This episode is the first in a two-part series that will explore how the concept of chief health strategist is defined, how it works, and how public health leaders can rethink their approach to be more effective in their communities.
Five great reasons to attend ASTHO's 2023 Health Equity Summit.
As the country prepares for the inauguration of President-Elect Joseph R. Biden, Jr. on Wednesday, the incoming administration has highlighted several priorities over the next four years. This post is a summary of priorities that are closely aligned with the work and interests of state and territorial public health, including continued COVID-19 recovery and response, and climate change.
Six DELPH scholars give their insights to learn more about how the data modernization initiative and DEI intersect with public health.
With many of the state and territorial legislatures reconvening over the next few weeks, we can look forward to new (and not-so-new) legislation start to crop up that will impact public health. To help navigate the new legislative sessions, ASTHO’s "2021 Legislative Prospectus" series highlights eight priority policy areas jurisdictions will address during this year. Each prospectus in the series provides a brief overview of the issue, the issue’s impact on health, and recent legislative trends aimed at addressing the issue. This year, ASTHO developed prospectuses on COVID-19, e-cigarettes, HIV, influenza, maternal mortality and morbidity, neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), and rural health.
ASTHO CEO Michael Fraser, PhD, and Tracey Wareing Evans, President and CEO of APHSA, sit down to discuss building a foundational family well-being roadmap amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
As public health officials lead the pandemic response, clear direction-setting in every state and territories is vital to assure our planning and implementation is fair and focused on those most at need. These are not entirely unprecedented times—1918 pandemic flu killed almost 700,000 Americans. Even then, despite increasing understanding of respiratory disease transmission, many leaders—including public health leaders—downplayed the pandemic and refused to take effective steps to limit large gatherings and encourage mask wearing. Changing behavior, or introducing new social norms, was as difficult then as it is now. We have to learn from history if we are to effectively respond to our present reality.
ASTHO engaged Oklahoma public health officials, members of the Oklahoma Harm Reduction Alliance, Health Minds Policy Initiative, and representatives of the Southern Plains Tribal Health Board, and others in a Boundary Spanning Leadership workshop.
Learn how boundary spanning leadership can help develop more robust and productive public health workplaces.
Developing Executives Leading in Public Health (DELPH) is a leadership development program that increases and strengthens participants’ visibility and exposure in public health systems, access to key networks, and leadership development opportunities.
As in any sector, there is often talk in the public health field of “working upstream,” or addressing problems at their source. If public health is going to be a changemaker in the world, its leaders must be equal parts nimble and innovative.
Four DELPH participants answer the question, “Which is more important for leadership in health equity: to influence the community to follow the leader’s vision or to influence the community to follow their own vision?”
In February 2023, ASTHO staff traveled to Koror, Palau for a four-day health equity summit and held workshops to identify, select, and prioritize measures for Palau’s health equity work.
It has never been more important for public health to better understand the disability community and quickly build skills and resources to better serve them, which makes it critical to include more people living with disabilities in the public health workforce.
Every year on Nov. 22, ASTHO—and countless other agencies and organizations worldwide—take a moment to acknowledge the public health workforce on Public Health Thank You Day. Like so many other days of recognition, it has become a blip on our yearly calendar. And, simply put, that’s just not enough. This year, ASTHO leadership took pen to paper to share some of our feelings, fears, and—yes, our thanks—for everything the public health workforce has always done to protect us.
Amid so much uncertainty, it might feel naïve to make any claims about what the future holds. But it is in these moments that it becomes more important than ever to have beacons to guide us and give us hope. As we look ahead to 2022, here are four priorities that must steer the public health course in the year to come.
An issue that public health wrestles with is how to combat racism as we would any other public health emergency. ASTHO’s board of directors has declared structural racism a public health emergency. And health equity is the number one priority in ASTHO’s strategic plan, which means our staff will prioritize equity work as we support all aspects of our members’ technical assistance and capacity building needs.
This interview is part of ASTHO’s Leadership Trailblazers series, which shares outstanding public health leaders’ inspirations, motivations, and accomplishments. This post features CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, MD, MPH.
Vaccines are one of the greatest public health achievements of the last century, as well as some of the most powerful and cost-effective tools to prevent disease, disparities, disability, and death among children and adults. The COVID-19 pandemic and the unprecedented development and distribution of the vaccines against the novel coronavirus have generated much focus on state laws related to vaccinations. As state and territorial legislatures prepare to convene in the coming weeks, we can already identify several topics within vaccine law that policymakers across the country will consider.
While governments have faced challenges in adopting a Health in All Policies (HiAP) approach to respond to COVID-19, the impact of the public health emergency across sectors such as housing, transportation, and employment has created a unique opportunity for stakeholders to build and strengthen collaborative systems to address the inequities exacerbated by COVID-19.