Neighbor Tuesday: White House edition

Last week, I had the extraordinary opportunity to join a great team of public health and equity leaders at the White House. To say it was a ‘pinch-me’ moment is an understatement. Let me tell you all about it and how it made me think about neighboring in the next four years.

I was there for the White House Convening on the role of community partnerships to strengthen public health communications and promote health equity with other leaders - including my fav gal-pal, Your Local Epidemiologist (Katelyn Jetelina!).

After going through security, I promptly took 849 pictures, texted my hubs/parents, and found my seat for the convening.

It was a powerful and invigorating convening of passionate, incredibly smart, and neighbor-ey type of people from all walks of life. The Director of the Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy, Dr. Paul Friedricks (major general, ret.) gave some opening remarks that sent many of us in tears. He affirmed how hard COVID was for those of us in public health and health equity types of work. He affirmed the loss of life, the hardships, and just gave voice to what we brought into the room. For me, I got pretty choked up throughout. But it was when he put a slide up that had all of our names on it that sent me over. To me, it was a reminder of the communities we brought with us to that historic room in the White House. I tried to soak it all in and look around at everyone taking up the space designed for them to take - their voices, their communities, their identities, their culture. It was diverse, inclusive, and looked to me like what I want tables of power to look like. Although my name was on the slide, it was because of you all in the FNE community. I would have never been there if you all hadn’t given me the courage to walk fully into my own identity, upright and confident (well, most of the time), and with joy. So, in many ways, you all went with me in that room and were also represented on the slide. I certainly thought of you and was simply so grateful. Oh boy, I’m getting choked up again.

After the meeting, we were able to walk around a bit. I walked with a new friend of mine and we walked/talked the entire 4 floors of the building.

As we walked, we shared our stories of the last few years, I shared my fears of the next few years. We talked about family, faith, neighboring. We walked by offices for humanitarian assistance, global health, war and security, leaders (I DEFINITELY took pictures of those doors), gender equity, and the like. Those halls hold so much power for the most vulnerable populations, domestically and globally. In the unknown of the next four years, I tried to just hold space in the building next to those doors for what I can do as a neighbor moving forward. It was a bittersweet moment for me. And, Also. (For those of you who have read my book, ‘And, Also’ is a key term that shows up throughout!)

And, Also. It was empowering. Lots of the side conversations with other public health/health equity leaders at the meeting included talking about the next few years. It will be no surprise that I’m really worried about it. For example, if RFK Jr or Dr. Bhattacharya have primary health roles in the administration, that spells a ton of problems for public health. I’m sure we’ll talk about that quite a bit in the coming years. But I’m very worried about it. I have a hunch many of you are too. I’m also worried about legal ramifications of those of us in the public sphere doing public health work. I remember the COVID years and the threats at my house against my family. I remember pictures of weapons sent to me. I remember losing a church and moving and… So, I’m really worried about that.

Here’s what I came away from the White House trip feeling though. Yes, I’m very worried and taking action now to protect as much as I can.

And, Also. I was encouraged. Because last time during the worst part of the COVID pandemic, most of us were doing this science communication work alone, without any history or training. Now, we have each other. We are smarter. We are wiser. We are less fearful of the bad guys (while still taking into account the reality that bad guys can still do lots of damage). And, we are together. The last night we were there, we stayed up way past my bedtime eating, laughing, sharing, crying, smiling. Here’s evidence of joy in the room!

I walked back to the hotel with a heart full. And, Also with courage.

We don’t know what the next four years will look like. But, I’ll be here alongside lots of you doing what you can too - as neighbors. I’m ready (well, kindof, ha!), I’m linking arms, I’m standing straight up, and onward we go.

On a fun note, if you’ve been around a while, many of you know that I love the show Madam Secretary. I’ve watched it in its entirety at least 3 times. My husband puts on certain episodes to watch together when I need a reminder to be brave or neighborly or just for a laugh. While we were in this room (see below picture), we had to move our chairs around the massive table to make room for a few others who were originally sitting on the outskirts of the room until one of the organizers said, “there’s no back row in here”.

Clap clap clap!

“There’s no back row in here!”

Put that on a bumper sticker or on your fridge. So, we shuffled chairs and I had to shuffle mine around the table, leaving me at the head of the table. ha! It made me feel like Madam Secretary and of course YLE got a picture of me being all awkward. As she was taking out her phone to get a picture, I saw her mouth, “You look presidential!” (because, unbeknownst to me, I was now sitting at the head of the table with a huge flag behind me) to which I replied, “haha” *insert nervous giggle and wiggle*. Because that’s what friends do when we’re all in this together. =) We take a picture and cheer one another on. Here’s me cheering you all on this week, friends! (Here’s evidence of the awkward picture.)

Have a great week, neighbors!

-Emily