- Interview with APHA President-Elect Ella Greene-Moton
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An In-Depth Conversation with and Reflections from APHA President-Elect
Ella Greene-Moton
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Picture ofAPHA President-Elect,
Ms. Ella Greene-Moton
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Rachel Berkowitz had the opportunity to speak with Ella Greene-Moton in December to learn about her journey to becoming APHA’s President-Elect following the 2022 APHA Annual Meeting. June Young and Rachel Berkowitz, in collaboration with Ella, put together reflections based on selected highlights from this incredible conversation with this visionary community practitioner, scholar, and advocate who has already and will continue to shape the Caucus and APHA in her new role. Check out the highlights below! |
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"I was born on a cotton plantation in the Mississippi Delta, and I have vivid memories of working in the cotton fields at a very early age for $2.50 cent - not an hour, a day. So, coming from that reality and ending up here, in this space is almost inconceivable.
These memories also echo and cosign the sentiment, from the outhouse to The White House, understanding that because I grew up in a place where we didn't have indoor toilets, I literally made the journey from the outhouse to The White House which was fulfilled by a formal invitation in 2015.
It's those kinds of memories that I can look at and draw from and be encouraged that even when things don't seem to be going right, something good is still happening. I know I have come a long way. I know I am blessed. And I stand in this space representing folk who didn't always get the chance, or who didn't always get the nod, or who might have had a comment to make in a meeting and who might have been made to feel disrespected or less than, or who might have left a meeting and never to return. I stand in this space proud to be one of those folk who If made to feel unwelcome in a meeting, knowing that I'm coming back, and I'm going to figure out how to work through whatever might have caused the disconnect."
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Relationship with the Community-Based Public Health Caucus |
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“My engagement with the Caucus began in the late 90’s during the pre-planning Town Hall meetings held at APHA during the annual meetings. Several like-minded academic and practice partners, along with their community partners participated in these organizational meetings two years prior to the formal establishment of the CBPH Caucus in 2000. My relationship with the Caucus began and grew from these planning conversations. These founding relationship-oriented partnerships worked together to develop the historical framework for the Caucus and continued to play an important role in the success of the Caucus over the past twenty plus years.
“I welcomed the opportunity to serve in several leadership roles up to and including Caucus Chair. I was part of the conversation that helped shape the National Community-Based Organization Network (NCBON), the community arm of the Caucus fulfilling a promise of the partnership. I see this collaborative referenced in many other places now where folk talk about the community being the heart of public health. I believe we coined that statement and decided to use it as our slogan, expressing how we felt about public health and the role the community plays.”
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“I'll be honest with you, for me, being at APHA has always been an awesome experience. I've heard folk talk about how overwhelming APHA was to them, but it never was to me. It was just this huge place offering so much that you could do that you would never, ever be bored. And it just became apparent to me early on that aside from being a community partner and co-present[er] during the conference and then going home, a lot of other things had to be going on at APHA.
As a member of the CBPHC Policy Committee, I served on the team charged with defending our submitted policy statement on CBPR [community-based participatory research], in 2004, before the Joint Policy Committee. It was an eye-opening experience, which made me want to know more about that process. So, I took it upon myself to explore what APHA had to offer. Recognizing that an organization this size must have a decision-making body, [so I] set out to find and connect with that body. Bringing some of my community partners (Mrs. E. Hill De Loney and Mrs. Arlene Sparks) along, I discovered the Action Board, and I was invited to join them. I accepted, became a member, ended up becoming Chair of the Action Board, serving on the Joint Policy Committee, serving as an Ex-Officio member on the Executive Board, serving on the Governing Council, successfully running for and being elected to serve again on the Executive Board and now here I am full circle serving as the newly elected president-elect of APHA.”
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Journey to the APHA Presidency |
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“My decision to accept the coveted nomination for the office of the 2022 President Elect of APHA comes from a place of genuine humility, dedication, and unquestionable commitment to public health. Being recommended, considered, and nominated confirms an even more deeply rooted sense of honor, respect, and bidirectional appreciation than I allowed myself to imagine. As a non-traditional candidate, it speaks volumes to many forward-thinking pivots of APHA as well as the struggles of those most often unheard and/or undervalued voices within our public health circles."
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“My Presidency is a moment spoken into existence by [the late Toby Citrin, a community-engaged public health researcher and practitioner] and my academic mentor for years. He hired me to work at the University of Michigan in the Center for Public Health and Community Genomics. After I became involved with the different boards and committees at APHA, Toby said to me, ‘You might be the first community president of APHA,’ and I looked at him and thought to myself, ‘Yeah, right.’ Now please understand that this conversation took place over 20 years ago.”
“The piece that really makes me feel good about this whole thing is that [the presidency] it was never a personal goal. It was never something I was working toward. I wasn't serving on boards and committees because I was checking off the boxes thinking it was going to get [me] to the presiden[cy]. No, I was doing the work because I thoroughly enjoyed it. And I enjoyed lifting up and bringing my community partners along with me… often reminding them what they need to do to be effective at this level (i.e., ‘You guys need to be involved in this, or You guys need to look at this, or They're talking about this and you need to be part of this conversation’ )."
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Image of tweet from APHA announcing Ella Greene-Moton as the president elect. |
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"It still feels eerie and unreal at times. I don't know what other folk were sensing the day of the election, but one thing I know is that oftentimes, if you have the support of the affiliates, it's hard to lose. I learned early on during this journey that they are a very powerful voice in the process. ‘But even at that, I had really resigned to the fact that I was in a mental place where I was telling myself that this is awesome, and I am enjoying every minute of it. And as I tell folk all the time: I am an optimist, but more than that I'm a realist. And I know that with two people running, somebody is going to lose. I also knew...that ‘somebody’ could have been me…so I said to myself, ‘You know what? Whatever happens, happens …it has been an awesome journey and I have not regretted one minute of it.’ “
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The Role of the APHA President |
“Recognizing that this is the Association’s chief elected officer, serving as an ex-officio voting member of the Governing Council, the Executive Board and its Executive Committee, I further understand the overall role is that of a spokesperson for the organization. Some people really look at this role as being a position of authority and power, with the ability to change and/or move things around, at will. I know my first responsibility as President-Elect, President, and Past President respectively, is to understand that each position comes with specific duties, each couched in a position of service. Serving in this capacity offers a diverse set of leadership opportunities, requiring a major time commitment but yielding bidirectional benefits as well as everlasting memories."
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"My goal is to help move the needle on the following public health priorities: our public health workforce, the alignment of our APHA units, and addressing the inequities caused by the institutional, structural, and systemic racism." |
"Understanding this is a huge undertaking, I want to actively engage folk in looking more seriously at the role that racism plays in everything that touches our lives. I want to be intentional about identifying and sharing different situations and examples where racism is at play, knowing that unless we peel back the layers of the systems in place, (sometimes intentionally) it will be a missed opportunity. I believe this is a space where we will be able to have those conversations, understanding that we don't have to agree on everything, as a matter of fact, I want us to be able to agree to disagree and still move forward, even if it only means that the needle moves by taking baby steps, but moving none the less.”
My hope is that we might explore and understand how we might work more effectively across our APHA units and broader public health sectors. I believe the connections are already there. Within APHA, as members of Caucuses, we are also members of Sections, and some of us are members of Affiliates. Why not connect like-minded members of those units and invite them to join forces to work together on a larger scale to begin to unmask and dismantle the known threads of racism interwoven into the fabric of our existence? This is also an opportunity to further highlight the value of the engagement with the broader community, realizing the wealth of knowledge, expertise and lived experiences to be contributed."
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What it means to have a Community Leader as the President of APHA |
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“I believe it really is a testament to APHA as an organization and the many forward-thinking cross-sector members who have chosen APHA as their professional home. It means that APHA is truly one of those ‘brave spaces’ where tough conversations are encouraged, and tougher decisions are made. I also think it might help folk add more value or have a different and more positive perspective of their community partners as well as the added value it brings to the work. As a community partner/community leader, this national nod clearly debunks the idea of the community being invisible. We can probably agree that being at this national table is a good thing, but being sought after and invited to this table speaks volumes. Someone reminded me the other day that even the fact that I'm in this position, says a lot for APHA because we have come a long way. Thinking in terms of APHA at its largest, it had 50,000 plus members. There were 12,500 at the meeting last year in Boston. And here I am, the first grassroots - community, African American, female, non-traditional APHA president-elect. It is such an honor, and I am so very humbled to serve in this capacity.”
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As described in a December 2022 press release from Michigan Institute for Clinical & Health Research, Ella "is Executive Consultant with Health in Our Hands (HiOH) and Co-Chair of the HiOH Flint/Genesee Partners. She also serves as Administrator of the Community Based Organization Partners’ (CBOP) Community Ethics Review Board; a Board member of the Flint Community Development Center; and Chair of the NAACP [Afro-]Academic Cultural Technological – Scientific Olympics (ACT-SO) Program."
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"On that note, I am inviting all of my community partners to invite all of their academic and practice partners (and we have a number of them in Atlanta) to join us for the NCBON Community Reception and Celebration on Sunday, November 12, 2023 in Atlanta, GA … This could be the start of something big…and I think the sky's the limit…
Why not plan to join us?"
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June Young is part of the Communications committee within the Community-Based Public Health Caucus. She is a master’s prepared registered nurse and CEO of D.Wright Home Health & Adult Day Services.
Rachel Berkowitz is a part of the Program Planning and Communications committees with the Community-Based Public Health Caucus; she is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Health and Recreation at San José State University.
Sincere thank you to Ella Greene-Moton for sharing her time, perspectives, and ideas with us, and for collaborating on the development of this piece.
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Get Involved!
Do you want to get more involved in the Community-Based Public Health Caucus?
Are you interested in exploring leadership roles and gaining experience supporting our historic group within APHA?
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Share with the Network!
Do you have an upcoming community-engaged and/or community-based webinar, event, or opportunity that you want to share with the CBPHC network?
Email Rachel Berkowitz ([email protected]) to see about including it in an upcoming newsletter!
Please include "CBPHC Newsletter" in the email subject.
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Learn more about the CBPH Caucus by visiting our website |
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