The 140th annual meeting of the American Public Health Association (APHA) was held in San Francisco, California on October 27-31. With an estimated 13,000 attendees, the conference is the largest gathering of public health professions in the world.

Beginning with the 2010 APHA conference in Denver, CHN has presented findings from various research projects every year at this venue. This year, we are proud to report that all five submitted abstracts to APHA were accepted for presentation (two oral reports, two poster presentations, and a roundtable presentation). These presentations were based off of four CHN research projects:

• “Place Matters” – Our work in crafting technical analysis for use in Community Health Equity Reports for eight different communities across the nation provided data for two presentations at the conference. Dr. Emily Zimmerman gave an oral presentation in a session focused on the use of geographic information systems (GIS). Our data document the association between access to chain supermarkets and premature mortality in Cook County, Illinois. In addition, data for all eight communities in the study were presented in a poster describing the geographic determinants of life expectancy prepared by myself and Dr. Steven Woolf, director of CHN, who also attended APHA.
• “Project on Societal Distress” – The analysis that supported the production of our report “The Cost of a Lost Education” was the basis of a poster highlighting the impact of educational attainment on well-being.
• “Engaging Richmond” – A major component of the research that we conduct at CHN is a focus on community engagement. Using the findings of our engagement efforts in the neighborhoods of the East End in Richmond, Dr. Zimmerman led a roundtable discussion on the experiences of residents involved in a community/university partnership. The roundtable was heavily attended by investigators from other institutions who shared an interest in discussing strategies for community engagement.
• “Health Impact Assessment” – The growth in the use of Health Impact Assessments (HIA) in the public health sector was evidenced by the number of sessions at the conference that were dedicated to this topic. I was proud to present the HIA that we are currently conducting in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia in a session dedicated to the use of HIAs in evaluating environmental decisions.

A major theme on display at APHA was the Health Happens Here campaign, an initiative by The California Endowment to raise awareness about how local conditions shape health outcomes. Multistory banners hung prominently outside the convention center (see photo), and visitors inside the building saw videos, placards, exhibit booths, and other materials designed to showcase the themes. The messages of the Health Happens Here campaign resonate closely with the work of CHN. Learn more about it at http://www1.calendow.org/Article.aspx?id=5837

We here at CHN are very proud that our research has been recognized by academic conferences such as APHA and at other recent scientific meetings, such as Academy Health and the International Health Impact Assessment Conference.