Public Health Epidemiology Conversations

What does it look like when lived experience becomes a public health career? In this episode of the PHEC Podcast, Dr. Huntley sits down with Marco Benjamin, Director of Public Health at the Joseph H. Neal Health Collaborative in South Carolina, for a conversation that is equal parts inspiring and urgent. Marco has been living with HIV for more than 20 years, and rather than letting that diagnosis...

After several weeks of travel, reflection, and intentional rest, Dr. Charlotte Huntley returns with a deeply personal episode to reconnect with listeners and share what's ahead. If you've recently discovered the podcast or you've been listening since the beginning, this episode is an opportunity to get to know the person behind the microphone. Dr. Huntley shares how her work as an epidemiologist,...

Ask ten public health professionals to explain their work without using jargon, and you will get ten completely different answers. That is exactly the kind of honest, grounding conversation Dr. Huntley set out to have in this panel episode. What emerged was something more than a communication exercise. It was a compelling case for why explaining public health in plain language is itself an act of...

What does it look like to lead the nation's oldest and largest public health organization during one of the most turbulent moments the field has ever faced? Dr. Nandi A. Marshall, current president of the American Public Health Association (APHA) , has a clear answer, and she delivers it everywhere she goes: you are here for a reason, and this moment needs you. In this episode, Dr. Huntley sits do...

What does a journalist watching a mother scream for her child outside a burning building have to do with mental health policy? For Zack Stoycoff, MPA, everything. That early morning moment on a street corner in Oklahoma planted a seed that eventually grew into one of the state's most impactful mental health advocacy organizations. In this episode of the PHEC podcast, Dr. Huntley sits down with Zac...

What if the most powerful tool in your public health toolkit isn't a dataset or a policy brief? What if it's a story? In this episode, Dr. Huntley sits down with Sally Perkins, PhD, a storytelling expert who has spent years teaching healthcare and public health professionals how to communicate in ways that actually move people to act. From persuading vaccine-hesitant patients to presenting populat...

It is one of the most important questions in the field right now, and one of the hardest to answer. Public health professionals know the work inside and out, but translating it for friends, neighbors, and policymakers? That is where many of us get stuck. In this episode, Dr. Huntley is joined by two leaders from Sisters in Public Health, a national organization advancing women in the public health...

What does it take to lead one of the largest local health departments in the country when funding is disappearing, misinformation is spreading, and measles outbreaks are making headlines? In this episode, Dr. Huntley sits down with Dr. Claude A. Jacob, Public Health Director of the City of San Antonio Metropolitan Health District, for a candid, energizing conversation about resilience, cross-secto...

What happens when you stop chasing the terminology and commit fully to the work itself? In this episode of the PHEC Podcast, Dr. Huntley welcomes back Vanessa Guzman, biomedical engineer, CEO and president of SmartRise Health, and co-founder of Ella Es Health, for a candid catch-up conversation nearly two and a half years in the making. This is not a surface-level update. It is a rich, honest conv...

What does it take to break your silence in the middle of a public health crisis? For Dr. Elizabeth Soda, the answer came on an ordinary August afternoon when a gunman opened fire on CDC headquarters. She had left the campus just 30 minutes before the shooting began. That moment, she says, changed everything. In this episode, Dr. Huntley sits down with Elizabeth Soda, MD, an infectious disease phys...

Episode 454 is unlike anything we've done before and you won't want to miss it. For the first time in PHEC Podcast history, Dr. Huntley took the mic on the road, setting up a live recording booth at a South Carolina public health conference and asking one powerful question: What is public health? What happened next was unexpected. People lined up to answer. From students and researchers to governm...

In this episode of Public Health Epidemiology Conversations, Dr. Huntley sits down with Susan Polan, PhD, Associate Executive Director for Public Affairs and Advocacy at the American Public Health Association, for an inside look at what it means to fight for public health in today's political climate. From managing six simultaneous lawsuits, a historic moment for APHA, to navigating federal policy...

In this powerful episode of Public Health Epidemiology Conversations, Dr. Huntley speaks with Chicago's first Black woman health commissioner, Dr. Olusimbo "Simbo" Ige, about tackling one of the nation's most alarming health disparities. When Black residents in Chicago were dying 15 years earlier than their neighbors, Dr. Ige stepped into leadership determined to change the trajectory. Drawing on...

What happens when a lifelong storyteller turns her focus to artificial intelligence and public health communication? In this episode of Public Health Epidemiology Conversations, Dr. Huntley sits down with Dr. Kumba Sennaar, a health researcher, AI ethicist, and communication strategist whose work has been recognized by institutions like the National Academy of Medicine and the World Economic Forum...

Episode 450 is a milestone, and Dr. Huntley marks it with an honest, reflective solo conversation about the power of community. After one of the most challenging years of her life, she shares the 10 principles that now guide her work, her consulting firm, and the growing PHEC Podcast Community, showing why community isn't just a buzzword, but a strategy for resilience, leadership, and lasting impa...

Three public health professionals join Dr. Huntley for a conversation that starts with one of the questions we all get asked but don't always have a great answer for. When someone outside the field asks what public health actually is, what do you say? Alexandra Piotrowski, epidemiologist and founder of Piat Public Health, Dr. Sarah Hartzell, behavioral health researcher and advocate, and Michelle...

What happens when pollution, poverty, and health challenges collide in the same neighborhoods? Dr. Kristie Ellickson calls it cumulative impact, and it reveals which communities shoulder the heaviest environmental burdens. In this episode, Dr. Ellickson shares how her decades of work, combining rigorous science with lived community experience, has transformed environmental health research. From ma...

After more than 600 media interviews in five years, Catherine Troisi learned a powerful truth: in public health, clarity beats credentials every time. In this compelling episode, Dr. Troisi returns to the podcast six years later to reflect on what it really means to communicate science in a politically charged world. From managing jail health programs and serving as Incident Commander during Hurri...

What if the people already doing public health just don't know it yet? In this energizing conversation, Dr. Huntley sits down with Keisha Long and Jessica Seel of the South Carolina Public Health Association to explore why public health is far broader and more personal than most people think. From environmental health to behavioral health coalitions, their journeys reveal a powerful truth: if you...

"I don't feel seen when I'm here." When a Native Hawaiian elder says this during a diabetes appointment, it exposes what data alone can never capture. In this episode, Kandis Draw, Nina Lopez, and Dr. Augustina Mensa-Kwao challenge the textbook version of public health. From end-of-life planning in Chicago to community-led research in Hawai'i and youth mental health in Baltimore, they show what ha...

What if we've been getting peanut allergies wrong all along? For years, parents were told to avoid peanuts. Schools banned them. Fear shaped policy. What if one of the most common childhood allergies could actually be prevented, with the right timing? In this powerful episode, Markita Lewis, registered dietitian and leader at the National Peanut Board, reveals the surprising science behind early p...

What if grief isn't just personal, but a public health crisis hiding in plain sight? In this episode, Laura Vargas makes a powerful case for treating grief as a core public health priority. Drawing from her work supporting thousands of people navigating loss, especially substance-related deaths, she reveals how unaddressed grief fuels chronic disease complications, substance use, isolation, and bu...

In this powerful episode, cancer epidemiologist Dr. Robin Taylor Wilson unpacks the troubling rise of early-onset cancers and why ignoring symptoms can come at a devastating cost. The conversation goes far beyond individual risk, touching on the public's right to access science, what years of PFAS research are revealing about everyday chemical exposures, and why cutting cancer surveillance funding...

Why is it still so hard to answer the simple question: "What is public health?" In this timely episode, Dr. Huntley is joined by two voices from different generations of the field to unpack why public health remains misunderstood and why that confusion has real consequences as budgets shrink and systems are dismantled. Emily Edgar, an MPH student in epidemiology, and Dr. Nicole D. Vick, a seasoned...

When everything fell apart in just 30 days, Josie Williams didn't just survive, she began questioning the systems that were supposed to help. In this powerful episode, Josie shares how her lived experience with homelessness exposed the structural barriers baked into public health and social service systems, and how that experience now shapes her work helping organizations move from good intentions...