APHA Annual Meeting to turn spotlight on healthy communities: 13,000 expected
=============================================================================

* Michele Late

The nation’s capital will be the place to be for public health professionals this month, when 13,000 attendees come together for APHA’s 139th Annual Meeting.

To be held Oct. 29–Nov. 2 in Washington, D.C., the meeting will bring together health workers around the theme of “Healthy Communities Promote Healthy Minds and Bodies.” With about 1,000 scientific sessions, the meeting will cover a range of public health topics, from chronic diseases and health promotion to accreditation and health reform.

The meeting will feature scientific and educational sessions — including roundtables, poster sessions and panel discussions — and thousands of scientific papers on the latest public health issues. The meeting will also offer networking, career and continuing education opportunities.

Among the draws at the meeting will be presentations by global, national and state public health leaders. Keynote speakers will include Jonathan Jarvis, director of the National Park Service, and Pamela Hyde, JD, administrator of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, both of whom will speak at the meeting’s opening session on Sunday, Oct. 30. Joining them as a keynote speaker is former U.S. Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., who served three decades in Congress, including service as Senate majority leader.

The closing session, to be held Wednesday, Nov. 2, will focus on the ongoing fight to protect occupational health and safety. Speakers at the session, which will be held from 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m., will include David Michaels, PhD, MPH, U.S. assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health.

The meeting events will officially kick off Sunday with the opening session, followed by the start of the APHA Public Health Expo. The expo will feature more than 700 booths of information, products and services geared toward public health professionals as well as presentations and scientific poster sessions. The meeting will also include a new PHocal Point area on the third floor of the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, with free wireless Internet access, seated massages, food concessions and other draws.

The Annual Meeting’s hundreds of scientific and educational sessions will continue through Wednesday and encompass the public health field. Among the highlights will be session 3013, “Content Integration and Social Change: Sparking Action Through Programming, Advertising & Popular Culture.” The APHA-sponsored session, to be held Monday, Oct. 31, at 8:30 a.m., will include speakers from MTV Networks, creators of the shows “16 and Pregnant” and “Teen Mom,” and Participant Media, which played a role in the recent movie “Contagion.”

Health professionals can pick up tips on how to work with the media and advocate for public health during sessions at the meeting. APHA is sponsoring a day-long schedule of sessions on the topics on Monday. The offerings will include a session on media advocacy, 3119, which will be held at 10:30 a.m. For more information, see the ad on Page 25.

APHA leaders and members will also be conducting business during the Annual Meeting. Those that will be at work include the Governing Council, APHA’s body of member-elected representatives, which will hold business sessions on Saturday, Oct. 29, and Tuesday, Nov. 2. APHA members are welcome to attend the sessions, which will have seating for the public.

During its meetings, the Governing Council will be considering proposed APHA policies, which if adopted will serve as the Association’s official stances on public health issues. Public hearings on the policies will be held Sunday from 3:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. The hearings are open to any APHA member who wants to comment on the policies, drafts of which can be accessed on the APHA website at [www.apha.org/advocacy/policy](http://www.apha.org/advocacy/policy).

The Annual Meeting will also feature about 20 pre-convention Learning Institutes on Oct. 29–30 through which eligible participants can earn continuing education credits. The institutes will cover topics such as county-level health, policy research, epidemiology and health impact assessments. One of the Sunday offerings, course 2019, will take the form of a three-hour Global Leadership Institute, focusing on skill development and global health.

Annual Meeting registrants can also earn continuing education credits by attending and evaluating certain scientific sessions during the meeting. A list of sessions available for credits will be printed in the Annual Meeting final program. More information on credits will be available at the continuing education booth on the third floor of the convention center.

Also a draw at the meeting will be the annual APHA Film Festival. To be held Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, the festival will feature short videos, films and other media with a public health focus, as well as discussions and interaction with directors and creators. To review the festival lineup, visit the Annual Meeting online program and select the link for “APHA-Film Festival.”

Annual Meeting attendees will have the opportunity to interact with public health book authors during special signing events. The book signings, to be held Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, will take place in the APHA Press section of the Public Health Expo at the convention center.

The book signings will feature authors such as APHA member Linda Landesman, DrPH, of “Public Health Management of Disasters: The Practice Guide.” Other draws will include Richard Jackson, MD, MPH, who is former director of the National Center for Environmental Health and author of “Designing Healthy Communities;” and keynote speaker Daschle, who will be signing his book on health reform. For the full lineup of signings, see the ad on Page 7.

Other Annual Meeting highlights include the Public Health Awards Reception and Ceremony on Tuesday at 6 p.m., and Public Health CareerMart at the expo, which will offer information on job openings, career counseling and a chance to meet with employers.

Participants can register on-site for the Annual Meeting at the convention center. For more on the APHA meeting and to access the online program, visit [www.apha.org/meetings/annualmeeting](http://www.apha.org/meetings/annualmeeting). For questions, email comments{at}apha.org or call 202-777-2742.

*   Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association