862: Kanter at ASTHO Spring Leadership Meeting

SUMMER JOHNSON: 

This is the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition for Thursday, March 13, 2025. I'm Summer Johnson. Now, today's news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

We're here at the ASTHO Spring Leadership Meeting this week, where ASTHO members are collaborating, learning and meeting with policy-makers. We caught up with ASTHO CEO Dr. Joseph Kanter between meetings, and asked him about the week and marking the fifth anniversary of COVID.

JOSEPH KANTER: 

It's a busy week for a lot of reasons. Right now, we've had an excellent time at the Spring Leadership Forum. It's been an opportunity to talk about really important topics, to bring health officials together. It's been really rejuvenating, and it's been good to be together at the same time there are existential threats to public health. Right now, we're in the middle of congressional negotiations over the budget. We're talking about the future of the CDC and HHS, and it feels like a very weighty, weighty time. It's important in public health to let people know what we do, why we do it, why it's important. That's one of the reasons why every year, state health officials take this time in the spring to go to the Hill to take meetings with congressional offices and talk about what public health means for those local communities. One of the aspects of public health is our successes are often secret. Nobody knows when we do a really effective job. No one thinks that just because they didn't get sick, that anything was behind that. But there's actually a whole apparatus keeping your food safe, keeping your water safe, etc., etc., because those happen in the background; because people take it for granted, because people only know about it when it doesn't work, the onus is on us to tell people about that, to educate about what public health is, why it's important, why it improved your life today and you just didn't know it. That's what the Washington Week and the Hill visits are all about; is making sure that that stays in the forefront of people's minds. And when we talk about important issues like congressional funding and what the federal health agencies look like, we need to make sure we're doing the best job that we can to communicate why public health helped your community today, even if you didn't know it.

JOHNSON: 

Dr. Kanter, what are some of the major takeaways from this week so far? We still have a couple of very busy and full days to go.

KANTER: 

Well, this is a rapidly changing time in public health, for obvious reasons. One of the takeaways I have is, despite the changes, despite the rhetoric, despite what one might think the public health workforce might be feeling, given current events and what's in the news and rhetoric, I am leaving this event immensely optimistic about the individuals working towards the public health in departments throughout the country. There are incredibly committed, talented professionals who show up every day with one goal in mind: to make people's lives healthier and better. That's incredibly uplifting to me. I feel so rejuvenated and motivated being able to talk and meet with such incredible professionals at all stages of their career. One of the aspects that's really important to ask, though, is professional development. And we have [the] ASTHO Leadership Institute and executive leaders' programs and to talk to individuals, maybe mid-career or even earlier, sometimes about why they went into the field, why they're still interested, what motivates them. It's a really nice break from the news, which can be challenging these days, so I've been incredibly uplifted and motivated by hearing their stories. And what keeps them focused at work,

JOHNSON: 

You're in the perfect job, if that's your favorite thing to do is to meet with public health professionals and hear their stories. Of course, every day on this newscast, we talk to public health professionals. Dr. Kanter, if you'll talk to them, especially in light of what you were saying is, we're in a very interesting time for public health. Share some words of encouragement, if you will, for public health professionals who might be listening.

KANTER: 

Absolutely. You know, for decades, public health was in the background. Few people knew we were there and we twirled away and did our work relatively undisturbed. COVID changed all of that in good ways and bad ways. But you know, I think if you stop someone on the street right now and ask them, what is public health, they very well might answer mask mandates and vaccines and other COVID-related things; that's point. Oh, 1% of public health, that's such a small slice of what public health is. But because of the pandemic, that's what's foremost and on a lot of people's minds. It's our time to change that right now. It's our time to reintroduce public health, to remind people why it's so important, why it helped you, helped your community today, even if you don't realize it. So, there's no question we're in the spotlight right now. Congressionally, there's lots of discussions about what the future looks like. My message to people is that your work matters, even if people don't recognize it today, even if reading the news wouldn't lend you to feel that way, even if people are out there on TV criticizing your department or your work, your work matters. It's important, and the community is healthier because of what you do.

JOHNSON: 

Thank you for your time, Dr. Kanter. Good luck on the rest of your week.

Make sure you stay tuned for tomorrow's episode, as we report from the ASTHO Spring Leadership Meeting. We'll bring you those conversations tomorrow morning at 5 a.m. wherever you get your podcasts.

An upcoming webinar focuses on the positive [impact] public health AmeriCorps can provide. O'Keyla Cooper explains.

Join ASTHO on Thursday, April 3, from 3-4 p.m. ET to explore how Public Health AmeriCorps (PHA) strengthens workforce development through health department partnerships. Speakers from the Indiana Department of Health and NACDD will share strategies, success stories, and insights on integrating PHA members. Register now via the link in the show notes.

That'll do it for today. We're back tomorrow morning with more ASTHO news and information. I'm Summer Johnson. You're listening to the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition. Have a great day.