Dear HSPH Members,
APHA will be in Boston this year.
HSPH faculty, students, researchers, and postdoctoral fellows will present more than 130 presentations and posters at this year's meeting. Reflecting the broadness of public health, the topics are wonderfully varied. For example, there will be presentations on "Protecting Children from Secondhand Smoke in Cars"; "Nutrients, Breastmilk HIV Shedding, and Child Health"; "The Healthy Public Housing Initiative"; and "Using Data to Bring Together Health and Human Rights." Visit HSPH @ APHA for calendar listings of APHA presentations by HSPH members.
The theme of this year's meeting is "Public Health and Human Rights." This subject is important to the mission of public health and to the School. HSPH houses the unique Franúois-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, whose founding director was human rights champion Jonathan Mann. The former Director of the WHO HIV/AIDS department, Professor Jim Yong Kim, now heads the Center. The School is also involved in the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative through the work of experts such as Professor Jennifer Leaning and colleague Michael VanRooyen. We have the Program on International Health and Human Rights, directed by Professor Sofia Gruskin in the Department of Population and International Health. She has organized a pre-APHA meeting with the Health and Human Rights Initiative of the University of New South Wales.
As in the past, the School will have a booth, number 1329, at the meeting's Public Health Expo.
Several HSPH members and alumni will be honored at the meeting. Among them is Jonathan Fielding, MPH 71, who will receive the Sedgwick Medal, the most prestigious award given by APHA. Adam Finkel, SD 87, will receive the David P. Rall Award for Advocacy in Public Health. Professor R. Heather Palmer will receive the 7th Annual Medical Care Section Donabedian Award for presenting an innovative model for integrating quantitative and qualitative research design into quality improvement studies. Professor Felton Earls will be honored with the Rema Lapouse Award from the Section on Mental Health. The meeting will also initiate Deborah Klein Walker's term as president of APHA. Professor Walker is a former associate commissioner at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, an HSPH Adjunct Lecturer, and an alumna of GSE.
As with each year, I look forward to meeting HSPH alumni at the annual reception held at the conference. The Office of Alumni Programs has invited current students at the School to attend the reception, which will take place at the Convention Center.
To aid travel back and forth between HSPH and the Convention Center, Operations and the Office of the Dean have made available a free shuttle to HSPH registrants with a Harvard ID.
And the Office of Communications, working with Information Technology, has plans to blog the meeting.
I wish you all a productive and inspiring experience at APHA.
Sincerely,
Barry R. Bloom, Dean
Copyright, 2007, President and Fellows of Harvard College
