Bringing Prevention to Scale: The Power of Leveraging Assets Across Multiple Sectors

Dr. Jim Krieger is Chief of the Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention Section at Public Health - Seattle & King County, and Clinical Professor of Medicine and Health Services at the University of Washington. He was a member of the Institute of Medicine Committee on Childhood Obesity Action for Local Governments in 2008- 2009. He partners with NACCHO as founding chair of the Big Cities Chronic Disease Community of Practice. He co-chairs Advancing the Movement, which is building a learning and action network among 100s of places working on building healthy communities. Dr. Krieger is the Principal Investigator for Seattle & King County's obesity and tobacco Communities Putting Prevention to Work program. Some of its major initiatives include incorporating healthy community elements into local planning and land use decisions; improving food quality and physical activity in schools; reducing consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, promoting procurement of healthy foods by local governments and institutions, increasing access to healthy foods at corner stores, creating tobacco-free environments in public housing, parks and hospitals; all of which require the engagement of local government, school, food retail and distribution, public housing, and health care sectors to make these changes a reality. This speaker will discuss the importance of multi-sector engagement for the future of public health. By partnering with multiple sectors, public health can encourage them to address determinants of health as part of their core business and leverage their assets to improve community well-being and reduce health inequities.