October 26, 2020

From October 24 - 28, 2020, Dornsife faculty, staff, and students participated in the American Public Health Association’s (APHA) first-ever all virtual Annual Meeting and Expo. The annual meeting, which was initially planned to be in San Francisco, California, was held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite not being able to gather in-person, members of the Dornsife community still participated in the event in numerous ways.

Throughout the conference, guests visited Dornsife’s virtual booth (number 2201) which was staffed by Dornsife’s Enrollment Management and Student Success (EMSS) team. The booth featured many Dornsife videos, news, and stories for those who stopped by. The EMSS team also held two information sessions for prospective students to learn more about the School and ask questions during the conference.

On Monday, October 26, public health professionals and APHA attendees from across the United States tuned in for the 10th annual APHA Day of Action titled “Safer Communities through Racial Justice: Coordinated Virtual Action” which is planned by the Community Health Planning and Policy Development (CHPPD) section. The goal of the event was to take action in support of local and national campaigns that are creating community safety by advocating for divestment from mass punishment, detainment, and incarceration and investment in thriving communities and racial justice. Amy Carroll-Scott, PhD, MPH, associate professor in the Department of Community Health and Prevention at Dornsife, co-lead of Policy and Community Engagement Core at the Urban Health Collaborative, and CHPPD Founder and Chair since 2011, and Samantha Rivera Joseph, MPH, PhD candidate in the department of Community Health and Prevention at Dornsife, each helped organize and coordinate this widely attended event with the support of the Prevention Institute. Dornsife was one of the proud sponsors. You can watch the event here.

Below are sessions that members of the Dornsife community took part in.

On Monday, October 26, the following sessions took place:

• Immigration Enforcement and State Exclusion in Latinx and Asian Migrant Health moderated by Samantha Rivera Joseph, MPH
• Together we are more: Evaluation of a menstrual hygiene management initiative for adolescent girls in India - Sarah Stevens, MPH, Astha Ramaiya, PhD, Kelli Kostizak, MPH, and Suruchi Sood, PhD
• Violence patterns and their associations with mental health and neurological conditions among women with a history of illicit drug use - Janna Ataiants, DrPH, MPA, and Stephen Lankenau, PhD

On Tuesday, October 27, the following sessions took place:

• Assessing structural barriers and facilitators to violence prevention: Perspectives from Philadelphia community-based organizations - Samantha Rivera Joseph, MPH, and Amy Carroll-Scott, PhD, MPH
• Building a coalition to work across organizations and sectors to prevent community violence in Philadelphia - Amy Carroll-Scott, PhD, MPH, Samantha Rivera Joseph, MPH, John Rich, MD, MPH, and Ted Corbin, MD, MPP
• Sustainability of Violence Prevention: Anchoring Efforts within Existing Community Assets - Amy Carroll-Scott, PhD, MPH
• Perceived neighborhood collective efficacy and awareness of community-level resources - Zach Fusfeld, MPH, Maggie Beverly, MPH, Erikka Gilliam, MS, MPH, Irene Headen, PhD, MS, Matthew Jannetti, MSPPM, Samantha Rivera Joseph, MPH, Kelley Traister, MSW, Amy Carroll-Scott, PhD, MPH, and Félice Lê-Scherban, PhD, MPH
• Violations of human rights of pregnant women who use drugs in Russia - Janna Ataiants, DrPH, MPA
• COVID-19 in context: Racism, segregation, and racial inequities in Philadelphia - Sharrelle Barber, ScD, MPH
• What types of evidence provide a persuasive rationale for adverse childhood experience prevention policies? results from a national survey - Jonathan Purtle, DrPH, MPH, MSc, Katherine Nelson, MPH, Aditi Srivastav Bussells, PhD, MPH, and Sarah Gollust, PhD
• Testify & rectify: Violence against EMS responders organized - Jennifer Taylor, PhD, MPH, CPPS
• Rectify 2: Developing model policy - evolution of the saver systems checklist to address stress and violence in EMS - Regan Murray, MPH, EMT, Sherry Brandt-Rauf, MPhil, JD, Benjamin Vernon, Kelly Adams, and Jennifer Taylor, PhD, MPH, CPPS
• Applying online survey research to define audience characteristics of the African health education series "c'est la vie!" - Matthew Kearney, MPH, PhD(c), Ali Groves, PhD, MHS, Abdou Gning, Marieme Fall, Deborah Glik, ScD, and Philip Massey, PhD, MPH

On Wednesday, October 28, the following sessions took place:

• Heat related mortality in 340 Guatemalan municipalities - Wesley Goodman-Levy, MD/MPH(c), and Kevin Martinez-Folgar, MD
• Integrating arts into public health education, community wellbeing and social justice: Drexel university's new MPH graduate minor - Rabbi Nancy Epstein, MPH, MAHL
• Policies and Programs to Advance Health Equity co-hosted by Garumma Feyissa, PhD, MPH

To all who had work recognized at APHA or presented, congratulations on this achievement.

In advance of the meeting, Ashley M. Geczik, MPH, a doctoral student in the department of Environmental and Occupational Health at Dornsife, received the James Keogh Scholarship award to attend the by the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Section. Congratulations, Ashley!

To view tweets from the meeting, check out the hashtag "#APHA2020" via Twitter.

To see videos from the meeting, check out APHA’s YouTube channel.