The final day of the 2026 NACCHO360 conference kicked off with presenters leading morning educational session. The conference concluded with the plenary, “Telling Our Story: Why Public Health’s Voice Matters Now.”
To open the session, Dr. Katelyn Jetelina, CEO of 0.05 Findings, which publishes the widely read public health newsletter “Your Local Epidemiologist,” talked of the need to provide an alternative path forward to combat the perfect storm of confronting multiple diseases while budgets and authority are degrading, institutional trust is declining, information is being decentralized, and misinformation is being weaponized. She encouraged attendees to “just start somewhere” with a focus on three components.
Listening. Open up a bi-directional conversation with your community, including showing up in the comment section, and listening to people you disagree with so that you can understand what information they’re reading and understand where they’re coming from.
Meet people where they are at. One in two Americans get their health-related information from social media, rural communities rely on local news sources, and older Americans look to the AARP brochure for health information. Work with trusted nodes of influence and connect with empathy and shared values in the places they already are.
Execute. Trust is not declared; it is demonstrated. Let people see the love, passion, and grit that got you into public health in the first place and show up consistently as you execute with clarity and purpose.
During a fireside chat with NACCHO CEO Lori Tremmel Freeman and a Q&A session with the audience, Jetelina noted that communications is more than public relations; it is engagement, relationships, and reaching out, and it is also every one of our jobs. She spoke of the need for local health departments to scale community engagement and encouraged attendees to tap into the trusted networks in their communities, mapping out the trusted nodes and who within the health department already has relationships with them. She also identified community engagement as something that needs to be included in budgets.
Freeman concluded the conference with an invitation to join the 2027 NACCHO360 conference next July in Orlando, FL.
