Last week, the Division of Public Health’s Office of Humanitarian Leadership and Emergency Health (OHLEH) hosted its annual Public Health & Disasters Conference at Viridian Events Center in West Jordan, Utah, in collaboration with the Utah Department of Health and Human Services and the Salt Lake County Health Department.
The multidisciplinary national conference gathered professionals from public health, health care, emergency management, and other fields to collaborate on ideas and concepts to improve emergency public health preparedness in their communities.
The event began with keynote speaker Ambika Bumb, PhD, Deputy Executive Director of the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense, who delivered an insightful lecture titled "A Biosecurity Threat Assessment."
Just days before the conference, it was revealed that the Division of Public Health would receive funding to establish the Region VIII Center for Public Health Preparedness and Response.
Attendees heard from Public Health Professor and OHLEH Director Kimberley Shoaf, DrPH, MPH, who will lead the newly developed Rocky Mountains and High Plains Center for Emergency Public Health. “This center represents a significant step forward in our ability to support public health preparedness and response efforts across the region,” Shoaf said.
To conclude the conference Judith Mitrani-Reiser, PhD, Associate Chief of the Materials and Structural Systems Division at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, shared her expertise in a lecture titled "Multi-disciplinary Reconnaissance of Disasters and Public Health."
The Public Health & Disasters Conference has been an annual tradition, initially a part of the UCLA Center for Public Health and Disasters, and since 2014, a part of OHLEH.