Public Health Under Siege: Improving Policy in Turbulent Times

Authors: Brian C. Castrucci, DrPH, Georges C. Benjamin, MD, Grace Guerrero Ramirez, MSPH, Grace Castillo, MPH
Released: August 2021 Length: 250 Pages Published By: APHA Press Price: $46.00
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Public health is under assault — through continuous defunding, rising anti-science sentiment, and the rolling back of community health gains. Now more than ever, the field needs bold action on its behalf.  

Public Health Under Siege: Improving Policy in Turbulent Times serves as a guide for supporting and defending public health, starting from the ground up. Going beyond national policy, the book uses real-world examples to demonstrate how addressing inequities at the local level can influence population health.  

Only policy can fix what policy has broken. Published by the de Beaumont Foundation in partnership with APHA Press, Public Health Under Siege offers a timely prescription for the nation’s health crises, centering policy as the solution.

Table of contents
Read introduction

With the case studies, stories, and inspiration from Public Health Under Siege, advocates for public health will be better equipped to successfully take on the diverse and complex challenges they face. Readers will learn how to harness policy to improve health for all communities by:

  • Building coalitions for public health goals
  • Navigating preemption at the state level
  • Using campaigns to raise awareness that leads to action
  • Eliminating racism in health policy
  • Embracing incrementalism for long-term success
  • And more
  • Brian C. Castrucci, President and CEO of the de Beaumont Foundation
  • Georges C. Benjamin, Executive Director of the American Public Health Association
  • Grace Guerrero Ramirez, Advisory Services Analyst at Mathematica
  • Grace Castillo, Program Associate, the Beaumont Foundation
  • Rex Archer, Former Director of Health for Kansas City, Missouri; Professor and Director of Population and Public Health for the Kansas City University College of Osteopathic Medicine's Department of Curriculum and Integrated Learning
  • Marice Ashe, Public Health Law Consultant; Founder of ChangeLab Solutions (retired)
  • John Auerbach, Former President and CEO of the Trust for America's Health
  • W. Steven Barnett, Senior Co-Director and Founder of the National Institute for Early Education Research; Board of Governors Professor at the Graduate School of Education at Rutgers University
  • Georges C. Benjamin, Executive Director of the American Public Health Association
  • Colleen M. Bridger, Founder and CEO of Colleen Bridger Consulting, LLC; Former Assistant Manager for the City of San Antonio
  • Derek Carr, Senior Attorney at ChangeLab Solutions
  • Grace Castillo, Program Associate at the de Beaumont Foundation
  • Brian C. Castrucci, President and CEO of the de Beaumont Foundation
  • Gail C. Christopher, Executive Director of the National Collaborative for Health Equity
  • Stacie Duitsman, Kansas City Health Department
  • Abdul El-Sayed, Former Director of the City of Detroit
  • Lili Farhang, Co-Director of Human Impact Partners
  • Todd Fraley, Senior Policy Analyst at the Chicago Department of Public Health
  • Ellen Frede, Senior Co-Director and Research Professor at the National Institute for Early Education Research; Research Professor at the Graduate School of Education at Rutgers University
  • Grace Guerrero Ramirez, Advisory Services Analyst at Mathematica
  • Patrick Guerriero, Founding Partner of Civitas
  • Shelley A. Hearne, Deans Sommer and Klag Professor of the Practice for Public Health Advocacy; Director of the Center for Public Health Advocacy at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
  • Jonathan Heller, Senior Health Equity Fellow at the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute; Co-Founder of Human Impact Partners
  • Emily J. Holubowich, Vice President, Federal Advocacy at the American Heart Association; Founder and Former Director of the Data: Elemental to Health Campaign
  • Edward L. Hunter, Public Health and Public Policy Consultant
  • David H. Jernigan, Professor and Assistant Dean for Practice at the Boston University School of Public Health; Senior Policy Advisor at CityHealth
  • Maria Fernanda Levis-Peralta, CEO of Impactivo
  • Adam Lustig, Manager, Promoting Health and Cost Control in States at the Trust for America’s Health
  • Dannel P. Malloy, Former Governor of Connecticut; Chancellor for the University of Maine System
  • Christiana K. McFarland, Research Director, Center for City Solutions at the National League of Cities
  • Ron Nirenberg, Mayor of San Antonio, Texas
  • Catherine Patterson, Co-Executive Director of CityHealth
  • Susan L. Polan, Associate Executive Director, Public Affairs and Advocacy at the American Public Health Association
  • Karen Remley, Professor of Pediatrics at Eastern Virginia Medical School; Former Virginia Commissioner of Health
  • Meghan Roney, Program Services Manager, Non-Infectious Disease Programs at the CDC Foundation
  • Joshua M. Sharfstein, Vice Dean for Public Health Practice and Community Engagement at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
  • Elizabeth L. Skillen, Senior Policy Advisor, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
  • Kendall Stagg, Director of Community Health at Kaiser Permanente
  • Monica Valdes Lupi, Managing Director for the Kresge Foundation’s Health Program
  • Jake Williams, Executive Director of Healthier Colorado
  • Nsedu Obot Witherspoon, Executive Director of the Children's Environmental Health Network

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What people are saying about
Public Health Under Siege: Improving Policy in Turbulent Times

Daniel E. Dawes, JD, Executive Director of the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at the Morehouse School of Medicine

Recognizing both the visible and invisible determinants of health and the force that is behind these determinants, Public Health Under Siege: Improving Policy in Turbulent Times brilliantly expands our understanding of these complex issues. This book illuminates how policy has been used as a tool to advance or hinder health equity for generations. It is a must read for those who are ready to create systemic and meaningful changes to move the needle of health equity forward.

Daniel E. Dawes, JD, Executive Director of the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at the Morehouse School of Medicine
Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH, Dean and Robert A. Knox Professor at the Boston University School of Public Health

There can be no health without healthy public policy. This indispensable primer offers a window into a range of policy efforts to improve health. In doing so, this book points to how we can better pay attention to health in all policies, and move towards creating a healthier world.

Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH, Dean and Robert A. Knox Professor at the Boston University School of Public Health
Perry N. Halkitis, PhD, MS, MPH, Dean of the Rutgers School of Public Health

The focus of health care is almost exclusively centered on the behavior of people and/or pathogens which cause disease—a shortsighted and anachronistic perspective of health. What Public Health Under Siege: Improving Policy in Turbulent Times clearly delineates is how social conditions and structural inequities, promulgated by policies and politics, perpetuate illness and undermine well-being; whether it is a woman’s right to choose how to manage a pregnancy; the discrimination experienced by a gay man at the hands of a homophobic doctor; or the lack of access to state of the art cancer treatment for any person without gold standard health insurance. Castrucci and his colleagues provide us with a roadmap to challenge these inequities, and to shift the focus of health from one that is purely biomedical, controlled by the medical profession, to one that is biopsychosocial, where public health sits alongside medicine as an equal partner to deliver effective prevention and care with and for the people and populations we serve.

Perry N. Halkitis, PhD, MS, MPH, Dean of the Rutgers School of Public Health
Leana Wen, MD, Former Baltimore City Health Commissioner and Author of Lifelines: A Doctor's Journey in the Fight for Public Health

There is no more important time than now to emphasize the critical importance of public health policy, and there is no better book to make the case than Public Health Under Siege: Improving Policy in Turbulent Times. Carefully researched and full of practical guidance, this book contains insights from leading health experts that are both authoritative and thought-provoking. It is an essential addition to the bookshelf of anyone who wants to improve health and strive for equity.

Leana Wen, MD, Former Baltimore City Health Commissioner and Author of Lifelines: A Doctor's Journey in the Fight for Public Health

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