1100: National Public Health Week Day 1: Government Partners

[John Sheehan]
This is Public Health Review Morning Edition for Monday, April 6th, 2026. I'm John Sheehan with
news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. Today is day one of National
Public Health Week, and we'll be discussing government partners.
Our guest, Carolyn Mullen, is ASTHO's Senior Vice President for Government Affairs and Public
Relations. She'll tell us how state and federal agencies collaborate in a complex and often
polarized environment and share how public health leaders find common ground across
political divides, build trust with policymakers, and tailor their messaging to drive real impact.
First, though, let's give our opening word to ASTHO's CEO, Dr. Joseph Kanter, who we ask to
reflect on the invisible winds of public health, like planning for massive events such as Mardi
Gras or the World Cup, work that quietly prevents crises before they start.
[Dr. Joseph Kanter]
National Public Health Week is one of my favorite weeks of the year, particularly because it's an
opportunity to take a step back and recognize the value of public health in itself and the
importance and worth of individuals who spend their careers working in public health. And as
we talk a lot about in this sector, we are victim often to the fact that in public health, our
successes are often invisible and our failures are quite public. But when your successes are
invisible or confidential sometimes, it may be hard to express to the public what you're doing.
You know, it's hard for the public to understand what public health is, why it's important, and
that's not a particularly motivating factor for folks within public health. It can be disheartening.
It can lead to burnout.
So it's important to me to make sure that we take a step back every now and then and reflect
on why public health is important and particularly how the work of public health practitioners,
whether you're in a governmental agency or not, are important and that work is leading to
improving people's lives, in many cases, saving lives. To do that, we've got to continue to tell
stories about how public health improves people's everyday lives, whether they know it or not.
I'll tell you what's on my mind right now is as many cities are doing work, organizing and
helping prepare for the World Cup and various World Cup events and games, and, you know,
the average person in the public doesn't realize how much work goes in on the back end to
assure that a city or a state is prepared from a health and safety standpoint to take in that
many people to do a large event.
Are your hospitals prepared? Do you have surge capacity or EMS prepared? Do you have a
robust system in place to respond to any threats that emerge during that time?
Do you have a surge in your staff and deal epidemiologically with any threats? This is bread and

butter work for public health agencies and it makes the public safer, particularly at a time of
increased risk and usually if everything goes well, nobody ever knows about that. In my home
city of New Orleans, we just got finished with Mardi Gras and, you know, similar story.
Weeks and weeks and weeks of planning typically go in to an event like that to make sure that
folks are ready and prepared and when that goes well, you have the event, families have a
great time and no one knows about it. It's only when it doesn't go well that sometimes it makes
the news. But a lot of people worked very hard to make that event in New Orleans safe to
assure that it went off and people continued to have good access to acute care when they
needed to, to safe food chains and on down the line.
And I know cities or states are having a similar conversation around these World Cup events
right now. So that's one example of behind-the-scenes work that's incredibly important that
probably saves lives and normally no one knows about that. So to me, Public Health Week is an
opportunity to say thank you.
That work is important, even if it doesn't make the headlines, even if it's not terribly sexy, even
if the average person on the street doesn't know it's happening. It helps people live happy, full,
fulfilling lives. In many cases, it saves lives.
That's the work we do day in and day out in public health. And for me, and on behalf of ASTHO,
I really thank public health practitioners for doing that important work.
[John Sheehan]
Dr. Joseph Kanter is CEO of ASTHO. Now let's hear from Carolyn Mullen, ASTHO Senior Vice
President for Government Affairs and Public Relations. With today's National Public Health
Week theme of government partners in mind, we wanted to know more about the challenges
of getting state and federal agencies coordinated and on the same page.
[Carolyn Mullen]
One of the hurdles that exists for getting state and federal agencies on the same page can just
be the political environment that we're currently in right now. However, I really want to frame
this as a positive in terms of the role of state health departments, the role of our members, and
the role of ASTHO is to really implement and find that movable middle. I mean, every
community in the country is red and blue, right?
And we aren't just one blue state and one red state. There are pockets of individuals who think
differently in these communities. And so our members really try to stitch that together and find
programs that work and they to bring about positive improvements to people's lives.
So, yeah, the political environment right now can be a hurdle, but I've been so proud to witness
how our members work collaboratively with the federal government. They try to find areas of
commonality, such as nutrition, for example, is one area where we believe that there is broad,

widespread, bipartisan support to begin working on that. And when there is a difference in
approaches, you know, the authority really rests with the state health department for a lot of
initiatives and activities.
And so you're seeing some other state health departments stand up differently to protect the
health of their population. So sometimes politics can be a barrier, but our members are used to
navigating that in their jurisdictions every day. And so I've been really pleased with how they've
been able to navigate this current time.
[John Sheehan]
And can you talk about the impact of budget cuts on some of the more invisible work of public
health, such as health inspections?
[Carolyn Mullen]
When your community is healthy, they are going to work every day. So healthy people, healthy
communities, healthy economy. And so when the system of public health breaks down, it
means people are going to get sick.
For example, I know many years ago when there were budget cuts, particularly rural state had
to cut back on their number of food inspections to restaurants. And I would say to staff, would
you want to eat an oyster in this state? Because you don't want to get that stomach illness and
food poisoning.
And so when public health works really well, it's invisible. And it's really critical that we have
healthy people that can contribute to society in a meaningful way. And when that breaks down,
it can have a really devastating impact on the economy, on kids going to school and not getting
educated, and on just the well-being of Americans overall.
[John Sheehan]
Are there specific legislative actions that are critical right now to protecting public health
funding?
[Carolyn Mullen]
It's critical that public health is at the table to tell the story about what the impact of these grant
cancellations and clauses are having on the community. They have to educate Congress about
this. Early on last year, I was hearing from members of Congress.
They weren't hearing enough from us. They said, we really need to understand what is
happening in the community. So the action that people need to take is to, one, make sure you
are building that relationship of trust with your members of Congress so you can tell the story
about some of these actions that have happened in the last year.

Number two is really working hard to find commonality. We find when we go to the Hill and
research a member of Congress and understand that they really care about maternal morbidity
and mortality, for example, we'll go into the office and say, hey, we want to talk to your boss
about maternal morbidity and mortality. Tell us how we can partner with you.
Here are the resources and the work that our members are doing in this area. Public health
impacts everybody every day. And you just need to figure out what is that common thread so
you can build that relationship with a member of Congress.
You certainly don't want to go in and talk to them about something they may not care about. So
some members of Congress may not care about food safety, for example. So you don't want to
lead with that.
You want to lead with something that makes their hearts sing and that they really want to
improve for their communities. So there is a lot of front end research that needs to be done
before you go in and have a conversation with Congress. And then the final thing is making
sure you're following up.
So if you see a member of Congress in a hearing talking about vaping, for example, you can
send them resources from your jurisdiction and say, hey, here's how we're addressing teen
vaping in our state. And then they will really appreciate that. But it's not bombarding them and
overwhelming them.
It's just, again, meeting people where they are so you can be that trusted resource moving
forward.
[John Sheehan]
Often the public health workforce is taken for granted until crisis hits. How can government
partners better support public health workers before the next emergency?
[Carolyn Mullen]
Government partners can support the health and physical well-being of the public health
workforce by understanding that they have a really challenging job before them and that these
are tireless public health servants who work day in and day out with their core mission in mind,
which is to protect and promote the health of all Americans. And so when emergency strikes,
sometimes there's a lot of finger pointing and blaming that happens. Why aren't they working
harder?
Why didn't they predict this? And to have a little bit of compassion and empathy when that does
happen is number one. Number two is to provide flexible sources of funding.
What we've learned time and time again is because of the rigidity of some of the federal funds
that come out, it makes it really hard to move people around when emergency strikes. And so

you're overwhelming some facets of the workforce and not able to move other people in the
workforce over to deal with this crisis. So those would be the two top things.
You hear our members talk a lot about how they really care about the people that work for
them and with them every day, and their mental well-being is top of mind for them. So our
members care very much about their workforce and work very hard to provide safe
environments for them, to provide environments where they're creating boundaries so people
aren't working 24 hours or 12 hour shifts, whatever it may be, so that they can focus on that
balance of work and life as well. So they can bring their whole selves to their job every day
without burning out.
So those are just a couple of examples of what I think our government partners can think about
moving forward.
[John Sheehan]
Carolyn Mullen is ASTHO Senior Vice President for Government Affairs and Public Relations.
Effective public health communication depends not only on what we say, but how we share our
message. In an upcoming webinar, join ASTHO as we explore how strong storytelling can
transform complex or sensitive health topics into stories that engage diverse audiences, inspire
action, and drive change.
This webinar will equip participants with concrete storytelling strategies to create impactful
messages that resonate. Learn how to identify the core narrative in your work, choose the right
format for your story, and connect with audiences on topics that are often technical or
stigmatized. You can find the link in the show notes.
The Public Health Hope Equity Resilience and Opportunity, or PHHERO, initiative supports state
and territorial health agencies in addressing workforce burnout, moral injury, and retention
challenges. Grounded in trauma-informed and equity-focused approaches, PHHERO offers
curated resources to protect, support, and strengthen the public health workforce. Discover
evidence-based tools, expert guidance, and research to help build resilient, thriving teams.
Learn more through the link in the show notes. This has been Public Health Review Morning
Edition. I'm John Sheehan for the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.