In a world of bots, be a HUMAN - it’s key to your coalition’s success
As we’re highlighting through this series, public health is, at its core, a people business.
So, naturally, one key piece of advice for health coalition leaders to keep in mind: Be a human.
In an era of artificial intelligence and soulless corporations, there’s something to be said for simply being human.
The “rockstar” trap - the biggest threat to sustaining your coalition’s work
My first full time public health job was at a state health department, working with schools to implement evidence based youth violence prevention programs. Principals and school counselors were often the rockstars behind this work - until they weren’t.
Why you need champions (not the Super Bowl kind)
How would you define a champion?
You might think about a Super Bowl or Olympic champion - that would be dictionary definition #1 (“someone or something, especially a person or animal, that has beaten all other competitors in a competition”).
But I’m thinking about dictionary definition #2: “a person who enthusiastically supports, defends, or fights for a person, belief, right, or principle”
Our public health frameworks are failing us - here’s the one thing we’re missing
Our public health frameworks are failing us.
They're true. AND they're failing us.
Let me explain why.
I had the pleasure of giving a Lightning Talk at the National Network of Public Health Institutes Open Forum conference in Pittsburgh earlier this month (it was a balm to the soul to be in the company of fellow community-based public health practitioners!)
4 options in the face of collapsing systems
If you, like me, are distressed about what’s happening at the CDC, what’s happening around vaccines, what’s been happening with public health grants and research being terminated, and more - I see you.
Can't engage coalition members? Here's what you're missing.
Do you feel like attendance at your coalition meetings is dwindling, or that everyone’s logging onto Zoom but multitasking during the meeting? Or maybe folks are showing up and engaged, but it feels like pulling teeth to get anyone to provide input or take action between meetings?
Don't be the best. Be this instead.
Our family spent the last week at an all-family violin camp in the Blue Ridge mountains, and it brought us some much needed peace, joy, and community in these tumultuous times.
Find your low-lift solutions
Growing up, were you, like me, always told to work hard?
It’s advice I’ve come to question over the years.
Don’t get me wrong, I still have deep respect for a strong work ethic. I just wonder if we’ve gotten overly obsessed with the idea of working hard instead of working strategically, smartly, efficiently. Which sometimes means the work is actually…easier. Faster. More fun.
Jane Fonda on how "community means power"
As agencies, nonprofits, families, and individuals make contingency plans upon contingency plans in face of all the uncertainty of this moment, I wanted to share some words - courtesy of Jane Fonda - of both hope and action (which were PoP Health’s wish + invitation for 2025…which, two months in, feels like it has already lasted about two years).