Recent Events

2022 Spring Awards Breakfast

MPHA held our 20th Annual Spring Awards Breakfast on June 3, 2022 in Boston. Mayor Michelle Wu and Boston Public Health Commission Executive Director Dr. Bisola Ojikutu provided the keynote remarks and received a special MPHA award, the Catalyst for Justice Award. Together, Mayor Wu and Dr. Ojikutu have championed transparency, reliance on clear data benchmarks, and a commitment to health equity in the city’s response to COVID-19. They have also focused on achieving more equitable health outcomes by working to improve the social conditions in which Boston residents live, including access to healthy food and stable affordable housing.

MPHA’s highest honor, the Paul Revere Award for Lifetime Achievement, was given to to Ashish Jha, MD, MPH, in recognition of his outstanding impact on public health in the Commonwealth. Dr. Jha is a physician, health policy researcher, and a global expert on pandemic preparedness and response as well as on health policy research and practice. He served as the Dean of the Brown University School of Public Health until appointed by President Biden as the national Coordinator of the COVID-19 Response.

We presented the first-ever Local Public Health Leadership Award to Phoebe Walker, Director of Community Services at the Franklin Regional Council of Governments (FRCOG). In addition to her dedication to addressing the public health needs of the communities she serves, Ms. Walker has played a leadership role in the multiyear statewide advocacy effort to reform Massachusetts’ inefficient and inequitable local public health system.

The Lemuel Shattuck Award was presented to Chien-Chi Huang, Executive Director of Asian Women for Health, a peer-led, community-based network dedicated to advancing Asian women’s health and wellbeing. In addition to founding Asian Women for Health, Ms. Huang has been a persistent advocate for the collection, analysis, and reporting of race and ethnicity data for Asian Americans, because without such data, health inequities among different Asian populations will never be visible nor effectively addressed.

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Thank you to our Sponsors!

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Boston Medical Center

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Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at University of Massachusetts Medical School

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Justice Resource Institute

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Tufts University School of Medicine, Public Health Program

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Boston Healthcare for the Homeless

Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine

Health Equity Partnership of North Central Mass Inc. (CHNA9)

Massachusetts Association for Mental Health

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Neil Maniar & Ami Bhatt

Tufts University School of Dental Medicine

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Alfred DeMaria Jr.

Cynthia A. Tschampl

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Massachusetts Association of Health Boards

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American Heart/American Stroke Association

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Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts

Boston Children’s Hospital

Brookline Public Health Department

Casa Myrna

Citizens for Juvenile Justice

City of Lawrence Mayor’s Health Task Force

Conference of Boston Teaching Hospitals

Cooley Dickinson Hospital

Dana Farber Cancer Institute

DOVE, Inc.

Fenway Health

Greater Lowell Health Alliance

Groundwork Lawrence

Harvard Catalyst

Health Equity Partnership of North Central Mass, Inc. (CHNA 9)

Health Foundation of Central Massachusetts

Health Resources in Action

Heywood Hospital

John Snow, Inc.

Justice Resource Institute

Lowell Health & Human Services

Mass Peace Action

Massachusetts Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics

Massachusetts Association of Health Boards

Massachusetts Association of Public Health Nurses

Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers

Massachusetts Organization for Addiction Recovery

Massachusetts School Nurse Organization

Metrowest Health Foundation

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Needham Board of Health

New Bedford Health Department

Northeastern University Bouvé College of Health Sciences

Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts

Project Bread

Public Health Institute of Western Massachusetts

Revere on the Move

Tufts University School of Medicine

University of Massachusetts Amherst School of Public Health and Health Science

Women’s Lunch Place

Worcester Division of Public Health

2021 Annual Conference & Meeting

Thank you to everyone who attended MPHA’s virtual Annual Conference & Meeting: Creating Health Equity by Building Community Power on November 16! By working together and sharing best practices, we are helping to create a healthier and more equitable Massachusetts where everyone can thrive.

Keynote Speaker

Our keynote speaker was Xavier Morales, Executive Director of the Praxis Project, who discussed the new Social Determinants of Public Health framework recently developed by the Praxis Project, as well as their focus on community power building as a strategy for achieving health equity.

While many traditional SDOH frameworks lack the explicit naming of systems of oppression that cause disparities in health determinants. Praxis’ framework aims to incorporate systems of oppression and to highlight the root causes of these determinants from a justice and community power perspective.

Xavier is a longtime advocate for community-driven initiatives to achieve health equity and environmental justice. Taking an expansive view of what constitutes good health and community wellness, he works in partnership to enable opportunities across the social determinants of health.

Panel: Power Building on the Ground

Inequity is rooted in the imbalance of power – who has power and who is able to use that power. Knowing that, how can we build community power, in order to address these imbalances and create a more equitable society? How can that work translate into achieving greater health equity? This was the focus of our panel, Power Building on the Ground. Panelists included Project Director Megan Gaydos of Human Impact Partners (HIP) and Executive Director Dwaign Tyndal of Alternatives for Community & Environment (ACE), two organizations that are leading in this area. They shared insights and lessons learned from HIP’s Power-Building Partnerships for Health project and ACE’s work organizing residents of Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood around environmental justice issues, including air quality and transportation.

Workshop: The Power of Student Activism

How can students become more active as participants in the movement for greater health equity? How can colleges and universities facilitate this work? These questions were explored at our workshop on The Power of Student Activism, cohosted by Neil Maniar, President and Associate Chair, Department of Health Sciences at Northeastern University; and Craig Andrade, Associate Dean of Public Health at Boston University. Additional panelists included students/alumni, who shared their own experiences as activists.