APHA Annual Meeting attendees applaud speakers during a 2023 Champion Conversations session.
Photo courtesy EZ Event Photography
“The Annual Meeting gives the public health community a chance to hone their skills and develop new ones, get energized and work together.”
— Cathy Troisi
Health professionals will have the opportunity to network, learn and engage during APHA’s 2024 Annual Meeting and Expo.
To be held Sunday, Oct. 27, through Wednesday, Oct. 30, the event is expected to bring 12,000 public health researchers, advocates, students, policymakers, community health workers and more to Minneapolis. While the meeting is first and foremost an educational event, some participants also see it as a public health homecoming that helps reenergize their work.
“I always look forward to seeing my APHA family — my Section, my committees, friends I’ve known throughout the years,” said Cathy Troisi, PhD, a professor of management, policy, community health and epidemiology at the University of Texas Health Science Center’s School of Public Health. “I love being with people who have the same public health values that I do and appreciate and promote public health, and just get why public health is important.”
While events will cover the gamut of public health, this year’s meeting has a official theme of “Rebuilding Trust in Public Health and Science.” In the more than four years since the COVID-19 pandemic began, misleading and false information has fueled mistrust and confusion.
“We need to regain the public’s trust so that we can work with communities to protect their health by assuring conditions where people can make the healthy choice,” Troisi, who is leading a Tuesday, Oct. 29, session on the growing problem of vaccine hesitancy, told The Nation’s Health.
APHA 2024’s meeting stages will feature some of public health’s biggest and brightest. On Sunday, the meeting’s Champion Conversations series begins with the opening session. APHA President Ella Greene-Moton and Reed Tuckson, MD, managing director of Tuckson Health Connection LLC, will talk about actionable strategies to enhance scientific literacy and combat misinformation. Tuckson, who is the session’s keynote speaker, is especially well-versed in the subject as co-convener of the Coalition for Trust in Health and Science.
Building trust is the focus of several other events during the four-day meeting. During a live podcast taping on Sunday evening, Abdul El-Sayed, MD, DPhil, host of “America Dissected,” will interview New York University professor Erick Klinenberg, PhD, author of “2020: One City, Seven People and the Year Everything Changed.” He posits that misinformation is a symptom of the trauma Americans feel from the pandemic, which must be addressed before the country can heal and move forward.
On Monday, Oct. 28, a general session is devoted to “The Invisible Shield,” a PBS documentary that traces U.S. public health history through the pandemic. The four-part series, which aired earlier this year, shows how public health enables people to flourish by improving preventive health and making everyday life safer.
Amy Acton, MD, MPH, a former director of the Ohio Department of Health who is featured in the series and is speaking at the Annual Meeting session, said the documentary helps explain to the public what public health professionals do.
“When we in public health do everything right, if we knock it out of the park, you don’t see what we just prevented. So it doesn’t get funded, and people don’t recognize it,” Acton told The Nation’s Health. “This documentary puts public health in its historical perspective.”
APHA 2023 attendees enjoy the Say Hey Lounge, a networking space returning this year.
Photo courtesy EZ Event Photography
Also on Monday is a Champion Conversation session hosted by Barry Levy, MD, MPH, an APHA past president, that looks at critical public health issues. Topics include public trust, health disparities, maternal mortality and the impact of the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to end the constitutional right to abortion.
Samuel Dickman, MD, chief medical officer at Planned Parenthood of Montana, will discuss the fallout of the High Court decision in Montana and steps forward at the session.
“In my medical practice, I see how access to abortion care helps my patients,” Dickman told The Nation’s Health. “I know that abortions are helpful because it’s what all my patients tell me. And abortion services — both medication abortions and procedural abortions — are extremely safe.”
On Wednesday, the closing session will include Minnesota state Rep. Mike Freiberg, JD, who will discuss the importance of forming partnerships and collaboration in public health. Among the panelists are Deanna Wathington, MD, MPH, APHA incoming president, and Bechara Choucair, MD, executive vice president and chief health officer for Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Inc. and Hospitals.
Troisi, who is leading or speaking at five Annual Meeting events, said APHA 2024 can help public health professionals find a foothold in their careers and re-commit to the work.
“The Annual Meeting gives the public health community a chance to hone their skills and develop new ones, get energized and work together,” she said.
APHA 2024 events to engage, educate
Annual Meeting-goers can earn education credits by attending and evaluating hundreds of scientific sessions during the four days of APHA 2024. Credits can be earned for continuing education, health education, nursing, the Certified in Public Health credential and more. Up to 20.5 CE credits can be earned.
Sunday through Tuesday, event-goers can enjoy presentations and movie clips at the APHA Public Health Film Festival. Several films explore building trust in public health, while others celebrate works by young filmmakers and beyond.
The highest achievements in public health will be celebrated at APHA’s Public Health Awards Ceremony and Luncheon, where researchers, advocates and professionals will be honored for excellence in the field. The event requires an advance ticket, which can be purchased through the Annual Meeting registration process.
Other ticketed events include the Academic Health Department Networking Luncheon and Public Health Nursing Networking Luncheon. Tickets for those events must be purchased by Oct. 21.
Another special event that is expected to attract a crowd is the Saturday, Oct. 28, Women’s Leadership Institute. The theme is “superhero” stories — with speakers and activities that empower women to take control of their public health career.
Among the speakers are Kaye Bender, PhD, RN, executive director of the Mississippi Public Health Association and a former APHA president; Charlene Cariou, MHS, CPH, public health program manager at Southwest District Health in Caldwell, Idaho; and Raymona Lawrence, DrPH, MPH, a professor at Georgia Southern University who is founder and CEO of Dr. Raymona H. Lawrence Coaching LLC.
This year’s expo features over 300 exhibitors, including schools of public health, publishers and non-profit organizations.
Photo courtesy EZ Event Photography
Networking is also an important part of APHA 2024. Among the opportunities are social events, Coffee Talks and the Say Hey Lounge, featuring gatherings for early-career professionals and community health workers. The meeting’s many evening social hours are hosted by APHA’s member groups, universities and a range of public health partners.
Public health partners will also be at the forefront of APHA 2024’s Public Health Expo. Open Sunday through Tuesday, this year’s expo features over 300 exhibitors, including schools of public health, publishers and nonprofit organizations. Other expo attractions include the APHA Press area, where authors and editors of recent books on racism, reproductive health, policy engagement and more will sign their work on Sunday from 1-3 p.m.
The expo will also play host to APHA 2024’s poster sessions, where researchers share their public health findings and discuss them with attendees. Among the hundreds of poster presenters is Cariou, an APHA board member who will be sharing Southwest District’s work on how public health can address emerging health challenges.
“It’s so energizing to be sharing a space with 10,000-plus public health colleagues,” Cariou told The Nation’s Health. “The idea-sharing, brainstorming and support are so special and beyond words.”
Beyond the expo, thousands of abstracts on the latest research, programs and on-the-ground public health work will be presented at hundreds of oral and roundtable scientific sessions.
Minneapolis to welcome attendees
APHA 2024 will be centered at the Minneapolis Convention Center, which is within walking distance to a variety of restaurants and opportunities for outdoor activities.
“The city has terrific access to our beautiful parks and lakes that are widely used in all seasons,” Merry Grande, MPH, executive director of the Minnesota Public Health Association, told The Nation’s Health.
Meeting attendees may be drawn to visit a Minneapolis site of an incident that horrified the nation and world. In May 2020, resident George Floyd was murdered by police at the intersection of 38th Street and Chicago Avenue in South Minneapolis, sparking protests and inspiring a social justice movement. The intersection is now a memorial called George Floyd Square, which draws people seeking peace and reflection.
During the Annual Meeting, some presenters will also pay respect to the large American Indian community in Minneapolis during their sessions. Attendees can also do that beyond the meeting, as a few blocks south of the convention center is East Franklin Avenue, where restaurants and a market feature Indigenous goods.
Hundreds of poster abstracts featuring public health science will be shared during sessions in the Public Health Expo.: Photo courtesy EZ Event Photography
APHA chose a local Native charity as the beneficiary of its Help Us Help Them campaign, which gives back to the meeting’s host city. Dream of Wild Health is an American Indian organization based in Minneapolis that works to restore health and well-being. APHA 2024 attendees can donate to Dream of Wild Health during the registration process.
“Dream of Wild Health was born out of the community as a garden-based recovery program, and we are celebrating 25 years of working to restore health and well-being within the Twin Cities Native American community,” Neely Snyder, the nonprofit’s executive director, told The Nation’s Health.
Public health professionals unable to attend the meeting in Minneapolis can take part virtually with a digital version of APHA 2024. Full details on the option, which includes livestreaming of Champion Conversation sessions and access to scientific session recordings, is online at bit.ly/apha24digital.
To register for APHA’s 2024 Annual Meeting and Expo and access the online program, visit www.apha.org/annualmeeting.
- Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association
