This track focuses on the critical role that leadership and mentoring plays in shaping the next generation of health education professionals. This track will explore effective strategies and best practices for training and developing emerging talent, fostering a culture of continuous learning, and designing effective mentorship programs that empower individuals to reach their full potential in health education/promotion. Abstracts are encouraged that present innovative approaches for building the health education leadership pipeline and essential competencies for academia, research and practice; ideas for workforce recruitment, diversity, and retention; advocacy skills to address the dynamic political environment; and successful coaching and mentoring programs.

Social justice and health equity are at the core of essential public health services and are foundational principles of the health education profession. The pandemic exposed persistent problems in health disparities and laid bare ways that pervasive racism continues to thwart progress in achieving health equity and social justice for all. This track encourages abstracts that focus on partnerships and collaborations for social justice; new approaches to advocacy and dismantling inequitable policies and structures affecting races, ethnicities, genders, and LBGTQ+ populations; innovative ways for training social justice advocates; and examples of equitable health policies and programs that increase prevention, early detection, and treatment of health issues. Abstracts that address health education and health promotion pedagogy, research and practice in cross-cultural, international, and global environments also are encouraged.

Technology and the advent of infodemiology (i.e., study of how digital content and media have impacted the practice of public health, health policymaking, and people’s health behaviors) is driving the practice of health education/health promotion in the 21st century. The widespread use of cell phones, text messaging, mobile apps, websites, and more recently the use of artificial intelligence (AI), and the changing relationship people have with health information and who/what they consider sources of credible and accurate health information, have transformed the training, roles, and practices of health educators and communicators. Health educators, communicators and health workers have also been challenged to develop new skills to cope with and thrive within the digital information environment where their patients and communities also live. This conference track encourages abstracts on the teaching, research and practice of infodemiology, including new skills and competencies needed by health educators to mitigate mis/disinformation wherever it is found and keep pace with rapid technical advances; the impacts and interventions to prevent and mitigate social isolation, loneliness, anxiety and mental health linked to social media; ethical issues within organizational policies and procedures related to AI including issues in health communication; and the impact of health communication and technology on inclusion and equity across populations and strategies to fight mis/disinformation.

Program planning and evaluation are essential pieces of successful public health practice. This track will explore best practices for objective definition, strategic engagement, evidence-based activity selection, intervention sustainability, cross-collaborative communication, and implementation in assessment, planning, and implementation. Abstracts also are encouraged that address evaluation-related strategies, such as stakeholder engagement, evaluation design, qualitative and quantitative reporting methodology, quality improvement, data visualization, and storytelling. Given Long Beach is a hub of creative arts and culture, abstracts are also welcome on integration and impact of art, murals, music, poetry and other forms of human expression in health education pedagogy, research, and practice.