June 27-30, 2011
Atlanta, Georgia

Conference Vision: To provide an open and participatory forum for advancing the effective use of spatial information and geographic information system technologies across the domains of public health, healthcare and community health preparedness.

Conference Program

Final Conference Program

The conference program was developed through a review of submissions received through the Call for Presentations. The response to the Call was phenomenal. The range of focal areas for the URISA GIS in Public Health Conference is broad, reflecting the varied areas of interest those engaged in both research and practice in public health. 

“What makes this conference such a valuable experience is the mix of academics and practitioners, experienced GIS professionals and younger public health staff, with students from a variety of disciplines as well.  While the trainings, lectures and presentations add to one’s knowledge, the real perk of the conference for me is the interactions that occur during scheduled breaks and over dinner and evening activities.  I came away from the last conference in Providence very inspired, and developed a new graduate seminar in Spatial Perspectives in Community and Family Health at my university in part as a result of the conference.”  Russell Kirby, PhD, MS, FACE - University of South Florida

Gold Sponsor

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Conference Overview

Two preconference workshops were presented:

• Introduction to Public Participation GIS (PPGIS): Using GIS to Support Community Decision-Making (URISA-Certified Workshop)
• Tools for Common Challenges in Public Health GIS: Aggregation, Smoothing and Masking

In addition to the twenty-one comprehensive educational sessions on topics ranging from “Using Mapping to Assess Community Health Risk” to “Applications in GIS and Remote Sensing for Environmental Health”, three keynote speakers were featured:

• Geomedicine: A Patient's Perspective – presented by Bill Davenhall, Global Manager - Health and Human Services, Esri
• GIScience in Public Health: Chagas' Disease, Dengue and West Nile Virus – presented by Dr. Gonzalo M. Vazquez-Prokopec, Research Scientist, Department of Environmental Studies, Emory University
• GIS and Health: Where Can We Go from Here? – presented by Dr. Ellen K. Cromley, Assistant Clinical Professor, Department of Community Medicine and Health Care, University of Connecticut School of Medicine

The poster session is a key part of the conference with nearly 30 participants to date. Exhibits and networking events round out the conference experience.

Final Conference Program

CONFERENCE COMMITTEE

The volunteers who serve on the conference committee are vital to the success of the program. They contribute their time and expertise to develop an educational program that is important and powerful. Thank you!

Chair: Russell Kirby, PhD, MS, FACE - University of South Florida

Co-Chairs:
James Tobias, GISP – Northrop Grumman
Carl Kinkade, GISP – Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Program Committee Members:

• Jason Blackburn – University of Florida
• Janice Burns - Healthy City
• Michael Dow - Tennessee Department of Health
• Kim Elmore, PhD  – Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Joan Gardner - Gardner Associates
• Kevin Gibbs - University of Illinois at Chicago's Health Policy Center
• Mandy Green, MPH - State of Oregon Public Health Division
• Timothy Hare - Morehead State University
• Wansoo Im – Vertices LLC
• Paul D. Jaurez- Meharry Medical College
• Uriel Kitron – Emory University
• David Kwan - ESRI
• C. Virginia Lee, MD, MPH, MA - Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry
• Melissa Lemke - Center for Urban Population Health – UW-Milwaukee
• Adrienne Perry - San Diego County
• Marilyn Ruiz - University of Illinois
• Christine Schweidler - Advancement Project
• Ric Skinner - The Stoneybrook Group
• Seth Spielman – University of Colorado
• Leah Vaughan - Community Maps