Vermont Public Health Association members visit the state House of Representatives in January. From left are Daniel Olson, executive director; Theo Kennedy, board president; Burt Wilcke, PhD, Affiliate representative to APHA’s Governing Council; and Sally Kerschner, RN, MSN, board secretary.
Photo courtesy Daniel Olson
For three centuries, Vermont’s Legislature has broken new ground in its work to improve the lives of Vermont residents. This year, the legislative body put another first on the books with the creation of its new caucus centered on public health.
Launched in January, the Vermont Public Health Caucus represents a landmark effort by state legislators to create a body that can connect them with trusted, science-informed public health partners to help them make informed decisions.
Hailed by the public health community as groundbreaking, the caucus ensures public health’s input in legislation by calling on public health experts, educators, community members, nonprofit organizations such as the Vermont Public Health Association, and others to advise legislators as they examine policies and reflect on issues that impact the health of Vermonters. Caucus organizers hope that by proactively involving public health in the legislature’s work and using health and equity as a lens for discussion, the gap between public policy and public health will grow smaller.
“This caucus is the best example of elected officials leading the way,” Susan Polan, PhD, APHA associate executive director for public affairs and advocacy, said at the caucus’ launch event in Montpelier, Vermont, in January. “No other state in the country is doing what you are doing, where state legislators are coming together for education and priority-setting, and trying to help their colleagues understand what public health is and how to do it better for the residents of their state.”
The Vermont Public Health Caucus will serve as a space for elected legislators to convene around a topic and share resources, learn from trusted partners and deepen their understanding of topics and of what the legislature should be doing to help public health in Vermont, said Vermont Public Health Association President Theo Kennedy, JD, MPH.
“This endeavor is about a legislative caucus trying to bring health and equity into their considerations, and we are going to support them in any way we can,” Kennedy told The Nation’s Health. “Policy into action is one of the challenges we face, so if we contribute to the decisions that are being made through a public health lens and an equity lens, we will collectively profit.”
The caucus is the first of its kind in any U.S. state legislature, state Rep. Kate Nugent, MA, told The Nation’s Health.
“We hope other legislators in other states can proactively involve public health in their work,” Nugent said. “The separation between policy and public health has not always been so stark, and it would be beneficial to both to build that connection more strongly again, in anticipation of future public health challenges we know we will face.”
In her previous work as the executive director of a public health nonprofit, Nugent saw first-hand that “policy can either support or suppress health.”
Soon after becoming a state representative last year, Nugent joined with state Rep. Leslie Goldman to talk about the need to do more to educate legislators at the state house, recognizing that public health’s input can strengthen the foundation upon which legislation is built. They reached out to the Vermont Public Health Association to advance the conversation.
“The idea to create a caucus arose during those conversations,” said Dan Olson, executive director of the APHA Affiliate. “At first it was just an idea, but with each meeting we edged our way closer to saying, ‘Let’s do this.’ We had interest from the legislators and everyone we talked to just immediately perked up.”
For its part, the Vermont association will serve as a trusted partner to the caucus, providing education and administrative resources and helping in any way it can.
“This is focused on education,” Olson told The Nation’s Health. “We are trying to ensure that the legislature is well-informed when making public health-related decisions, and that the best available resources, the best available knowledge and the best science-informed policy ideas are considered.”
For more information on the Vermont Public Health Association, visit https://vtpha.org.
- Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association
