Lab Matters Spring 2026 | Page 5

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER’ S MESSAGE

Our public health and laboratory partnerships are at the heart of everything we do.”

Scott Becker, MS Chief Executive Officer, APHL

“ Tell me again. Are we primarily a laboratory organization or are we primarily a public health organization?”

This was a question I asked our leadership frequently in my first decade at APHL. I needed to define that difference so I could define it for our partners, funders and colleagues. What I discovered at the time was that we are one of many voices in the laboratory space, but APHL is the only laboratory voice in the public health community. And that voice, now more than ever, is vital to creating new partnerships and sustaining existing ones.

While our association was formally founded in 1951 as the Association of State and Territorial Public Health Laboratory Directors, our roots were established long before as a variety of different groups: the Society of American Bacteriologists, the American Public Health Association Laboratory Section, the Southern Public Health Laboratory Association and the Conference of State and Provincial Public Health Laboratory

Directors. Our first formal partnership was with the then-Communicable Disease Center, today’ s US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As the complexity and depth of public health laboratories has changed, so has the complexity and depth of our partnerships.

Our public health and laboratory partnerships are at the heart of everything we do. Across the public health ecosystem, we work closely with federal partners, such as CDC, EPA, FDA, HRSA and others. Just as important are our relationships with the“ Big Five”: ASTHO, CSTE, NACCHO, the Big Cities Health Coalition and APHL— together, we are the Big Five.

For me personally, the Big Five has been a true rock over the past six years— from the earliest days of COVID through today. The collaboration, trust and shared commitment during some of the most challenging moments in public health have made a real difference.

Beyond the Big Five, we partner with a wide range of organizations, including the American Public Health Association, Trust for America’ s Health, ACLA, CLSI, NEHA and many more. These partnerships bring us together to advocate, deliver programs and support one another as we advance public health.

The corporate partnerships that we have built and sustained have been integral to APHL’ s growth. Some companies are partners, providing our members with the opportunity to enhance the dialogue about public health laboratory practice. Other companies are active APHL members, not only supporting members at APHL events, but also allowing our members to help shape their work. From tracking supply shortages to weighing in on new innovations and technologies, we are incredibly proud to be able to nurture these relationships.

Our international partners are also essential to public health success because those relationships allow us to understand what is really going on outside of our borders. They allow us to share early information— and not just within the public health laboratory space. From organizations as large as the WHO to smaller organizations such as the Canadian Public Health Laboratory Network, our members and partners benefit from the association’ s interactions with these organizations on both a macro and micro level.

Even after 27 years of leading APHL, I find that our partnerships are still about finding relationships that contain a mutual spark of inspiration, of collaboration and of wanting to change things for the better. Our partnerships are also about mutual dependence and reliance— whether through policy, advocacy or technical innovations— and providing our members with the most helpful information as soon as possible. They are also about hosting those spaces for connecting, sharing and gathering.

APHL has a long history of evolution and a long history of change, but it still comes down to the people you work with. And as we look forward to the next 25 years of evolution, it will be a privilege to continue to convene our members, to continue to sustain those partnerships and to continue to bring like-minded people together who share the same goals. We will continue to be the leading voice for public health laboratories, providing analysis, answers and action. g