ASTHO Announces Alliance Designed to Weave Health Equity into Emergency Response

April 04, 2024

ARLINGTON, VA—The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Office of Health Equity (CDC OHE) announced today that they are launching an alliance designed to prioritize health equity during emergency responses. The Power of Partnerships Health Equity Alliance, will serve as a network facilitating strategic conversations between government and community leaders to optimize a health equity-focused response during emergencies and other public health events.

“The goal of Power of Partnerships is to create a network of organizations committed to expanding infrastructure, and strengthening partnerships, with community-based organizations that can be mobilized to assist in current and emergency response situations,” says Dr. Kimberlee Wyche-Etheridge, senior vice president of health equity and diversity initiatives. “Our hope is that the alliance will ultimately improve health outcomes for all Americans.”

Current partners include the National Association of State Offices of Minority Health, state, local, and territorial Offices of Health Equity, Women’s Health/Maternal Child Health, and other trusted leaders from community-based organizations and non-governmental organizations. The alliance is guided by a steering committee comprised of 17 health equity, women’s health, and community leaders. Steering committee members represent all corners of the U.S. from Alaska, Minnesota, South Carolina, and beyond.

Alliance goals are to:

• Enlist and maintain an organization committed to expanding infrastructure, and strengthening partnerships, with community-based organizations that can be mobilized to assist communities across the country to meet their ongoing needs and engage states and communities during emergency and non-emergency situations.
• Provide evidenced-based health equity strategies, evidence-informed health equity strategies, and promising health equity practices that support the expansion of infrastructure, mobilize partnerships, and identify potential opportunities to collaborate with peers focusing on meeting the ongoing needs of states and communities, as well as during emergency public health threats.
• Convene government and community leaders to share insights and strategize around how to partner to address future emergency situations, and uplift community voices and experts from multiple disciplines to foster peer learning and engagement.

The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the effect health disparities have on racial and ethnic minority populations. The CDC reported increased exposure risks due to health disparities impacting ethnic and racial minorities such as job and housing conditions, transportation, access to health care, and socioeconomic status. These increased rates of risk prompted a greater need for discussion among community leaders to address where responses failed communities. Learn more by reading ASTHO's Partner Spotlight: Q&A with Anne Remick.

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ASTHO is the national nonprofit organization representing the public health agencies of the United States, the U.S. territories and freely associated states, and Washington, D.C., as well as the more than 100,000 public health professionals these agencies employ. ASTHO members, the chief health officials of these jurisdictions, are dedicated to formulating and influencing sound public health policy and to ensuring excellence in public health practice.