Health Equity Episodes

April 20, 2023

403: Immunization Data Sharing Reports, Equity Summit Take-Aways

Elizabeth Ruebush, ASTHO Senior Director of Public Health Data Modernization and Informatics, previews two reports to help members navigate the immunization information sharing landscape; Dr. Angelica Geter, Executive Vice President of Strategy and...
April 19, 2023

402: Equity Change Agents, Equity Success In Michigan

Dr. Somava Saha, Founder and CEO of WE in the World, shares a framework to help public health officials create health equity; Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, Chief Medical Executive for the State of Michigan, explains how Michigan has reduced health...
April 13, 2023

398: Reducing STI Stigma, Community Engagement Benefits

For STI Awareness Week, Dr. Thomas Dobbs, former State Health Officer for the Mississippi State Department of Health, discusses STI treatment and prevention; ASTHO President Dr. Anne Zink urges providers to test their patients for syphilis; a new...
April 10, 2023

395: Invisible Disabilities, Is PH Ready or Not?

On Day Six of National Public Health Week, Dr. Alexis Travis, former Senior Deputy Director for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, says accessibility accommodations must continually evolve to be effective; Dr. J. Nadine Gracia,...
April 7, 2023

394: Rural Health Solutions, Healthy People 2030 Training

On Day Five of National Public Health Week, Elke Shaw-Tulloch, Idaho Public Health Administrator for the Idaho Department of Health & Welfare, explains the challenges facing rural health care; a new ASTHO micro-learning teaches the connection between...
April 5, 2023

392: Emergency Contraception, PH Workforce Panel

On Day Three of Public Health Week, Kelly Cleland, Executive Director of the American Society for Emergency Contraception, says college students need access to emergency contraception and related services; a new ASTHO blog article outlines how...
April 3, 2023

390: Impact of Community on PH, Indigenous Data Justice

Dr. Steven J. Stack, Commissioner for Public Health with the Kentucky Department for Public Health, kicks off our coverage of National Public Health Week with a focus on how the idea of community impacts public health; Abigail Echo-Hawk, Director of...
March 29, 2023

387: Women Leading ASTHO, Attending TechXpo

Dr. Kimberlee Wyche Etheridge, ASTHO's Senior Vice President of Health Equity and Diversity Initiatives, celebrates women who've held ASTHO leadership positions over the last several decades; Jamie Pina, ASTHO's Vice President of Public Health Data...
March 23, 2023

383: Breastfeeding Partners, USVI Priorities

Carl Route Jr., Program Director for Reaching our Brothers Everywhere, says his group is on a mission to educate, equip, and empower men to increase breastfeeding rates and decrease infant mortality rates in the African-American community; Justa...
March 16, 2023

378: PH Losing People, History Impacts Equity

Dr. Brian Castrucci, CEO and President of the de Beaumont Foundation, talks about data that shows public health is on track to lose 130,000 people by 2025; an ASTHO blog article discusses how colonialism, military presence, and political influence all...
March 15, 2023

377: Lingering Pandemic Impacts, Screening for Syphilis

Dr. Scott Harris, State Health Officer for Alabama Public Health, addresses the startling statistic that there have been more deaths in Alabama than births for two straight years; Nada Hassanein, Health Inequities Reporter for USA Today, writes about...
March 9, 2023

373: PH Funding Barriers, Planning an Equity Movement

Dr. Thomas Dobbs, former State Health Officer for the Mississippi State Department of Health and now dean of the John D. Bower School of Population Health at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, urges agencies that fund local public health...
March 7, 2023

371: Tracking COVID Deaths, Building a Justice Movement

Dr. Jonathan Levy, Chair of the Department of Environmental Health with the Boston University School of Public Health, has new research that says white people in Massachusetts now are more likely to die from COVID than black or Hispanic people in the...
Feb. 24, 2023

364: Illinois’ COVID-19 Experience, Khaldun’s Equity Plan for CVS

Dr. Sameer Vorha, Director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, is taking note of the disparities laid bare by COVID-19 in a new guest column written for the Chicago Sun-Times; Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, Vice President and Chief Health Equity...
Feb. 23, 2023

363: Live to the Beat Campaign, Pandemic Take-Away

Kinetra Joseph, Campaign Director for the CDC Foundation, says the Foundation’s Live to the Beat initiative has had a successful first year; Dr. Christopher King, Dean of the Georgetown University School of Health, spent much of his career studying...
Feb. 17, 2023

360: Public Health Deniers, Pacific Islands Equity Summit Begins

Dr. Scott Rivkees, Professor of Practice of Health Services, Policy and Practice at the Brown School of Public Health, writes about the impact of denialism on public health in a guest column published in Washington D.C.’s Hill newspaper; Gaafar...
Feb. 16, 2023

359: Vermont’s Pandemic Communications, Gun Violence Grant

Dr. Mark Levine, Commissioner of the Vermont Department of Health, offers his colleagues some advice in a new ASTHO video about improving public health through data and communication; Dr. David Grossman, Vice President for Social Health and Equity at...
Feb. 13, 2023

356: New York’s Opioid Partnerships, Arizona’s Mobile Vaccination Clinics

Dr. Jim McDonald, New York State Acting Health Commissioner, says partnerships with people in local communities are key to the state's response to the opioid crisis; Siman Qaasim, Health Equity Administrator for the Arizona Department of Health...
Feb. 9, 2023

354: Biden’s Opioid Message, Georgetown’s New Health Dean

Richa Ranade, ASTHO's Senior Director for Overdose Prevention, says it's encouraging to hear President Joe Biden prioritize solutions to the opioid epidemic in his State of the Union address; Dr. Christopher King, the first dean of Georgetown...
Feb. 7, 2023

352: Redefining Community Safety, New Capitol Hill Leadership

Chrissie Juliano, Executive Director of the Big Cities Health Coalition, says the Community Safety Campaign is about making sure people who live in communities have livable wages, and affordable and safe housing; Carolyn McCoy, ASTHO’s Senior...
Feb. 6, 2023

351: A Reporter’s Drug Strategy, Childcare is Public Health

Julie Wernau, Health and Science Reporter at The Wall Street Journal, has spent the last year reporting on the opioid crisis and offers some advice for public health; Shannon Vance, ASTHO Senior Analyst for Family & Child Health, says the difficulty...
Jan. 26, 2023

344: Maine Loves Dr. Shah, Territories Moving Forward

Dr. Nirav Shah, ASTHO Immediate Past President and Director of the Maine Center for Disease Control, reflects on his work in the state of Maine as he readies for his next job as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's number two in charge;...
Jan. 24, 2023

342: Racial Healing, Tech Helps Messaging

Caroline Brunton, Program Officer for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, talks about the National Day of Racial Healing first celebrated by the Foundation seven years ago; Dr. Brannon Traxler, Director of Public Health with the South Carolina Department of...
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...