MESSAGE FROM THE SECRETARIAT

Download the October 2020 Newsletter here.

As noted by our most unflappable President in his newsletter message, early Autumn is always a busy time for Schools and as a Schools’ Association, ASPHER is no different!

The Secretariat was most pleased with the smooth and successful running of the 2020 General Assembly. Such great spirit was on display with 60 Member Schools in attendance representing programmes from 36 countries. The progress made during the GA strengthens the standing of the organisation and we were delighted to welcome 10 new Members! Please watch the newsletters and aspher.org for updates as we advance with the newly adopted ASPHER 2025 Strategic Plan with some important improvements on governance and routine operations.

First and foremost in this October Newsletter, we urge you to review the World Congress on Public Health 2020 events for this week. We have highlighted selected events each day, but make sure you do not miss: ASPHER-led Plenary #6: Revolutionizing the Public Health Workforce as Agents of Change, TIPH Europe and Andrija Stampar Medal Celebrations, and the World Leadership Dialog #27 with the Global Network for Academic Public Health.

This edition of the newsletter includes our two Feature articles. The first is the country spotlight on COVID-19, focusing on Israel, which has experienced an early resurgence of cases this season and is in a new lockdown. The second is a ‘double’ feature of the two Italian This is Public Health Campaigns: Northern Italy and Bologna.  

The Inequalities and Vulnerable Populations subgroup of the ASPHER COVID-19 Task Force has just released their e-booklet of basic terms: ‘What is Inequality? Basic Health Inequality Concepts for Understanding the COVID-19 Pandemic’. We have had positive feedback from Member Schools who are already putting it to use in classrooms – it should become a great training resource for our Members enriching ASPHER’s library. It is great to see the Task Force sustaining its performance and productivity – we recently called for interest from new members and it’s never too late to get involved – drop us a message if you wish to join!

The Secretariat is continuing to look for ways to improve the newsletter – making it better and more useful for our readers. New this month, we have added a section on important Staff Appointments and Awards with special congratulations to Iwona Kowalska-Bobko, Anna Odone, Lukasz Balwicki, and Ranjit Khutan. Do be sure to send us your Faculty and Student news so that we can highlight them in the future.

Although most of us are focused on WCPH2020 for this week there are other exciting events coming up from ASPHER Members and Partners. Make sure you don’t miss them!

Thank you to all our Members for your support; let’s make ASPHER even stronger! Be sure to impress the world with the voices of European SPHs at the World Congress!

Best Wishes from the ASPHER Secretariat,
Robert Otok, Lore Leighton, Naomi Nathan
ASPHER Secretariat

Please don’t forget to share your news, publications and announcements with lore.leighton@aspher.org to be included in the next regular issue of the Newsletter and on the ASPHER website activity log. We are now publishing more regular monthly newsletter reports which will better ensure timely release of your announcements to the ASPHER Membership! Finally, we always appreciate any comments and/or suggestions for improvements for us to consider for the newsletter - let us know!