OPHA members Candace Haugtvedt, RPh, PhD, and Melissa Sever, MPH, MCHES, both Ohio State University staff members, are the section's advisers.
The students may want to focus more on advocacy, educational programming or increased awareness of various internship opportunities throughout the state and various resources provided at OPHA for the students.
With help from an APHA health equity grant, OPHA recruited 33 liaisons to be matched with Ohio House members and state senators.
Liaisons also attended an in-person training where they participated in role-playing, learned how a bill becomes a law and became acquainted with both OPHA and APHA's legislative priorities.
We want at least one of our OPHA members in every district so they know their legislators and their legislators know them.
Romanchuk's office invited freshmen representatives and provided the meeting space, while
OPHA officials put together handouts and provided information from other sources such as the APHA Public Health Action campaign, the Health Policy Institute of Ohio and the Network for Public Health Law.
This is a tremendous honor for the Ohio Public Health Association and it speaks very highly of OPHA's ongoing involvement with public health at the national level," OPHA Executive Director Lois Hill, MS, told The Nation's Health.
OPHA members have actively participated in APHA's Committee on Affiliates, the APHA Action Board and the Affiliate Capacity-Building Initiative Advisory Committee.
Through "blast" e-mails, the entire membership learned quickly of candidate appearances throughout the state, said Hill, adding that OPHA is considering hosting a public policy institute next spring to educate members about advocacy.
OPHA experienced significant growth this year after hiring Hill, who stepped into the part-time executive director's position last June after a 30year career with the Ohio Department of Health.
But the partnership goes beyond providing administrative support, said OPHA President Thomas Quade, MPH, MA, CPH.
Regionally, OPHA also benefits from its partnership with the Great Lakes Public Health Coalition, which includes the public health associations of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin.
