Emergency Preparedness Episodes

Jan. 20, 2023

340: Climate + Health Equity, ARPA Benefits

Dr. Umair Shah, Secretary of Health for the Washington State Department of Health, is establishing connections between climate change, environmental justice, and health equity; Dr. David Gifford, Chief Medical Officer at the American Health Care...
Jan. 19, 2023

339: Messonnier’s COVID Reflections, Equity Tops Pandemic Lessons

Dr. Nancy Messonnier, Dean of the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health, reflects on the COVID-19 pandemic with her unique perspective as a top CDC official at the time; Dr. John Wiesman, former Washington State...
Dec. 21, 2022

328: Opioids, Equity, and the Medicaid Cliff

Dr. Mark Levine, Vermont Department of Health's Commissioner of Health, discusses the opioid crisis in America and the policies his state has employed to save lives; Alicia Justice, ASTHO Senior Director of Programmatic Health Equity Initiatives and...
Oct. 26, 2022

291: Vermont’s New “Facing Suicide” Campaign

Dr. Mark Levine, Commissioner of the Vermont Department of Health, discusses the state’s new Facing Suicide VT campaign, which focuses on encouraging people to discuss the issue of suicide; ASTHO is working with states and territories to highlight...
Oct. 20, 2022

287: New Disability Preparedness Toolkit

Dawn Skaggs, Emergency, Disaster, and Climate Resilience Specialist for the World Institute on Disability, promotes a new Public Health Emergency Planning Toolkit to help agencies better serve people living with disabilities during emergencies; Lillie...
Oct. 19, 2022

286: Creative Vaccine Strategies

Margaret Jaco Manecke, the Director of Practice Improvement at the National Council for Mental Wellbeing, is looking for public health professionals to join the Council’s next annual learning community; an ASTHO work group recommends improvements to...
Oct. 7, 2022

279: Stretching to Improve Equity

Alicia Justice, ASTHO’s Senior Director for Programmatic Health Equity Initiatives and Strategy, talks about the Strategies to Repair Equity and Transform Community Health project, also known as STRETCH; Danny Staley, ASTHO’s Senior Vice President...
Sept. 30, 2022

274: Disaster Planning Tools

Annie Evans, ASTHO’s Director of Preparedness and Disability Integration, talks about two tools that examine the needs of people living with disabilities who suffer disproportionate impacts of disasters; Dr. Kristina Box, State Health Commissioner...
Sept. 29, 2022

273: Classroom Mental Health

Dr. Sharon Hoover, Co-Director of the National Center for School Mental Health, describes how students are wrestling with mental health challenges; Stephen Massey, Director of the Health Action Alliance, discusses a playbook to guide businesses...
Sept. 27, 2022

271: Minnesota Eyes Maternal Disparities

Dr. Brooke Cunningham, Assistant Commissioner for the Health Equity Bureau with the Minnesota Department of Health, details a report that examined maternal deaths from 2017 to 2018; an ASTHO blog article explains how states and the federal government...
Sept. 22, 2022

268: ACEs Legislative Scan

Dr. Jonathan Purtle, Associate Professor at New York University's School of Global Public Health, discusses an ASTHO report on preventing adverse childhood experiences; Lisa Peterson, ASTHO’s Senior Director for Preparedness, talks about ASTHO’s...
Aug. 25, 2022

249: New Flu Vaccine Polling

Dr. Gillian SteelFisher, Director of Global Polling for the Harvard Opinion Research Program, reflects on her latest survey gauging public reaction to seasonal flu vaccines; Paula Tran, State Health Officer for the Wisconsin Department of Health...
Aug. 11, 2022

239: Infectious Disease Planning

Winfred Rawls, ASTHO’s Director for Preparedness and Evaluation, explains a project that will lead to the development of a clearinghouse with information to help public health agencies get ready for the next crisis; Andrea Flinchum, State HAI...
Aug. 8, 2022

236: Optimistic About the PH Workforce

Joanne Pearsol, ASTHO’s Director of Workforce Development, says the PH WINS survey shows many public health workers remain committed to their work despite the way they’ve been treated during the pandemic; Dr. Brian Castrucci, President and CEO of...
July 29, 2022

230: Filling the Workforce Pipeline

Dr. Laura Parajon, Deputy Cabinet Secretary of Health at the New Mexico Department of Health, discusses a new internship program that helps students understand why they might have an interest in a public health career; Eric Cote, an ASTHO Consultant,...
July 21, 2022

224: Children’s Mental Health

Annie Evans, ASTHO’s Director of Preparedness and Disability Integration, discusses the results of an 18-month project that placed disability and preparedness specialists in jurisdictions across the states and territories; John Clymer with the...
June 10, 2022

197: Preparing for Monkeypox

Dr. Marcus Plescia, ASTHO’s Chief Medical Officer, discusses the three-step approach to combat Monkeypox in the U.S.; Dr. Jinlene Chan, Maryland’s Deputy Secretary for Public Health Services, outlines her department’s response to Monkeypox; and...
April 18, 2022

159: Do People Trust Public Health?

Dr. Gillian SteelFisher, Deputy Director of the Harvard Opinion Research Program, says a recent poll finds most U.S. adults think public health agencies are important to their communities; Richard Quartarone, a health communicator in the CDC’s...
April 15, 2022

158: Best of ME– Epidemiologists Needed

Chrissie Juliano, Executive Director of the Big Cities Health Coalition, explains the critical need to hire hundreds of epidemiologists in public health departments nationwide; Richard Hamburg, Executive Director of the Safe States Alliance, outlines...
April 13, 2022

156: STD Awareness

Jessica Baggett, ASTHO’s Director of COVID-19 Response, explains the strategies included in ASTHO’s new COVID-19 management plan; Dr. John Hellerstedt, Commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services, says COVID-19 has led to an...
April 11, 2022

154: Climate Health – Public Health Week

Dr. John Balbus, from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, explains the connection between weather and population health as part of our celebration of National Public Health Week; ASTHO’s Caroline Brazeel says work starts today on the...
April 7, 2022

152: Health as a Human Right – Public Health Week

Dr. Denise Johnson, Pennsylvania’s Physician General, tells us why health is a human right, as we continue our examination of the themes for this year’s National Public Health Week; Kay Matthews, founder and executive director of the non-profit...
April 4, 2022

149: Health Equity - Public Health Week

Dr. Georges Benjamin, Executive Director of the American Public Health Association, says health equity impacts every public health consideration; the 2022 Preparedness Summit begins in Atlanta; data collection for the 2022 ASTHO Profile of State and...
March 22, 2022

143: NIH Study on Masking in Schools

Dr. Sonia Lee, Acting Branch Chief of the NICHD Maternal and Pediatric Infectious Disease Branch at the National Institutes of Health, explains the findings of a new study measuring the impact of mask wearing in schools; Dr. Haley Cash, an...