Title : Public health wasn’t built for everyone, and it shows
Abstract:
Public health continues to invest in campaigns, outreach, and education, yet many of the communities most impacted remain the hardest to reach. The issue is not a lack of effort. It is a matter of design. This session challenges the belief that better messaging alone will fix engagement gaps. Drawing from multi-state HIV and COVID campaigns that increased linkage to care by more than 700% and significantly expanded engagement across underserved communities, this presentation examines where breakdowns actually occur. The problem is not just communication. It is misalignment between strategy, culture, trust, and lived experience. Most campaigns do not fail in the field. They fail in the rooms where they are created. Through real-world examples, this session offers a practical way to rethink how public health strategies are built. It centers on seeing what is actually happening, hearing how messages are received, identifying what is at stake, focusing on what must land, and testing whether the strategy can hold in the environments it is meant to serve. Attendees will leave with a clearer way to identify misalignment early, strengthen strategy before launch, and build campaigns that do more than reach communities. They will build work that resonates, holds, and drives measurable action. This is not about improving messaging. It is about rebuilding how public health strategy is designed.
