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.
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 questions on the path to action
I’ve been sitting with some hard truths lately.
Systems are complex. Dynamic. Interconnected.
Working together in a coalition to change those systems is hard. Slow. Complicated.
That’s just the reality of what we’re trying to do.
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.
4 ways to center humanity in your work
Our political and business leaders may be failing to center humanity right now, but that doesn’t mean we should too - in fact, I think that means we should be even more intentional about centering humanity.
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).
What organizing IS and ISN'T
Unfortunately, everything is still on fire, and the public’s health (and SO much else) remains under threat.
I talked earlier this month about how taking action requires a) actually planning and committing to take action and b) organizing.
But what even is organizing?
Today, I want to share a little primer on what organizing IS and what it IS NOT.
Taking action when everything is on fire
Whew, it's been a couple weeks, hasn't it?
Public health is being further threatened than it already was in every direction - halting of foreign aid work; an attempted coup in the form of a spending freeze; an anti-vaccine skeptic nominated to lead the nation's health agency; the list - sadly - goes on.