american public health association american public health association the american public health association (apha) is a washington, d.c.-based professional membership and advocacy organization for public health professionals in the united states. apha is the largest professional organization of public health professionals in the united states. apha host the largest gathering of public health professionals in the world at their annual meeting and exhibition. american public health associationlogoabbreviationaphaformation1872 (1872)founderdr. stephen smithfounded atnew york city, new yorkpurposeimprove the health of the public and achieve equity in health statusheadquarterswashington, d.c.locationunited statesmembership 50,000executive directorgeorges c. benjamin, md, facp, facep (e)staff 60websitewww.apha.org washington, d.c. office of the apha history in 1872, american public health association was founded by a group of physicians, including dr. stephen smith and dr. henry hartshorne. apha has been involved in every major significant public health program of the last 150 years. a list of major milestones can be found on their website, completed in celebration of their 150th anniversary. description apha has more than 25,000 members worldwide. the association defines itself as an organization that: "champions the health of all people and all communities. we strengthen the public health profession. we speak out for public health issues and policies backed by science. we are the only organization that combines a 150-plus year perspective, a broad-based member community and the ability to influence federal policy to improve the public's health." it defines its mission as: "improve the health of the public and achieve equity in health status." the organization is divided into sections, special interest groups, affiliates, forums, and caucuses. sections are the primary organizing units in apha composed of individuals with shared interest in topics, practice areas, or conditions. affiliates are state-based public health associations. forums are cross-organization bodies around an interdisciplinary health topic. special interest groups are groups organizing themselves into a section. caucuses are outside professional organizations that are organized around social issues or populations in official relation with apha. governance apha is governed by a 24 member executive board, and led by an executive committee composed of a chair, vice-chair, president (elect and immediate), speaker, and treasurer. the legislative body of the organization is the governing council, which is composed of voting and non-voting members. each part of the association is self-governed. membership apha has five types of membership: regular, retired, early-career professional, organizational, and student. members receive an online subscription to the american journal of public health and the nation's health as well as a weekly newsletter, inside public health. apha awards national apha awards the accomplishments of public health leaders are recognized through an awards program. apha presents its national awards during its annual meeting. national apha awards include: sedgwick memorial medal apha award for excellence david p. rall award for advocacy helen rodríguez trías award lyndon haviland public health mentoring award martha may eliot award milton and ruth roemer prize victor w. sidel and barry s. levy award for peace ayman el-mohandes young professional public health innovation award section awards the public health education and health promotion section recognizes individuals in six award categories. the awards include the distinguished career award, early career award, mayhew derryberry award for contributions of behavioral scientists to health education, mohan sing award for humor in health education, sarah mazelis award for health education practitioners, and rogers award for public health communication. the statistics section offers the mortimer spiegelman award to a statistician under the age of 40 for contribution to public health statistics. sponsored awards rema lapouse award – sponsored by the mental health, epidemiology, and statistics sections, this award is granted to an outstanding scientist in the area of psychiatric epidemiology. publications the american public health association publishes more than 70 public health books. several of these are the reference source for their specialty within public health practice. some publication titles include: control of communicable diseases manual standard methods for the examination of water and wastewater landesman's public health management of disasters: the practice guide public health newswire in addition, apha publishes the american journal of public health, a monthly peer-reviewed public health journal covering public health and policy. apha also publishes the nation's health, a monthly newspaper covering public health news and apha updates. annual meeting the apha annual meeting and exposition is the largest meeting of public health professionals in the world. the meeting draws more than 13,000 attendees, offers 700 booths of exhibits and features more than 1,000 scientific sessions. presentations cover new research and trends in public health science and practice. national public health week national public health week is an observance organized annually by apha during the first full week of april. the week’s activities are designed to highlight issues that are important to improving the public’s health. affordable care act in june 2019, the american public health association firmly condemned official litigation with the united states of america by the trump administration. at the end of the trump administration, the apha opposed a legal filing with the supreme court which would have repealed the affordable care act. this supreme court case was decided in june 2021, and the court left the affordable care act in place. mortimer spiegelman award 1970: edward perrin 1971: p. a. lachenbruch 1972: manning feinleib 1973: joseph l. fleiss 1974: gary g. koch 1975: jane menken 1976: a. a. afifi 1977: david hoel 1978: ross prentice 1979: mitchell h. gail 1980: norman breslow 1981: robert f. woolson 1982: joel kleinman 1983: j. richard landis 1984: stephen lagakos 1985: john crowley (statistician) 1986: anastasios tsiatis 1987: l. j. wei 1988: thomas fleming (statistician) 1989: colin b. begg 1990: kung-yee liang 1991: scott l. zeger 1992: ronald s. brookmeyer 1993: martin abba tanner 1994: louise m. ryan 1995: christopher j. portier 1996: jeremy m. g. taylor 1997: margaret s. pepe 1998: peter bacchett 1999: danyu lin 2000: bradley p. carlin 2001: daniel e. weeks 2002: xihong lin 2003: michael abbott newton 2004: mark van der laan 2005: rebecca betensky 2006: francesca dominici 2007: david dunson 2008: hongyu zhao 2009: rafael irizarry 2010: nilanjan chatterjee 2011: sudipto banerjee 2012: amy herring 2013: debashis ghosh 2014: tyler vanderweele 2015: john d. storey 2016: roger d. peng 2017: limin peng 2018: raphael gottardo 2019: daniela witten 2020: jeffrey t. leek