ALEXANDRIA, VA – The Society for Public Well being Schooling (SOPHE) is proud to announce that Dr. Sandro Galea would be the 2026 Elizabeth Fries Well being Schooling Award Plenary keynote speaker throughout the 2026 Annual Convention in Portland, OR, April 22-24.
“I’m honored and humbled,” mentioned Galea, who’s the Margaret C. Ryan Dean within the Faculty of Public Well being at Washington College in St. Louis. “Well being schooling is foundational to the work of enhancing the situations that form how folks reside —and to be acknowledged on the SOPHE convention by the Fries Basis and the CDC Basis for contributing to that effort is deeply significant.”
Galea and his keynote, sponsored by the CDC Basis and the James F. and Sarah T. Fries Basis on Thursday April 23, will deal with the questions: Why can we aspire to create well being? What are the priorities we ought to be fascinated about once we take into consideration well being?
“Producing a dialog that helps populations perceive well being has by no means mattered extra,” Galea mentioned. “At a time when belief in science and public establishments is beneath pressure, the professionals who assist folks make sense of well being — in their very own lives and of their communities — are doing a few of the most consequential work in public well being as we speak.”
Galea, a doctor, epidemiologist, and writer, can be the Eugene S and Constance Kahn Distinguished Professor in Public Well being, and Vice Provost of Interdisciplinary Initiatives at Washington College in St. Louis. He beforehand held educational and management positions at Boston College, Columbia College, the College of Michigan, and the New York Academy of Drugs. He has printed extensively in peer-reviewed literature and is an everyday contributor to a spread of public media, concerning the social causes of well being, psychological well being, and the results of trauma. He has been listed as some of the broadly cited students within the social sciences. He’s previous chair of the Boston Board of Well being, Affiliation of Colleges and Applications of Public Well being, and previous president of the Society for Epidemiologic Analysis and of the Interdisciplinary Affiliation for Inhabitants Well being Science.
The CDC Basis is honored to accomplice with the James F. and Sarah T. Fries Basis, which established and funds the award. As of 2016, the CDC Basis manages and administers the Fries Basis’s public well being award applications, which embrace the James and Sarah Fries Prize for Enhancing Well being and the Elizabeth Fries Well being Schooling Award.
“My work has at all times been animated by a conviction that well being is formed way more by the world round us than by the well being care we obtain,” Galea mentioned. “Which means schooling — serving to communities and policymakers perceive the forces that create well being — will not be peripheral to public well being. It’s central to it.”
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About SOPHE
The Society for Public Well being Schooling (SOPHE) is a nonprofit affiliation that helps leaders in public well being, well being schooling and promotion to advance wholesome and equitable communities throughout the globe. SOPHE members work in well being care settings, communities, organizations, faculties, universities, worksites, and in native, state and federal authorities companies. For extra info go to www.sophe.org.