ASPPH joined public health leaders, researchers, practitioners, and students at the 2026 American Public Health Association (APHA) Annual Meeting & Expo, held November 1–4 in San Antonio, Texas. Throughout the meeting, ASPPH hosted sessions and networking opportunities highlighting innovation, collaboration, and the contributions of academic public health.

ASPPH-hosted sessions explored timely issues shaping the field, including:

• ASPPH Artificial Intelligence Framework: Harnessing Innovation for Academic Public Health, highlighting the responsible and ethical use of AI.
• Protecting Public Health as a Professional Field: How Are We Handling HHS Policy Decisions?, examining federal policy developments affecting the profession.
• Vision to Action: Putting Healthy Longevity into Practice, exploring strategies to advance healthy longevity through research, education, and practice.
• Ignition Stage: Wired for Health: Building the AI Backbone Public Health Deserves, highlighting AI’s role in strengthening public health infrastructure.

The meeting also featured an opening keynote, Together We Thrive: Making Healthy Longevity a Public Health Goal, delivered by Dr. Linda P. Fried, Dean Emerita of Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and Chair of ASPPH’s Task Force on Healthy Longevity. Dr. Fried emphasized the importance of prioritizing prevention across the life course and making healthy longevity a central public health goal. The session, Vision to Action: Putting Healthy Longevity into Practice, additionally covered early lessons and concrete tools to help schools and partners embed healthy longevity across research, education, and practice.

ASPPH also sponsored the Academic and Practice Linkages in Public Health (APLPH) Caucus in partnership with the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) and Public Health Foundation (PHF). Sessions included Dear Academia, We Need to Talk: A Candid Conversation with Public Health Practice and Transforming Partnering for Health: Drivers that Enable Institutional Change toward Authentic Community Engagement, focusing on workforce development and academic-community partnerships.

Networking opportunities included the Undergraduate Network Social Hour, Assembly Social Hour, and Primary Representatives’ Reception, co-hosted by ASPPH’s Texas-based members.

ASPPH congratulates the following academic public health leaders who received 2026 APHA awards:

• James Curran, MD, MPH, Dean Emeritus, Emory University Rollins School of Public Health, recipient of the Sedgwick Memorial Medal for Distinguished Service in Public Health.
• Ira Memaj, MPH, Adjunct Professor, CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, recipient of the Giorgio A. Piccagli Leadership Award.
• Gregory G. Homish, PhD, Professor and Chair, Department of Community Health and Health Behavior, University at Buffalo School of Public Health and Health Professions, recipient of the Lyndon Haviland Public Health Mentoring Award.
• Arden Handler, DrPH, MPH, Professor Emerita, Community Health Sciences, University of Illinois Chicago School of Public Health, recipient of the Martha May Eliot Award.

ASPPH thanks all members and partners who contributed to this year’s meeting and celebrates their continued leadership in advancing academic public health. View our photos from the event here.