The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands faced back-to-back super typhoons in 2026, putting its health system and infrastructure under significant strain. Esther Muna, CEO of the Northern Mariana Islands Commonwealth Health Corporation and Territorial Health Official for CNMI and an ASTHO board member, discusses how the territory prepared for the storms and responded to their aftermath. We also hear from two other members of the CNMI hospital emergency preparedness program team: Warren Villagomez, the director for public health and Hospital Emergency Preparedness, and Patrick Fitial, the senior planner. The team describes efforts to activate emergency operations, protect healthcare facilities, plan workforce coverage, and secure vulnerable populations before the storms arrived. They also discuss challenges including prolonged power and water disruptions, damaged roads and ports, limited communications, and supply chain disruptions. Mobile clinics, medical reserve corps volunteers, nonprofit organizations, and federal, territorial, and local partners helped bring healthcare and public health services directly to communities during the recovery.

How New Laws Support Telehealth and Access to Health Care | ASTHO

Funding & Collaboration Opportunities | ASTHO

South Carolina has seen overdose deaths decline for two consecutive years.  Brannon Traxler, acting director of the South Carolina Department of Public Health and an ASTHO board member, discusses how coordination across public health, law enforcement, emergency medical services, treatment providers, and community partners is helping drive those gains. Traxler explains how the state has worked to saturate communities with naloxone and normalize its use, while a rapid-response team reviews overdose and drug seizure data each week to identify emerging hotspots and target resources where they're needed most. She also discusses how the emergence of drugs such as xylazine, medetomidine, and nitazenes is changing the overdose response and why public health messaging must continue to evolve with the illicit drug supply.

Expanding Falls Prevention Through Surveillance, Community-Clinical Linkages, and Strategic Planning and Evaluation

Strengthening Policies to Prevent Older Adult Falls | ASTHO

PHRME - Building Strong Community Connections for Healthy Aging

Prioritizing Community-Clinical Linkages to Prevent Falls in Older Adults | ASTHO

Telehealth | ASTHO

Public health agencies rely on strong relationships with community organizations and partners, but fragmented outreach can leave those partners overwhelmed by repeated surveys, meetings, and requests from different parts of the same agency. Anna Bradley, senior analyst for Public Health Infrastructure and Performance Improvement at ASTHO, discusses how customer relationship management (CRM) approaches can help agencies coordinate engagement, reduce burden, and strengthen partnerships. Bradley explains how agencies can use CRM software, spreadsheets, or existing tools like Microsoft SharePoint to better track relationships and coordinate communication. She also shares why effective relationship management is about more than technology: it's about being intentional, respecting partners' time, creating more sustainable relationships, and starting small to solve one coordination problem at a time.

Leveraging Customer Relationship Management to Advance Public Health | ASTHO

Harder for Us, Easier for Them: Key Strategies to Improve Administrative Burden | ASTHO

Rethinking vaccine communication: New insights for respiratory virus season

Emergency medical services are evolving beyond the traditional model of responding to a 911 call and transporting patients to the emergency department. September is National Preparedness Month, an opportunity to recognize how EMS systems are adapting to meet changing community needs. States are exploring new approaches including community paramedicine, mobile integrated health, telehealth, and treatment in place, while also working to address persistent workforce and funding challenges, particularly in rural communities.  Maggie Nilz, senior analyst for preparedness at ASTHO, discusses how these changes are reshaping EMS and what policymakers are doing to strengthen the systems that support emergency care, the focus of a recent Health Policy Update. She highlights efforts in Illinois, Alabama, and West Virginia to address rural EMS staffing, training, retention, and funding, and explains why better data will be increasingly important to understanding EMS needs.

 Funding & Collaboration Opportunities | ASTHO

Voices From the Field: Public Health Success Stories | ASTHO

Partnering with Community-Based Organizations to Prevent Youth Substance Use | ASTHO

Finding the right mental health or substance use treatment can be difficult, especially for people in crisis who may not know where to turn or may encounter outdated provider information and confusing terminology. Ohio is using technology and artificial intelligence to make that process easier.  Today, Jennifer Lloyd, assistant director for RecoveryOhio in the office of Governor Mike DeWine, discusses RecoveryRachel, an AI-powered treatment finder designed to help people quickly identify appropriate mental health and substance use treatment providers. Lloyd explains how conversations with families, treatment providers, and other stakeholders helped shape the tool, including a focus on making provider information easier to understand and keeping it accurate and up to date.

RecoveryOhio | Ohio.gov

Funding & Collaboration Opportunities | ASTHO

Strong public health infrastructure depends on systems and tools, and an organizational culture that promotes using them effectively. On this PHIG Impact Report, Colton Anderson, senior analyst for infrastructure and improvement at ASTHO, discusses the Quality Advisory Group, or QAG, a network of performance improvement professionals from state and territorial health departments. He explains how the group creates a space for members to share challenges, exchange practical tools, and learn from one another as they work to build stronger systems for quality improvement and performance management. Later, DeMatt Harkins, director of quality improvement at the Mississippi State Department of Health, shares his experience participating in the QAG and explains how ideas from the group have informed his agency’s work.

This work is supported by funds made available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), National Center for STLT Public Health Infrastructure and Workforce, through OE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠22-2203⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠: Strengthening U.S. Public Health Infrastructure, Workforce, and Data Systems grant. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by CDC/HHS, or the U.S. Government. 

Public Health Infrastructure Grant: Resources & Impact - PHIG

As public health agencies face growing demands to prepare for emergencies while maintaining essential services, strong infrastructure, data, and community partnerships are more important than ever. ASTHO member and New Jersey Department of Health Commissioner Raynard Washington discusses his priorities for strengthening the state’s public health system, drawing on his experience leading public health efforts in Philadelphia and Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. He explains why sustained investment in public health infrastructure and the workforce is critical to preparing for the next emergency, and how data can help leaders set priorities, direct resources, and measure progress.

SepticSmart Week | US EPA

Demystifying Succession Planning | ASTHO

The public health preparedness system in the United States looks fundamentally different than it did before 9/11, shaped by the attacks, the anthrax events that followed, Hurricane Katrina, and subsequent public health emergencies.  ASTHO CEO Dr. Joseph Kanter and Vice President for Government Affairs, Jeffrey Ekoma, reflect on how 9/11 transformed the nation’s approach to emergency preparedness, including the shift from a focus on bioterrorism toward an all-hazards framework and the development of stronger coordination, surveillance, laboratory, workforce, and medical countermeasure capabilities.  

Twenty-five years after 9/11, public health preparedness has evolved from an emerging function into a dedicated discipline with trained professionals, established response systems, and infrastructure designed to protect communities during emergencies.  In this episode, part of a series commemorating 9/11, Beth Maldin Morgenthau, deputy commissioner for the Office of Emergency Preparedness and Response at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, reflects on her experience responding to 9/11 and the anthrax attacks that followed. She discusses how these events shaped her career and helped transform public health emergency preparedness in New York City and across the country.

America’s aging population is creating new priorities for public health, and the latest data show both progress and persistent challenges for older adults. The 14th edition of the America’s Health Rankings Senior Report finds encouraging gains in the workforce caring for older adults, preventive screenings and premature mortality, while also highlighting troubling increases in drug deaths, excessive drinking and suicide among seniors. Today, Rhonda Randall, executive vice president and chief medical officer for United Healthcare Employer and Individual, and a United Health Foundation board member, discusses what the findings mean for state and territorial health officials and why national averages don’t tell the whole story. She explains the importance of examining health data by income, geography, race and ethnicity, and other factors; strengthening the workforce that supports older adults; and addressing social isolation, prevention and access to care. She also makes the case for closer collaboration between public health, primary care and community organizations to support healthy aging — particularly in rural communities, where health outcomes can vary significantly from one place to another.

Innovation Advisory Council | ASTHO