Bloomberg American Health Summit Highlights Local Leadership, Data, and Innovative Solutions in Public Health

Last week in Baltimore, the Bloomberg American Health Summit convened public health practitioners, policymakers, community organizations, and Bloomberg Fellows from around the country to discuss current challenges and innovative solutions to pressing public health issues in the U.S.

The Summit, hosted by the Bloomberg American Health Initiative at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Bloomberg Philanthropies, featured public health officials, leaders at state and federal health agencies, journalists, and representatives from nonprofit organizations. Sessions were organized around the Initiative’s five focus areas: addiction and overdose, adolescent health, environmental health, food systems for health, and violence. Bloomberg Fellows are individuals from around the country working for an organization engaged in making progress in one of these focus areas who receive full scholarships to pursue a Master of Public Health or a Doctor of Public Health degree.

Highlights from featured speakers at the Summit plenary on September 30 include:

• Brandon M. Scott, mayor of Baltimore, on what is new about the city’s gun violence prevention strategies: “The previous two [attempts] didn't have the most important ingredients: One, the political will to continue, even though everyone wants you to go back to zero tolerance, and two, there weren't the resources on the community side. We have to understand that gun violence is the nation's longest standing public health challenge, and police alone should have never been bearing the full burden of reducing it.”

• Randall L. Woodfin, JD, mayor of Birmingham, on the public health approach to gun violence: “You can't approach this only from a policing zero tolerance standpoint. We look at it as a toolbox, and a minimum of three tools are in this toolbox: enforcement, prevention, and reentry efforts. But this holistic approach from a public health crisis standpoint is quite simple. It is how you engage poverty issues, unemployment, education, and a litany of [other] things.”

• Michelle Taylor, MD, DrPH, MPA, commissioner of the Baltimore City Health Department, on the city’s progress in public health: “Baltimore has something different going on right now. Baltimore has momentum. You can feel it in the air. You can feel it in the work that people are doing. Baltimore also has the means right now to really respond, not only to overdose deaths, but to a myriad of other issues, and has already been responding to help families, to help communities. … And Baltimore is making significant investments in all of these areas and more to make sure that smart policy is going to actually help people. Baltimore has the motivation to do these things right.”

• Keshia Pollack Porter, PhD, MPH, Bloomberg Centennial Professor and dean of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, on the Summit plenary: “Today we heard from high-level government officials and frontline workers, community leaders, all working to drive change and improve health and lives every day. They remind us that many solutions are within our reach. We learned about expanding harm reduction, improving mental health for immigrant youth, and balancing equity and ethics in AI. Today we brought ideas and strategies into the light. Tomorrow it’s time to put those ideas and strategies to work.” 

• Ron Daniels, JD, LLM, president of Johns Hopkins University, on Bloomberg Fellows: “Each of you is here because you share the firm belief that the solutions to our greatest health challenges will only succeed if they have the support of the communities they are intended to serve. But to succeed, this work requires extraordinary trust between our public health practitioners and institutions on the one hand, and our communities on the other. The questions before us are: How do we revive trust in and restore public support for public health? How can we ensure the field’s guiding promise to deliver effective results for our communities continues to be fulfilled? I believe that the work we are doing here through the Bloomberg American Health Initiative, as well as the work you are pursuing in our communities, is a crucial part of the answer.”

• Samuel Myers, MD, MPH, director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Planetary Health, on climate and health: “We as health practitioners are starting to sound the alarm that we can no longer effectively do our jobs. We can no longer safeguard human health into the future while the natural life support systems that we depend on are crumbling under the weight of our own collective economy. The good news is that there is a rich landscape of solutions to shift the way we live across food and energy systems, manufacturing, and the built environment to bring humanity back into balance with our life support systems.” 
  
  

• Angela Ferrell-Zabala, executive director of Moms Demand Action, on how to advocate for gun violence prevention policies: “There’s so much work to be done beyond just passing laws … partnering with local organizations that connect people to housing, to food, to health care … normalizing conversations in your community about what safety really means. That’s how culture shifts. These solutions might not make headlines, but they make a difference and that’s what’s important.”

• Lisa Lawson, JD, president and CEO, The Annie E. Casey Foundation, on helping young people thrive: “There are many ways we can help our young people grow into the adults they are meant to be and that our communities need. The operative word in that sentence is “we.”… It’s going to take all of us. Families, employers, policy mayors, nonprofits—we need to think of ourselves as bridge builders. You, as public health leaders, have a unique role. You know the science. You know how to bring people together to prevent and solve problems and you’re natural innovators.”

• Michael Botticelli, former director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy under President Obama, on advancing health solutions: “Focus efforts at the state and local levels. While we might not always be successful at the national level, great change happens from the ground up and much of the action in policy and practice happens at the state and local levels. They are learning laboratories for policy and practice innovation and can also be strong champions for change with their colleagues in other jurisdictions.”

Marking its eighth year, the Bloomberg American Health Summit engages traditional and non-traditional public health sectors to collaborate and advance health in the United States. The event highlights policy opportunities, with a focus on equity and public health leaders.

To hear from other public health experts, including Bloomberg Fellows, click here to watch the full recording.