APHA’s Annual Meeting will offer a range of opportunities for attendees to interact and network with other participants.
Photo by Delmaine Donson, courtesy iStockphoto
After nearly 150 years of face-to-face events, APHA’s Annual Meeting — one of the world’s largest public health gatherings — has gone virtual.
“This is the most important time in a century for public health people to come together,” said APHA President Lisa M. Carlson, MPH, MCHES. “To share, to learn, to organize — this moment is really important.”
Excitement is growing as APHA 2020 gets ready to kick off next month, convening online Oct. 24-28 under a theme of “Creating the Healthiest Nation: Preventing Violence.”
The shift online means more public health practitioners than ever can access the full Annual Meeting and its hundreds of scientific sessions. APHA 2020 will allow attendees to learn about the latest public health science and practice, engage with colleagues from around the world, earn continuing education credits and hear from leaders in the field.
Registrants will get on-demand access to the meeting program. Carlson said she hopes the virtual format — as well as savings in travel and lodging costs for attendees — will make the meeting especially accessible.
“A hallmark of an APHA Annual Meeting is having to choose what to attend because there’s so much going on,” Carlson, an administrator at Emory University School of Medicine, told The Nation’s Health. “But this year, we’ll have access to the whole meeting even after it’s over.”
Emily Bartlett, MPH, chair of APHA’s Student Assembly and an MSN candidate at Columbia University, said the virtual shift will make it easier to juggle her school demands while attending the meeting.
She is looking forward to accessing the many scientific and poster sessions at her own pace. She noted that this year’s National Student Meeting, which the APHA Student Assembly hosts in conjunction with the Annual Meeting, has also moved online, convening Saturday, Oct. 24. Registration for the student meeting, which will include mentoring and career-building advice, is now open.
“Just being on a computer doesn’t lessen the passion we have for public health,” Bartlett told The Nation’s Health.
APHA’s many member groups are gearing up for APHA 2020 as well. The Latinx Voces en Salud Campaign, an advocacy and grassroots initiative, is collaborating with the Latino Caucus for Public Health and other Caucuses on events to observe Hispanic Heritage Month, Sept. 15-Oct.15. The partners are planning to extend their activities through APHA 2020.
“I am so excited and hopeful that APHA made the decision to go virtual,” APHA and Caucus member Dulce Maria Ruelas, MPH, CHES, an assistant professor of public health at Grand Canyon University, told The Nation’s Health. “To me, APHA is a role model — if it can come together online and still put on such a big meeting with all the research we’ve come to expect, maybe it’ll inspire new ways to leverage our knowledge and support each other across the public health community.”
Ruelas said the virtual format is an especially good opportunity for students to take advantage of the full program of scientific sessions and hear from experienced leaders in the field. She is also excited by the meeting’s access to a wealth of research, which will spark conversations in the classroom.
Past APHA President Deborah Klein Walker, EdD, an adjunct public health professor at Tufts University and Boston University, said that the growing movement to end police violence and its disproportionate impacts on Black communities make this year’s Annual Meeting theme of violence prevention especially relevant. Walker was so eager to be part of the event that she signed up the first day registration opened.
“APHA 2020 is a chance to organize and support my colleagues in public health — which is more important than ever right now,” Walker told The Nation’s Health. “It’s also a chance to support my longtime professional home — APHA — and all the critical work it does to advocate for strong public health systems and healthier communities.”
Participants who sign up in advance can save on registration. For more on APHA 2020, visit www.apha.org/annualmeeting.
- Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association
