Episodes

ASTHO's Lana McKinney outlines how states are taking a broader approach to healthy aging, with renewed focus on prevention, dementia awareness, and related legislation, including caregiver support, public education efforts, and dementia-capable training.

Shebra Hall, chief of the Bureau of Chronic Disease for the Delaware Division of Public Health and a 2026 DELPH graduate, highlights how a cardiovascular health learning collaborative helps partners share resources, strengthen communication, and address health from clinical and community perspectives.

Santiago González-Irizarry and Larissa Pardo from DC Health discuss how PHIG funding and data modernization efforts helped the agency move from reactive, disconnected systems toward a coordinated data governance structure.

With midterm elections approaching, uncertainty is building around the next phase of the congressional calendar. In this View from Washington D.C., Jeffrey Ekoma, vice president of Government Affairs, talks about the latest developments in Washington and what they could mean for health policy and federal funding. He discusses the status of key Health and Human Services nominations, including leadership positions at HHS, ASPR, FDA, the Surgeon General’s office, and SAMHSA. Jeffrey also breaks dow...

Andrew Kress, CEO of HealthVerity, and ASTHO's Tabatha Offutt-Powell discuss how the Public Health Data Consortium aims to expand public health access to real-world data, exploring its potential to strengthen disease surveillance and health equity efforts while addressing privacy, governance, and implementation challenges.

Elysia Gonzales from Public Health - Seattle & King County discusses how her team developed a prioritization framework and adapted an ASTHO framework into a five-tier system. She highlights the importance of clearly defining problems, getting leadership buy-in, and leveraging existing tools.

Rachel Sheehan of Premier, Inc. explores how data-driven strategies, quality improvement initiatives, and stronger community partnerships can reduce maternal mortality, expand maternity care access, and improve health outcomes for mothers and families.

For National Child Health Day, Meghan Maroney of Voices for Healthy Kids, an American Heart Association initiative, highlights how nutrition during a child's first years of life can have lasting effects on their health and development. Maroney also spotlights the importance of parent and caregiver engagement in shaping policies and programs across states and territories.

In this episode, Catherine Murphy, former senior analyst for Government Affairs at ASTHO and congressional aide, shares insights on how public health professionals can effectively engage with Congress and advocate for their priorities. She highlights the value of patience, finding common ground, and connecting public health policy and funding to real community impact.

Cameron Webb, ASTHO member and commissioner of the Virginia Department of Health, highlights the agency's approach to building trust, strengthening the public health workforce, and implementing a new electronic health record system.

In this episode, Alysia Mihalakos, chief of the Center for Emergency Preparedness and Response at the Rhode Island Department of Health, shares how serving as a subject matter expert for Jodi Picoult's novel "Hollow Bones" helped bring the realities of public health preparedness to life, from emergency exercises and partnerships to resource constraints and post-pandemic workforce challenges.

Paul Cantey of CDC and U.S. Public Health Service discusses the current status of New World Screwworm in the United States and explains how federal, state, territorial, and local agencies are coordinating their response, early recognition and treatment, and what public health professionals should know.

Jessica Malaty Rivera from The Public Good Projects discusses the questions and concerns emerging around the new mRNA flu vaccine and why communicators should focus on providing clear information to encourage questions while keeping evidence-based information front and center.

In today's episode, Lawrence Greenblatt, an ASTHO member and state health director of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, discusses the state's approach to healthy aging. Later, hear from Jewel Mullen, an ASTHO alum and associate professor at Dell Medical School, about the importance of boundary-spanning leadership in addressing public health challenges.

Colin Gerber from the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists discusses the Data Science Team Training program and how the initiative helps public health staff build data science skills through project-based training, professional development, subject matter expert coaching, and peer collaboration.

CNMI Commonwealth Healthcare Corporation's Warren Villagomez, Patrick Fitial, and ASTHO Member Esther Muna discuss how the territory prepared for back-to-back super typhoons in 2026 and responded to their aftermath. They describe efforts to activate emergency operations, protect health care facilities, plan workforce coverage, and more before the storms arrived.

Brannon Traxler, ASTHO board member and acting director of the South Carolina Department of Public Health, discusses how coordination among public health, law enforcement, emergency medical services, treatment providers, and community partners has led to a two-year decline in overdose deaths.

In this episode, ASTHO's Anna Bradley explores practical tools, from CRM platforms to SharePoint and spreadsheets, and shares how intentional relationship management can help agencies build stronger, more sustainable connections with the organizations they serve. Discover how public health agencies can strengthen community partnerships by using customer relationship management (CRM) strategies to reduce duplicate outreach, improve coordination, and respect partners' time.

Maggie Nilz, senior analyst for preparedness at ASTHO, discusses how EMS systems are adapting to meet changing community needs and what policymakers are doing to strengthen the systems that support emergency care.

Jennifer Lloyd, assistant director for RecoveryOhio in the office of Governor Mike DeWine, shares about RecoveryRachel, an AI-powered treatment finder designed to help people quickly identify appropriate mental health and substance use treatment providers.

On today's installment of the PHIG Impact Report, hear from ASTHO's Colton Anderson and DeMatt Harkins from the Mississippi State Department of Health on how a Quality Advisory Group creates a space to share challenges, exchange tools, and build stronger systems for performance management.

ASTHO member and New Jersey Department of Health Commissioner Raynard Washington discusses his plans to strengthen the state's public health infrastructure, pulling from his past experience in North Carolina and Philadelphia.

ASTHO CEO, Dr. Joseph Kanter, and Vice President for Government Affairs, Jeffrey Ekoma, reflect on the effects of 9/11 and subsequent health emergencies on creating our modern public health preparedness system.

Beth Maldin, deputy commissioner for the Office of Emergency Preparedness and Response at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, reflects on her experience responding to 9/11, the anthrax attacks that followed, and how the events helped transform public health emergency preparedness.