Several of our MCH students attended the 2021 American Public Health Association (APHA) conference, October 24-27, in-person or online. What follows is a post from one of the attendees.
By Jade Zachery, BS
I appreciated the opportunity to attend the APHA conference in Denver this year. Attending in person for the first time, I was incredibly grateful to be in the room with individuals who all have similar goals like myself, such as improving the place we call home. With my interest being maternal and child health (MCH), I was focusing on topics and sessions that focused primarily on MCH, but I also learned so much from the other sessions that I attended.
The opening session was a wonderful way to kick off the conference. I thoroughly enjoyed the talk that Heather McGhee gave and how she talked about her book, “The Sum of Us” and about health equity. She spoke about her experience of traveling across the United States to understand the financial cost of racism to people of all colors. This went hand in hand with this year’s theme of Creating the Healthiest Nation: Strengthening Social Connectedness.
A session that really stood out to me was the Responses to and impact of COVID-19 on MCH, where the panelists talked about delivering childcare and early education practices and the importance of prenatal care with home visits, even in a pandemic. I really enjoyed the discussion about a toolkit that included birthing during COVID-19. This was highly informative and will be helpful for future births and families for whatever may come, and it is great that there is something in place so people can have resources.
Another session that stood out to me was the one called Public health efforts addressing African American men’s health. This was such an important topic because there needs to be an awareness of, or more of a focus on, men’s health. The discussion was great, and I loved all the questions that were asked at the end. One of them was about getting dads more involved with their children’s health. That was something that we focused on while I was interning with Healthy Start New Orleans, and we partnered with Reaching Our Sisters Everywhere and Reaching Our Brothers Everywhere.
This was an amazing conference, and I am grateful that I was able to attend both years of my master’s degree program. Overall, I have realized that this is something near and dear to my heart and I am on the right path.
Jade D. Zachery, BS, is a second-year MPH student, concentrating in Maternal and Child Health. She plans to graduate in May 2022. Her interests include maternal mortality and morbidity, sexual and reproductive health, and child health. Her hobbies are reading, and shopping for plants, candles, and perfumes.
