Public Health Infrastructure Task Force

ASPPH has launched a task force to explore opportunities to rethink, rebuild, and strengthen our nation’s public health with particular attention to the ways academic public health can serve. It is critical for national conversations regarding the future of federal public health to amplify and enhance the strengths of academic public health as a key support structure for the nation’s public health goals. The task force will develop ASPPH recommendations on how academic public health serves as a force multiplier, reflecting and deepening partnerships between academic public health and governmental agencies to drive excellence and innovation in education, research, and practice.

Goals & Scope

The task force builds on the work ASPPH has done with our practice partners since the COVID-19 pandemic to strengthen public health infrastructure and the workforce, including through the ASPPH Center for Public Health Workforce Development and through existing federal investments such as the Prevention Research Centers. It complements that work with a focus on policy and advocacy, and more sustainable and supportive interrelationships between academic and government public health. The audience is one that sits across public health, including ASPPH, other public health organizations, government partners, and beyond.

Leadership & Members

The task force is co-chaired by Dean Megan Ranney of the Yale School of Public Health, chair of the ASPPH Advocacy Advisory Committee, and Dean Daniele Fallin of the Emory University Rollins School of Public Health, chair of the ASPPH Research Advisory Committee. It will begin with a small group of academic leaders who will develop initial ideas. ASPPH will then seek input from its members and from practice partners, including state and local health departments, national public health organizations, and communities, before any recommendations are finalized.