Save the Date!
OPHA's 75th Annual Conference and Meeting

Share your work at the OPHA 75th Annual Conference & Meeting by submitting an abstract! 

Abstract submissions are being accepted April 29 – June 17, 2019. Abstracts addressing all public health topics are welcome and may be submitted for individual oral presentations, panel discussions, or posters.

2019 Keynote Presentations

Monday, October 14

Jillene Joseph
Executive Director, Native Wellness Institute

Jillene is a member of the Gros Ventre or “Aaaniih” Tribe of Fort Belknap, Montana. She resides in Gresham, Oregon with her life partner and children. Nearly 20 years ago Jillene helped to co-found and currently serves as the executive director of the Native Wellness Institute (NWI), a national social profit organization existing because of the lasting impacts of historical trauma. NWI is a training and technical assistance providing organization and helps tribes, Native-serving organizations and Native communities move beyond trauma to a place of healing. Jillene is a life-long learner of her culture and knows that the culture holds the answers to the impacts of colonization. She worked for the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board for nearly ten years. Previous to that she provided substance abuse training to Native youth attending BIA boarding schools across the nation. She has also worked for her own tribe in both the housing and education departments. Jillene has nearly 35 years of knowledge and experience working for Native communities, organizations and tribes by providing training and technical assistance in a variety of areas related to the healing of individuals, communities and systems. Jillene has four children and a nephew that she raised, one grand daughter, enjoys traveling, reading, beading and celebrating life. Her personal and professional mantra is: “living the warrior’s spirit- being positive, productive and proactive.”

Tuesday, October 15

Mary Otto
Independent Journalist and Author 

Mary Otto is a Washington, D.C.-based journalist who began writing about oral health at The Washington Post, where she covered social issues, including health care and poverty. In 2007, she wrote about 12-year-old Deamonte Driver, a Maryland child covered by Medicaid who died after bacteria from a dental infection spread to his brain. The death of the boy spurred congressional hearings, a revamping of Maryland’s Medicaid dental system and increased attention to oral health access for Medicaid children nationwide. After leaving the Post in 2008, Otto spent an academic year studying oral health at Harvard as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow. She now works as an independent journalist and oral health topic leader for the Association of Health Care Journalists. She is the author of the book "Teeth: the Story of Beauty, Inequality and the Struggle for Oral Health In America"  published in 2017 by The New Press.