11th Annual Culture of Health Conference - Archive

 

Thank you!

Thank you for joining us in Long Branch for the 11^th Annual Culture of Health Conference! Your participation and engagement helped to make the conference an enriching experience, strengthening partnerships and collective impact toward achieving health equity in New Jersey.

Event Photo Gallery

Want to relive the learning and networking experiences from the conference? Check out our photo gallery below capturing highlights from the pre-conference reception and Friday conference!

PHOTO GALLERY: CLICK HERE

 

11th Annual Culture of Health Conference

The Culture of Health Conference is New Jersey’s largest annual convening of state and local public health leaders, practitioners, and changemakers. At the heart of the conference lies our calling toward achieving health equity, the principle that all community members should be provided a fair and just opportunity to attain their highest level of health, while ensuring that systemic barriers and disparities are addressed. Our shared aim for New Jersey is to create a vibrant place where all people and communities thrive, and where a person’s zip code no longer predicts their ability to live a healthy life.

This year’s conference will be an interactive experience allowing for intentional connection and relationship-building. The sessions will be designed to spark creativity and drive collective action to maximize community impact. Attendees will engage with content, speakers, and fellow participants through engaging breakout sessions, empowering keynotes, and vibrant networking opportunities. By the end of the conference, attendees will walk away with practical solutions for advancing health equity within their respective spheres of influence and communities.

The conference will spotlight topics related to the systems that play a critical role in building thriving communities, acting as social drivers where people live, work, learn, worship, and play. These systems include:

• Food Access
• Healthcare
• Behavioral Health
• Education
• Neighborhood & Physical Environment
• Safety & Social Connectedness
• Economic Stability

 

AGENDA AT-A-GLANCE

Thursday, May 9, 2024

1:00 PM – 5:00 PM - Registration & Check-In Open

3:00 PM – 6:00 PM - Beach Reception (Invitation-Only) 

Friday, May 10, 2024

7:00 AM – 3:00 PM - Registration & Check-In Open  

6:30 AM – 7:30 AM - Morning Wellness Activity

8:00 AM – 9:15 AM - Breakfast

9:15 AM – 10:00 AM - Formal Welcome & Opening Remarks 

10:05 AM – 11:20 AM - Morning Breakout Sessions

YOURHEALTHKIOSK: A Digital Text Platform Improving Health Access 

 

A Safety Net Beyond School: Creating Partnerships for Youth Experiencing Homelessness

 

Addressing Mental Health at the Local Level with the Mayors Wellness Campaign

 

 

Local Advocacy for Healthy School Hours to Improve Mental Health

Speaker

Tiffany Neal, MPH, MCHES
Health Educator
Hillsborough Health Department

 

The Way Healthcare is Financed in America Exacerbates Health Disparities

Speaker

Errol L. Pierre, DBA, MPA
Senior Vice President
State Programs, Healthfirst 

 

Chew on This: Exploring Food Inc. 2 and Disparities within our Food System

Moderator

Natasha Patterson, PhD, MPH
Associate Professor of Public Health
Department of Public Health
The College of New Jersey

11:20 AM – 12:10 PM - Networking Break & Social Responsibility Lounge

12:15 PM – 1:15 PM - Lunch & Keynote

Cultivating a Healing Centered Approach

Keynote Speaker

Siomara Wedderburn, LSW
Chief Executive Officer
Be Inc Collective 

1:20 PM – 2:35 PM - Afternoon Breakout Sessions

Leveraging NJ's EJMAP Tool to Identify Areas for Public Health Interventions 

Speaker

Christine Schell, MPA, CPM
Manager, Environmental and Public Health Analysis
New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection 

 

A Practical Approach to Implementing Participatory Action Research

Speaker

 

Rafael Inoa, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Educational Leadership & Secondary Education, Kean University 

 

Advancing Health & Mental Health Equity through Inclusion of People with Disabilities

 

 

Using the Sandbox Model to Support Community Engaged Research in Southern New Jersey

Showing Up to Better Meet the Modern Woman’s Health Needs

Speaker

Jannine Versi, MBA
Chief Executive Officer
Elektra Health 

 

Speaking Youth to Power

 

 

2:40 PM – 2:45 PM - Reconvening

2:45 PM – 3:45 PM - Closing Keynote 

Keynote Speaker

Jean-Pierre Brutus, Esq., Ph.D.
Senior Counsel, Economic Justice Program
New Jersey Institute for Social Justice 

3:45 PM – 4:00 PM - Closing Comments & Prizes