APHA, Day 1: the Arrival
Hi there! We are Samantha Herbert, Veronica Junghahn, and Jillian Racoosin. We met at the Mailman School last year during the MPH Core and all three of us are Sociomedical Sciences students with a certificate in Health Promotion, Research, and Practice. We attended this year's APHA conference in Chicago and we’re excited to share our experience with you.
Highlight on Opening General Session:
Upon arriving in Chicago we went straight to the conference so we could attend the Opening General Session. The venue was huge and overwhelming, but it was really exciting to see the thousands of people committed to improving the health of others all in one location. We were really excited to see the Surgeon General of the United States, Vice Admiral Vivek H. Murthy, speak, and he did not disappoint. He spoke about the responsibility we have as public health leaders to move the general public from a place of desperation regarding their health, to inspiration. He explained that if we can inspire people, we can help them change their health and also the health of those around them. Dr. Murthy ended by saying, “[The] pursuit of health is pursuit of justice. We have the power to change the world around us. The question is- do we choose to do so.”
Next, the APHA President, Shiriki Kumanyika, welcomed us all to the 143rd APHA Conference and introduced the APHA’s new movement- Generation Public Health. The movement strives to promote health equity by going beyond disparities and determinants in order to promote overall health for all. She challenged us all to work at a broader scale than we have worked at before to become generation public health - the Healthiest Nation in One Generation.
Finally, Dr. Freeman A. Hrabowski, President of the University of Maryland Baltimore County, inspired us all with his powerful and engaging speech. He touched upon the importance of education for all, the desperate need for health equity in our country, and the value of being purposeful and committed to everything we do. After listening to these three exceptional individuals and many others, we were excited and ready to immerse ourselves into APHA!
Highlight on expo:
After the Opening General Session we explored the entire expo with its hundreds of booths and collected pamphlets, flyers, pens, and other swag in addition to learning about outside organizations. We got to meet people from organizations such as the American Heart Association, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Public Health Institute, while also learning about groups we weren’t as familiar with.
Highlight on networking event:
To finish up our first day we attended the APHA’s Health Communications Working Group “Speed Networking and Social Hour.” The event featured 15-20 health communication professionals that were kind enough to meet with students and young professionals to share information about their careers in health communication and answer any questions we had about working in the field. We were excited to see Mailman professor Renata Schiavo as one of the mentors at this event. All of the individuals were doing inspiring work and it helped the three of us see the vastness of the health communication field. Another plus, we got to practice our networking skills before tackling the expo once again on day 2!
By Samantha Herbert, Veronica Junghahn, and Jillian Racoosin
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