Dear EUPHA Health Promotion Section Members,

Greetings to all of the Health Promotion Section members. We are thrilled to connect with such a dynamic and committed community dedicated to advancing health and well-being. First, we would like to extend our most heartfelt thanks to the past president, Luis Saboga-Nunes, and vice president, Uwe Bittlingmayer, for their dedication and contribution to the section.

A NEW TEAM

Allow us to introduce ourselves, as we will be the section President and Vice President for the next three years.

Eric is a Professor at EHESP School of Public Health in Rennes (France) and a research-er at the Arènes research unit (UMR CNRS 6051: RSMS team INSERM U1309). He acquired extensive international academic experience in Canada, Australia and the United Arab Emirates.

His research programme focuses on three main areas:
1) strategies and policies for strengthening local capacity for action on the social determinants of population health, 2) health policy change processes and, 3) evaluation of complex public health programmes. With the UNESCO Chair Global Health and Education he initiated the Global Community Health Annual Workshop, an online course aimed at an international audience.

Camila is a passionate advocate for community-based and community-engaged strategies for ensuring health access among impacted communities, particularly migrant and refugee populations and people who use drugs. Her primary research interests focus on simplifying the diagnosis and linkage to care pathways for people living with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) and translating these findings into effective community-based interventions to promote well-being, sustainable policy, and equitable service delivery. Camila brings a multidisciplinary perspective, having studied Anthropology in the United States before completing her MPH and PhD in Medicine & Translational Research in Barcelona, Spain where she was based at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) since 2018. She is commencing a Post-Doctoral Scientist position at Drexel University Dornsife School of Public Health (Philadelphia) in the Department of Community Health and Prevention, but will continue to be based primarily in Barcelona.  

A NEW AGENDA FOR THE EUPHA SECTION

As we embark on this journey together, our collective focus will be on spotlighting best practices in health promotion and community health, namely by running a series of webinars. We are passionate about shining a light on innovative strategies and solutions that can drive positive change and which many of you have been carrying out in your settings (we want to hear and learn from you!). Our aim is to provide a platform where members can showcase their work, ideas, and initiatives, fostering collaboration and knowledge sharing. By doing so, we hope to elevate the visibility of our community members, granting them the recognition they deserve for their valuable contributions and placing health promotion higher on everyone’s agendas at the local, national, and European levels.

CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS FOR THE HP SECTION STEERING COMMITTEE

Lastly, we would like to invite you to actively participate in steering the direction of our section, which we want to be as inclusive, diverse and representative of health promotion practice, research and policy in Europe as is possible. The work entails monthly meetings to identify issues and challenges and to plan activities. We encourage you to nominate yourselves! Kindly fill in the Google form here. We will make sure that Eastern, Northern, Southern, Western European countries are represented.

Please do not hesitate in reaching out if you have any questions, comments, or concerns. You can find our email addresses here.

We wish you and your loved ones a wonderful holiday season and a great start to the new year. Thank you for being a part of the Health Promotion section, and we look forward to the exciting journey ahead.

Best regards,
Eric Breton & Camila Picchio