American Public Health Association

American Public Health Association
The American Public Health Association (APHA) is a Washington, D.C.-based professional membership and advocacy organization for public health professionals in the United States. APHA is the largest professional organization of public health professionals in the United States and host the largest gathering of public health professionals in the world at their annual meeting and exhibition.
History
In 1872, American Public Health Association was founded by a group of physicians, including Dr. Stephen Smith and Dr. Henry Hartshorne. APHA has been involved in every major significant public health program of the last 150 years. A list of major milestones can be found on their website, completed in celebration of their 150th anniversary.
Description
APHA has more than 25,000 members worldwide. The association defines itself as an organization that: "champions the health of all people and all communities. We strengthen the public health profession. We speak out for public health issues and policies backed by science. We are the only organization that combines a 150-plus year perspective, a broad-based member community and the ability to influence federal policy to improve the public's health." It defines its mission as: "Improve the health of the public and achieve equity in health status."
The organization is divided into sections, special interest groups, affiliates, forums, and caucuses. Sections are the primary organizing units in APHA composed of individuals with shared interest in topics, practice areas, or conditions. Affiliates are state-based public health associations. Forums are cross-organization bodies around an interdisciplinary health topic. Special interest groups are groups organizing themselves into a section. Caucuses are outside professional organizations that are organized around social issues or populations in official relation with APHA.
Governance
APHA is governed by a 24 member executive board, and led by an executive committee composed of a chair, vice-chair, president (elect and immediate), speaker, and treasurer. The legislative body of the organization is the governing council, which is composed of voting and non-voting members. Each part of the association is self-governed.
Membership
APHA has five types of membership: regular, retired, early-career professional, organizational, and student. Members receive an online subscription to the American Journal of Public Health and The Nation's Health as well as a weekly newsletter, Inside Public Health.
APHA awards
National APHA awards
The accomplishments of public health leaders are recognized through an awards program. APHA presents its national awards during its annual meeting. National APHA awards include:
Sedgwick Memorial Medal
APHA Award for Excellence
David P. Rall Award for Advocacy
Helen Rodríguez Trías Award
Lyndon Haviland Public Health Mentoring Award
Martha May Eliot Award
Milton and Ruth Roemer Prize
Victor W. Sidel and Barry S. Levy Award for Peace
Ayman El-Mohandes Young Professional Public Health Innovation Award
Section awards
The Public Health Education and Health Promotion section recognizes individuals in six award categories. The awards include the Distinguished Career Award, Early Career Award, Mayhew Derryberry Award for contributions of behavioral scientists to health education, Mohan Sing Award for humor in health education, Sarah Mazelis Award for health education practitioners, and Rogers Award for public health communication.
The Statistics section offers the Mortimer Spiegelman Award to a statistician under the age of 40 for contribution to public health statistics.
Sponsored awards
Rema Lapouse Award – sponsored by the Mental Health, Epidemiology, and Statistics Sections, this award is granted to an outstanding scientist in the area of psychiatric epidemiology.
Publications
The American Public Health Association publishes more than 70 public health books. Several of these are the reference source for their specialty within public health practice. Some publication titles include:
Control of Communicable Diseases Manual
Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater
Landesman's Public Health Management of Disasters: The Practice Guide
Public Health Newswire
Black Women’s Reproductive Health and Sexuality: A Holistic Public Health Approach
Health Inequities and African Americans: A Comprehensive Examination
In addition, APHA publishes the American Journal of Public Health, a monthly peer-reviewed public health journal covering public health and policy. APHA also publishes The Nation's Health, a monthly newspaper covering public health news and APHA updates.
Annual meeting
The APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition is the largest meeting of public health professionals in the world. The meeting draws more than 13,000 attendees, offers 700 booths of exhibits and features more than 1,000 scientific sessions. Presentations cover new research and trends in public health science and practice.
National Public Health Week
National Public Health Week is an observance organized annually by APHA during the first full week of April. The week’s activities are designed to highlight issues that are important to improving the public’s health.
Affordable Care Act
In June 2019, The American Public Health Association firmly condemned official litigation with the United States of America by the Trump administration. At the end of the Trump administration, the APHA opposed a legal filing with the Supreme Court which would have repealed the Affordable Care Act. This Supreme Court case was decided in June 2021, and the court left the Affordable Care Act in place.
Mortimer Spiegelman Award
1970: Edward Perrin
1971: P. A. Lachenbruch
1972: Manning Feinleib
1973: Joseph L. Fleiss
1974: Gary G. Koch
1975: Jane Menken
1976: A. A. Afifi
1977: David Hoel
1978: Ross Prentice
1979: Mitchell H. Gail
1980: Norman Breslow
1981: Robert F. Woolson
1982: Joel Kleinman
1983: J. Richard Landis
1984: Stephen Lagakos
1985: John Crowley (statistician)
1986: Anastasios Tsiatis
1987: L. J. Wei
1988: Thomas Fleming (statistician)
1989: Colin B. Begg
1990: Kung-Yee Liang
1991: Scott L. Zeger
1992: Ronald S. Brookmeyer
1993: Martin Abba Tanner
1994: Louise M. Ryan
1995: Christopher J. Portier
1996: Jeremy M. G. Taylor
1997: Margaret S. Pepe
1998: Peter Bacchett
1999: Danyu Lin
2000: Bradley P. Carlin
2001: Daniel E. Weeks
2002: Xihong Lin
2003: Michael Abbott Newton
2004: Mark van der Laan
2005: Rebecca Betensky
2006: Francesca Dominici
2007: David Dunson
2008: Hongyu Zhao
2009: Rafael Irizarry
2010: Nilanjan Chatterjee
2011: Sudipto Banerjee
2012: Amy Herring
2013: Debashis Ghosh
2014: Tyler VanderWeele
2015: John D. Storey
2016: Roger D. Peng
2017: Limin Peng
2018: Raphael Gottardo
2019: Daniela Witten
2020: Jeffrey T. Leek
References
External links
America's Health Rankings
State Health Stats
American Public Health Association - APHA
Campaign for Children's Health Care
American Journal of Public Health - AJPH
The Nation's Health
Get Ready Campaign
National Public Health Week
Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater
Public Health Newswire
Public health organizations
Medical and health organizations based in Washington, D.C.
Health care-related professional associations based in the United States
Health education organizations
Organizations established in 1872
1872 establishments in Washington, D.C.