From October 29-November 2, Andy attended the 145th Annual Meeting of the American Public Health Association in Denver, Colorado. This APHA was a bit different for me as I wasn’t presenting anything, but was instead attending numerous meetings as the incoming Chair of the Physical Activity Section. This included a lengthy strategic planning meeting with the APHA Inter-Sectional Council on Saturday morning as well as co-leading the Physical Activity Section business meeting with current Section Chair and good friend Dan Bornstein. The latter was well-attended by current and prospective PA Section members and numerous accomplishments and goals were shared and committees filled to carry on the excellent work of the Section in the coming year.
While in Denver, I also couldn’t resist the opportunity to explore all that Colorado has to offer. So, I rented a car and hit the road to Estes Park for 24 hours to visit with colleague, friend, and mentor Karla Henderson (we wrote a pair of review articles together near the end of my doctoral program and have remained friends ever since). Karla recently retired as professor in the Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Management at North Carolina State University and moved to Estes Park where she hikes and volunteers every day in neighboring Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP). RMNP is now the third-most visited national park in the U.S., but the crowds were thin on a chilly late October Sunday morning. We hiked a 6-mile trail at almost 10,000 feet and were certainly feeling mile high! Overall, APHA 2016 was a success filled with old and new friends and lots of exciting research and practice advances in the field of public health. See you in Atlanta next year!