APHA 2023 inspires public health workforce in Atlanta
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* Mark Barna

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Staff at the Clemson Public Health Sciences booth engage with a visitor at APHA’s 2023 Annual Meeting and Expo in Atlanta.

Photo courtesy EZ Event Photography

APHA’s 2023 annual meeting and Expoenergized and educated the nation’s public health workforce in November, sending attendees home with new inspiration for their lifesaving work.

Almost 13,000 people attended the Atlanta event, which had a theme of “Creating the Healthiest Nation: Overcoming Social and Ethical Challenges.” Presenters shared new research and information on infectious disease control, gun violence, drug overdose, climate change, health equity, environmental justice and more. Schools, nonprofits, publishers and others met one-on-one with attendees at nearly 450 exhibits at the meeting expo.

“What I love about (APHA’s meeting) is that it brings people together,” Judy Monroe, MD, president and CEO of the CDC Foundation, told APHA TV, the meeting’s on-site news channel. “For me, it’s a shot in the arm every year to see folks who are out there every day working to improve health.”

The foundation presented its annual Fries Prize for Improving Health at APHA 2023, honoring Katalin Karikó, PhD, for her work on mRNA, and Anne Schuchat, MD, former principal deputy director at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for her leadership and work in preventing infant deaths.

The two were among hundreds of public health workers celebrated throughout the meeting by APHA, its member groups and state and local affiliated public health associations.

Public health luminaries, students, young professionals, researchers and other public health workers mixed, mingled and networked during the four days of the Annual Meeting. Opportunities to learn, reflect and renew were abundant at the hundreds of scientific sessions.

“It is really great to know what people are doing in the field,” said Tiffany Canate, MPH, a health planner and program manager at Health Council of Southeast Florida in West Palm Beach.

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Rachel Levine, MD, U.S. assistant secretary for health, visits the expo after her APHA 2023 speech.

Photo courtesy EZ Event Photography

Canate, who was a project lead for a workgroup on climate change and health within APHA’s Environment Section, presented on her experience with APHA’s Climate and Health Youth Education Toolkit at APHA 2023.

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A presenter speaks at an APHA 2023 scientific session. Hundreds of poster and oral sessions were held at the meeting.

Photo courtesy EZ Event Photography

The APHA Annual Meeting offers a chance “to connect with folks and their research on projects that are going on locally, nationally and globally,” she said.

APHA 2023 participants also had the opportunity to earn continuing education credits, network at social hours, engage at the Georgia Aquarium and other events. APHA covered the meeting on its social media, YouTube channel and Annual Meeting blog, sharing news and highlights.

Arnab Mukherjea, DrPH, MPH, department chair and associate professor of public health at California State University in the East Bay, said this year’s Annual Meeting was especially meaningful to the eight students he brought with him.

“This is really the premier place for all of us who want to advance the cause of health equity to come together,” said Mukherjea, who has attended 22 consecutive APHA Annual Meetings.

Abstract submissions for APHA 2024, which will be held Oct. 27-30 in Minneapolis, open Jan. 2. The meeting has a theme of “Rebuilding Trust in Public Health and Science.”

For more information, visit [www.apha.org/annual-meeting](https://www.apha.org/annual-meeting).

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