Each year, thousands of public health professionals gather for the American Public Health Association (APHA) Annual Meeting & Expo for five days of insightful conversations and learning. By bringing together thousands of leaders, advocates, researchers, and more, this meeting is also one of the best opportunities of the year for the public health field to connect with one another and explore new partnership possibilities. The relationship building that APHA facilitates opens the door to new ways for us to share common challenges and lessons learned, and partner together on solutions that can help improve health in our communities.
In less than a week, I’m excited to attend my first APHA Annual Meeting & Expo as CityHealth’s new National Director of Partnerships. Apart from attending presentations and panel sessions (don’t miss our president, Shelley Hearne, talking about data-driven decision making on November 5 at 1pm), what I’m most looking forward to is connecting with past colleagues, new acquaintances, and public health and city leaders from across the country. These relationships are the cornerstone of our work here at CityHealth: Without the partnership of leaders in each of the 40 cities—and soon, 75 cities—we assess, we would not be able to advance the nine evidence-based policies we know work so well to create thriving communities for all.
Through these partnerships, our city leaders have made significant progress and I’m excited to announce our new city medal rankings, which will be released on November 13. To be among the first to see how your city ranks, sign up for our newsletter here.
Whether we’re bumping into each other in between sessions, chatting in-person and on social media during our partner the de Beaumont Foundation’s Sunset TweetUp on November 5, or connecting at the CityHealth booth in the exhibit hall (we’ll be at booth #811, with the de Beaumont Foundation—please stop by!), I look forward to meeting and speaking with you in Philadelphia on November 2-6!
In the meantime, please don’t hesitate to reach out and connect with me at katrina@www.cityhealth.org.
