“In life there is the right time and the right place. This is the right time to be in D.C.”
— Donna-Maria Palakiko
The nation's capital will be the place to be for public health knowledge, learning and networking in November.
APHA's 2025 Annual Meeting and Expo will welcome over 12,000 health supporters from across the field of public health to Washington, D.C., from Nov. 2-5. The rich mix of professionals will add to networking and collaborative opportunities. Researchers, health professionals, students and more will be attending from across the U.S. and world.
“In life there is the right time and the right place,” APHA member Donna-Maria Palakiko, PhD, APRN, who is making the trip from Hawaii, told The Nation's Health. “This is the right time to be in D.C.”
This year's theme is “Making the Public's Health a National Priority,” which underscores the need for the country to stay focused on bettering the health and welfare of its residents. Public health has been challenged this year by a raft of harmful decisions, from slashing budgets and eliminating agencies to dismantling vaccine recommendations and eroding trust in science.
“I'm calling upon all of you — my colleagues, friends, fellow professionals in the field — to attend APHA 2025 and focus on working together in a positive, proactive and strategic manner to protect, defend and rebuild our vital work and infrastructure,” Deanna Wathington, MD, MPH, APHA's outgoing president, told The Nation's Health. “History has its eyes on us — let's meet the moment.”
Events and sessions over the four-day event feature important discussions by public health experts. On Sunday, Nov. 2, the meeting's opening session will feature public health leaders that include Wathington; Anthony Wright, executive director of Families USA; and Jarbas Barbosa da Silva Jr., MD, PhD, MPH, director of the Pan American Health Organization.
Also Sunday, the first of nine “Champion Conversations” will kick off with a discussion on Indigenous global health. While public health advocates are familiar with social determinants of health, Indigenous determinants include issues such as culture relevance and generational trauma. Indigenous people in America are especially vulnerable to federal cuts to health services, including changes by the federal government to vaccine availability and scheduling.
“As a mother, I worry about access to immunizations, access to funding for special (Department of Education) schools, and access and utilization of health care in general,” said Palakiko, an associate professor at the University of Hawaii's School of Nursing and Dental Hygiene, who is a panelist at the session.
APHA 2025 will also offer panel, roundtable and poster sessions on artificial technology. AI is exploding in business and entertainment, and public health needs to be part of the revolution, John Auerbach, MBA, senior vice president of public health at ICF International, told The Nation's Health.
“And yet since most of us in the health sectors are still just beginning to learn about AI, we are less prepared to tap the opportunities, shape the policies and practices, and guard against the dangers,” said Auerbach, a panelist at Tuesday's Champion Conversation on harnessing AI for public health.
The always-popular Public Health Expo will host hundreds of exhibitors, including universities, nonprofits and agencies.
Photo by Michele Late
Partnerships are a big part of APHA 2025. At a Sunday session, several APHA-affiliated state and local public health associations will discuss how they have collaborated on some of the public health challenges U.S. regions are experiencing.
Given the many attacks on public health this year, APHA 2025 has taken on great importance, especially for young professionals, said Lauren Rauh, MPH, director of programs at the CUNY School of Public Health Foundation.
“For newcomers, it is a chance to explore the full landscape of public health — different populations, approaches, innovations and disciplines,” said Rauh, who is moderating a Monday, Nov. 3, session on developing public health leaders.
“I always leave the meeting exhausted but inspired, with new ideas and connections that shape my work throughout the year,” Rauh told The Nation's Health.
On Wednesday, Nov. 4, the closing session will be a talk between Shelley Hearne, MD, director of the Johns Hopkins Lerner Center for Public Health Advocacy, and Rep. Justin Jones, D-Tenn., who has challenged the status quo in the Tennessee General Assembly. They will discuss how to reaffirm public health and affect policy.
Annual Meeting attendees can also dip their toes in activities before the event officially kicks off. Among the offerings are APHA's pre-Annual Meeting Learning Institute courses, held Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 1-2. Session topics include AI, biostatistics and using “motivational interviewing,” to talk to vaccine skeptics.
On Saturday, Jon Gilgof, PhD, MSW, a research manager at the University of Maryland School of Social Work, and Clara Wellons, MPH, both leaders in APHA's Men's Health Caucus, will co-present “Men and Boy's Health Summit,” which will explore factors that shorten and worsen men's lives.
“Men's expected lifespans and poor health outcomes are tied directly to their gender and are a product of an inequitable social system,” Wellons told The Nation's Health. “Working to better understand and improve men's health will not only help men but help individuals of all genders.”
Also on Saturday, women will be in the spotlight during the APHA Women's Leadership Institute, which invites attendees to define their personal leadership philosophy and learn how to apply it to public health, and the National Student Meeting, organized by APHA's Student Assembly.
APHA 2025's Public Health Expo is another must-see experience. Held Sunday through Tuesday, the expo will feature hundreds of exhibitors covering public health topics and learning opportunities, including universities, technological companies, publishers and nonprofit groups. The expo is also home to poster sessions, where researchers share public health findings one-on-one with attendees.
Hundreds of abstracts will be presented during three days of poster sessions, allowing attendees to connect one-on-one.
Photo by Michele Late
Also in the expo hal, APHA Press authors and editors will sign books and meet attendees on Sunday, Nov. 3, from 12:45 to 4:30 p.m.
Among the authors will be Jamila Porter, DrPH, MPH, principal investigator for MADE for Heath Justice at the de Beaumont Foundation. Porter co-authored the new APHA Press book “Advancing Equity and Justice,” which offers insights into the foundations of social oppression and health inequity.
“We are part of a defining moment in our nation's history,” Porter told The Nation's Health. “As we face coordinated and unrelenting attacks on equity and justice, their future is at a crossroads and it depends on the choices we make: We can choose to give in and let efforts to censor and attack people go unanswered, or we can fight back with all the tools of the legal system and the know-how of social justice movements.”
Porter will also moderate a Champion Conversation on Monday in which a panel of APHA Press authors will discuss the future of health equity.
Networking is always a big part of the Annual Meeting. Among the opportunities to connect are social events, Coffee Talks and the Travel Lovers Meet-Up, where people who enjoy travel can share tips. APHA member groups, universities and a range of public health partners will also be hosting evening social events.
In addition, meeting-goers will want to be part of a special APHA-only night at the National Museum of African American History and Culture on Monday, reservations for which can be made online now.
APHA 2025 attendees can cap off the meeting's events by showing their support at APHA's Rally for the Public's Health on the National Mall in downtown D.C. Thousands of people are expected at the public event, which will be held from 2:30-4 p.m. on Nov. 5.
“We're coming together to raise our voices for the issues that affect every person's health and future — from climate change to gun violence to reproductive rights,” Susan Polan, PhD, APHA's associate executive director, told The Nation's Health. “Together we can show the power and unity of the public health community.”
For more information on APHA 2025, including housing, registration and the meeting program, visit www.apha.org/annual-meeting. For the rally, visit www.apha.org/rally.
- Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association
