lyndon Haviland Public Health Mentoring Award
Venna Thamilselvan – Chair
Laura Ray – Immediate Past Chair
Abigail Jeyaraj – Mentoring Co-chair
Tamaraemumoemi Okoro – Mentoring Co-chair

APHA Giorgio A. Piccagli Leadership Award Committee
Vonna Henry, RN, BSN, MPH – Chair
Maia Piccagli – Piccagli Representative
Kate Cartwright, PhD, MPH – Chair, Health Administration Awards Committee
Joyce Gaufin – APHA Past President
Melvin Shipp, OD, MPH, DrPH – APHA Past President
Walter Tsou, MD, MPH – APHA Past President

 Ex-officio
Georges C. Benjamin, MD – Executive Director
Ella Greene-Moton – APHA President