The call for abstracts for the American Public Health Association’s (APHA) 2026 Annual Meeting and Expo, which will be held November 1-4, 2026, in San Antonio, TX, are due March 31, 2026. Submissions related to all areas of public health are welcome, and abstracts specifically related to the meeting theme, Together We Thrive: Health Across the Lifespan, are especially encouraged. ASPPH also invites its members and partner networks to submit abstracts to the Academic-Practice Linkages in Public Health (APLPH) Caucus.
About the Call for Abstracts for APHA 2026
Submissions are encouraged that highlight meaningful collaboration between academic and practice partners, with a focus on applied research, workforce resilience, leadership through change, and strengthening public trust in public health. Both oral and poster presentations will be considered, offering an opportunity to showcase work that advances real-world impact across the public health education and practice continuum.
Academic-Practice Linkages in Public Health (APLPH) Caucus
The Caucus provides a forum for exploring and discussing innovative approaches and effective interventions that support practice, education, and applied research by building bridges between academia and practice. Session topics for the 2026 APLPH Caucus include:
- Collaborative Capacity Building: Shared Public Health Resources and Solutions Highlights co-created tools, shared infrastructure, and partnership-based approaches to “doing more with less.”
- Innovating the Future Public Health Ecosystem: Transformative Academic-Practice Partnerships Captures the forward-looking, systems-oriented collaboration required to build the next generation workforce, research infrastructure, and practice environment.
- Leading Public Health Through Change: Academic-Practice Strategies for Resilience Centers on leadership models, change management, and crisis navigation, where both academic and practice sectors support each other.
- Linking Knowledge to Action: Public Health Responsiveness in Real Time Emphasizes how academic and practice partners work together to respond to emerging public health issues and evolving community needs.
- Strengthening Public Health Narrative and Trust: Evidence-Based Messaging Across Sectors Focuses on jointly countering politicization, protecting scientific integrity, and improving communication with communities and policymakers.
- Sustaining the Public Health Workforce: Wellbeing, Knowledge Transfer, and Retention Elevates joint academic-practice approaches to burnout, morale, and preservation of institutional knowledge amid workforce shifts.
Please visit the APLPH call for abstracts to learn more and submit by Tuesday, March 31, 2026.
The APLPH Caucus is proudly sponsored by ASPPH, in partnership with the Public Health Accreditation Board and the Public Health Foundation. We look forward to seeing you there.
For questions related to the APLPH Caucus, please contact Kaitlin Tager, Director of Program Administration, at ktager@aspph.org.