Welcome to day two of NACCHO 360! Yesterday, Chief Executive Officer, Lori Tremmel Freeman opened the first plenary, “Driving Public Health Forward: Where do we go from here?” by welcoming nearly 700 virtual attendees. During her address, Freeman recognized the work of local health departments in slowing the spread of COVID-19 and increasing vaccinations. Freeman went on to highlight the continued challenges faced by local public health professionals and called for attendees to remain engaged.

NACCHO Immediate Past-President Jennifer Kertanis, MPH, gave her past-presidential address and discussed media coverage and advocacy efforts, which helped to increase dedicated funding at the local level. She closed out her address by sharing a riveting poem, which highlighted the hardships of the pandemic on local public health professionals and the harsh realities that COVID revealed, as well as the accomplishments and hopes.

U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy gave special remarks to attendees—stressing the importance of trustworthy and effective partnerships. Dr. Vivek closed by saying, “Public health is so much more than what most people think of it as. Public health is about setting a vision. It’s about having a conversation, opening a dialogue with the public about what life could look like and what it should look like.”

Additional speakers included Joshua M. Sharfstein, MD, Vice Dean for Public Health Practice and Community Engagement, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; Nirav Shah, MD, JD, Director, Maine Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); Brandon Skidmore, BS, Senior Program Officer, Sunflower Foundation; and Jeff Duchin, MD, Health Officer and the Chief of the Communicable Disease Epidemiology & Immunization Section for Public Health–Seattle & King County.