Several of our second-year CEMCH Leaders attended the 2026 CityMatCH Conference in Portland, Oregon. Several hundred professionals and students in the maternal and child
health field turned out for CityMatCH. What follows is a post from one of the attendees.
This was my second time attending a conference, and how different it was than APHA! APHA last year was a very informative, ‘diving in headfirst’ type of experience, but this time around I knew what to expect. CityMatCH was a smaller, more focused conference, and it drew in a lot of health department professionals. I really enjoyed my course last semester on Key Policies and Programs in MCH where I learned about block grant funding, so I was eager to see how state health departments were utilizing their funding.
The first plenary speaker of week was Dr. Katelyn K Jetelina, aka “your local epidemiologist.” I’m a huge fan of hers and have been following since the pandemic so getting to hear from her felt like a public health celebrity sighting. She spoke a lot about “easy fixes” to rebuild trust in public health. Her team relies heavily on social listening to respond to current misinformation, which mirrors the work I’m doing with Dr. Silva and Dr. Stolow. She ended her presentation by emphasizing that communication is more than words, and it’s all our jobs in public health to get people on board with us. She really set the tone for the rest of the conference.
The following day I attended a panel on Indigenous Data Sovereignty. American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) women face some of the most intense MCH disparities in the U.S., driven by historical inequities, geographic isolation, systemic healthcare gaps, and systems level data challenges. The speakers, Abra Patkotak, Lannesse Baker, and Dr. Janelle Palacios, all shared their stories and spoke about centering community knowledge alongside epidemiological evidence. They spoke on the challenges of capturing the true AI/AN maternal mortality due to barriers to accurate identification and systemic challenges that compound the loss in data. At the end of the presentation, they highlighted several success stories and asked for the audience to move beyond deficit narratives to help drive policy and systems change. My favorite presentation at APHA last year was one on decolonizing public health where I learned the ways in which sovereignty and solidarity can overlap. I appreciated the chance to continue learning about Indigenous health. Shortly after I attended a panel MCH data integration in Louisiana which I found fascinating. Each state has their own approach, with different strengths and weaknesses, so it seems to come down to data availability. The end goal is to have comprehensive surveillance data beyond just vital statistics. Overall, it was inspiring to be in a room of like-minded people who are doing meaningful research in MCH. I’m grateful I had the chance to attend.
Marisa Arsenault, BS, is a second-year MPH student, concentrating on International Health and Sustainable Development and Maternal Child Health. She plans to graduate May
2027. Her interests include MCH as it relates to climate change, water security, and SRH access.