This week is National Public Health Week! APHL will be posting stories from staff on our blog all week. However, these aren’t your typical public health stories. They aren’t from our program staff or the folks working in the laboratories; they are from staff whose jobs could be done anywhere for any type of organization yet they choose to work in public health. Their journeys to public health are unique, but what keeps them here is quite similar.
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By Ben Moyer, Associate Specialist of Marketing, APHL
Public health was new to me when I started at APHL. I’ve been in the association marketing world since 1997. I worked at a retail trade association as a temp during school breaks while earning a degree in music, and then full-time for six years. After that was a two-year stint laying out research studies and other designs at a private consulting firm. Little did I know that my next steps would lead me to this wonderful organization.
While I don’t get to focus much on the actual science of public health, I work as part of the team that supports APHL’s scientific programs. As the associate specialist of marketing, my work is primarily focused on creating and maintaining awareness of APHL activities and resources, and presenting them to our membership, the public health community and the public at large. I am usually immersed in our brand, sending mass emails to members, designing and producing marketing collateral, devising conference graphics, exhibiting at industry events, and so much more. Even if we’ve never met, you have likely seen my work at APHL conferences or in your email inbox.
Despite being relatively new to public health, I find it to be fascinating. I have learned about the importance of newborn screening and the public health labs’ role in that process; I even have a basic understanding of certain scientific tests. Beyond that, I feel that I am a part of something special; something beneficial to the community and my family and friends. The work that I do helps to drive results for our labs and the public.
And perhaps most of all, I am grateful that every day I get to work with some of the smartest, most creative, and fun science experts and association specialists in town!
I stumbled into the public health field and I am really happy that I did.
More stories from APHL staff for National Public Health Week:
- My Circuitous Path to Public Health by Jody DeVoll, Director of Strategic Communications, APHL
- At Home in Public Health by Scott J. Becker, Executive Director, APHL
- Serendipity and Unsung Heroes by Pandora Ray, Director of the National Center for Public Health Laboratory Leadership, APHL
- Taking the Leap by LaToya Norman, Public Health Communications Intern, APHL
