PRESIDENT ’ S MESSAGE
Welcomes , Salutations and Introductions
I am beyond honored and humbled by the opportunity to serve as APHL ’ s president for the 2022-2023 term . I have been a member of the public health community for over two decades and I have seen so many changes over my career . But nothing had prepared me for the past three years .
When I accepted the president-elect position , we were just starting to catch our breath from two years of perpetual emergency response , both professional and personal . We are now able to actually appreciate what we are as a community , as individual laboratories and as individuals : we have accomplished so much through the COVID-19 pandemic that we can now take the time to determine what we need in order to sustain the work we have done and to keep moving forward .
As president , I intend to work with APHL , the membership and our partners to seek out those resources required to sustain what our laboratory system has developed so far and to enable us to keep building . Prior to the pandemic , our laboratories were regularly facing budget reductions , staffing cuts and high turnover , science ambivalence and data fragmentation . During the pandemic , we had the opportunity to build more infrastructure and partnerships , and showcase our resilience . So in a world post-pandemic , what does that infrastructure look like ? Is it providing new equipment to laboratories who need it ? Is it training and retaining our multi-talented workforce ? Is it providing the public health community with pertinent data rapidly ? It is all of that , and a lot more .
We are now in a moment where we can invest in our infrastructure so that in addition to being resilient , we also become robust . While I have always associated the word robust with “ having or exhibiting strength ,” Merriam Webster also defines robust as “ capable of performing without failure under a wide range of conditions .”
This definition of robust is what I want for our public health laboratories moving forward .
In our fireside chat with Dr . Anne Schuchat at APHL 2022 , we were asked about some thoughts and recommendations to respond to future threats . I emphasized the fact that we really need to establish the structure before the event happens is critical . The biggest thing we learned from COVID-19 is that having those relationships with internal and external partners pre-response means you can have the conversations you need to about data reporting and other response components . We need to keep our current public health structure in place , while continuing to forge new partnerships .
Even as we face a new public health emergency , I believe that we can keep moving forward together . We have all come so far over the past two years and not once did we back down from any of the challenges thrown our way . We can collectively maneuver the road ahead — regardless of obstacles or distance — because we can do anything as a community . Our community has recently welcomed over 100 new fellows into the APHL-CDC Public Health Laboratory Fellowship Program . We have received much-needed funds via the CARES Act and the American Rescue Plan for data modernization and infrastructure construction . We will keep pushing for sufficient , adaptable and permanent investments in data modernization , workforce development and physical infrastructure . I believe that with APHL ’ s strategic focus and your determination , we will be able to sustain and build a truly robust public health laboratory system . g
We are now in a moment where we can invest in our infrastructure so that in addition to being resilient , we also become robust .”
Daphne Ware , PhD President , APHL
2 LAB MATTERS Fall 2022