2022 Spring Awards Breakfast

MPHA is excited to announce our 20^th Annual Spring Awards Breakfast on June 3, 2022! Please join us to celebrate the passion, integrity, commitment and heroic work of our colleagues in the public health community.

This year we will be awarding the first-ever Local Public Health Leadership Award, which will recognize an outstanding individual working within the field of municipal public health. In particular, we hope to recognize those who have helped improve our local public health system and those who have worked in high need, under-resourced communities.

We are also seeking nominations for the Paul Revere Award, MPHA’s highest honor, which is given each year to an individual who has made an outstanding impact on public health in the Commonwealth.

MPHA will consider individuals for several other award categories, as well. Click here to see the full list.

If you would like to nominate a public health hero who has demonstrated an outstanding commitment to equity, innovation, and excellence, please submit your nomination by 5pm on February 4, 2022.

We hope to see you on June 3^rd!

Recent Events

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.