YOUR ASSOCIATION
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
We Are Your Strongest Advocate
D. Gary Brown, DrPH, CIH, RS, DAAS
D r. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Courage is an inner resolution to go forward despite obstacles.” My fellow environmental health professionals, every day you show tremendous courage, fortitude, and empathy toward protecting the public. You constantly amaze me by coming up with novel solutions to prob- lems people never realized they had. In our profession, people never speak about being bored. Speaking with environmental health professionals throughout the land, everyone loves our field. Please share your passion for environmental health with ev- eryone you meet just like the individuals on Sesame Street. As Dr. David Dyjack, executive direc- tor of the National Environmental Health Association (NEHA), states, “Environ- mental health is a contact sport.” As such, contact is necessary to get our message out. We share the message of environmen- tal health with our elected ocials and policy makers to improve the profession and provide our members with the tools they need. The NEHA Board of Directors, along with several of our members, spoke with elected ocials and policy makers during our sixth annual Hill Day on Feb- ruary 23, 2023, to educate, enlighten, and hopefully, even entertain. Darwin D. Martin stated, “A teacher’s job is to take a bunch of live wires and see that they are well-grounded.” Doug Farquhar, our director of Government Aairs, does an unbelievable job in preparing us for Hill Day and ensuring we are well-grounded.
ments and might be omitted from the benefits of legislation if not specifically called out. • Environmental health professionals are allies in environmental justice eorts. • Environmental health professionals are on the front lines in climate and health issues. Environmental health services are not a luxury. They are essential to providing the public basic needs, such as safe drinking water, clean air, safe food, healthy hous- ing, climate change adaptation, emergency preparedness, and more. Environmental health has long been recognized as being a crucial service of government at state, local, tribal, territorial, and federal levels. Environmental health professionals are scientifically trained and certified to identify and mitigate environmental dan- gers as well as promote alternatives. We are handling threats on the front lines of public health. Environmental health pro- fessionals form a critical component of the public health delivery system, provid- ing services to curb environmental health threats and prevent adverse health out- comes. We assist communities to prepare for, respond to, and recover from disease outbreaks and natural and anthropogenic disasters. We are on the front lines of public health handling threats such as environmental inequities (e.g., lead expo- sure), climate change (e.g., drought), food safety (e.g., baby food), safe drink- ing water (e.g., perfluorooctanesulfonic acid [PFOS]), and clean air (e.g., ozone).
He even provides a Hawaiian shirt and sneaker wearing fashionista such as myself with professional dress tips such as wearing socks and a tie. We are the profession’s strongest advocate for excellence in the practice of environ- mental health as we deliver on our mission to build, sustain, and empower an eective environmental health workforce. Our mes- sage is to speak about the importance of a robust and well-resourced environmental health workforce. Many people might not know that we represent almost 7,000 gov- ernment and private sector environmental health professionals in the U.S. The messages we shared during Hill Day included: • Environmental health professionals assure healthy, safe, and prosperous communities. • Environmental health professionals often work outside traditional health depart- Our message is to speak about the importance of a robust and well-resourced environmental health workforce.
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Volume 85 • Number 9
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