With U.S. public health under attack, APHA’s 2025 Annual Meeting and Expo will serve as a rallying cry to protect and improve community and population health in America.
From Nov. 2 to 5, APHA will host the year’s premier public health event in Washington, D.C. Over 12,000 researchers, advocates, educators, students, scientists and other public health supporters are expected to attend APHA 2025, which is hosted at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.
This year’s meeting’s theme, “Making the Public’s Health a National Priority,” reflects the need for the U.S. to stay focused on improving the health and welfare of the public, even in difficult times. The theme is especially relevant given current political threats to U.S. public health funding, staffing, programming, infrastructure and agencies. While APHA and other organizations are fighting against attacks on public health, citing their dangerous impact on Americans, the repercussions have rippled through the public health workforce.
“At this time of upheaval, APHA 2025 offers an opportunity for health professionals to collaborate, strategize and learn from one another ways to keep public health at the forefront of the conversation in the U.S.,” Georges Benjamin, MD, APHA executive director, told The Nation’s Health. “It also allows workers to network and share best practices they are using to safeguard their communities.”
APHA 2025 offers participants opportunities to collaborate, network and strategize at a pivotal time in public health.
Photo courtesy EZ Event Photography
With thousands of presentations, APHA 2025 scientific sessions will address a full range of public health topics, including timely issues such as vaccination recommendations, foreign aid, challenges to public health authority, immigrant health, infectious disease surveillance and more..
Featured speakers at the meeting’s main events will draw from the nonprofit, public, private and political spheres. Among them is Greg Gonsalves, PhD, of Defend Public Health — a new national coalition of 3,000 health professionals dedicated to protecting science-based health programs and institutions. He will speak on Monday, Nov. 3.
That same day, APHA Press authors will discuss the current and future threats to health equity during a turbulent time in American history. Among the participants scheduled are Chandra Ford, PhD, MPH, MLIS, a professor at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health, and Derek Griffith, PhD, a professor of health equity at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine. Both are co-editors of the popular APHA Press book “Racism: Science and Tools for the Public Health Professional,” now updated in a second edition.
Even as staff and funding cuts happen at the local, state and federal levels, many public health agencies continue to use outdated data systems, limiting real-time data sharing and hindering disease surveillance and outbreak response.
Two sessions on Tuesday, Nov. 4, will discuss the importance of upgrading public health data systems. New systems, some using AI technology, are available that offer transformative potential to improve health outcomes.
Along with its roundtables, panels, plenary events and poster sessions, APHA 2025 will unveil a fresh take on conveying scientific information: “lightning” sessions.
Instead of featuring four or five speakers, the lightning sessions will feature 10, each of whom will only have five minutes to present. Eighteen lightning sessions on reproductive health, aging, disparities, emerging research and more are scheduled for the Annual Meeting.
APHA 2025 participants who register before the Sept. 15 advance deadline can save up to $110. Discounted rates are available for students, early-career professionals and other APHA members.
During registration, participants can make a donation to APHA’s Help Us Help Them campaign, which supports a local public health organization in the host city. This year’s beneficiary is Active Minds, a D.C.-based nonprofit dedicated to improving the mental health of young people.
For more information, visit www.apha.org/annualmeeting.
- Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association
