Major international public policy conference APPAM 2020, to be hosted at DLSPH

Joining co-host American University, the Dalla Lana School of Public Health is pleased to welcome the Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management (APPAM) this summer from July 23-24. This is the first time that this renowned international policy conference will take place in a Canadian city and inside our health sciences building.

This is also the first time that an APPAM conference will focus on the health of populations as an objective across all aspects of public policy, with the theme this year being New Perspectives on Healthy Public Policy.

“Co-hosting APPAM helps put Dalla Lana and the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (IHPME) on the radar among many in an international community of public policy, governance and management scholars,” says Sara Allin, one of the co-chairs of the APPAM conference, an assistant professor at IHPME, and the Director of Operations of the North American Observatory on Health Systems and Policy. “We will also be drawing hundreds of attendees from multiple disciplines, institutions and jurisdictions to the University of Toronto and our School, providing an exciting opportunity for many in our community.”

Alison Jackowitz, Senior Associate Dean and Professor of Public Administration and Policy at American University says that this effort builds on previous collaborations between the two schools to offer a comparative health policy course and a conference on health reform. “The School of Public Affairs is pleased to be partnering with DLSPH to co-host the 2020 APPAM International Conference.”

Previous APPAM conferences have been held in places like Barcelona, Mexico City, Brussels and London. Those attending this year’s Toronto based conference, particularly graduate students, will be able to look forward to dynamic and high-profile speakers from both academia and government here in Canada and from the U.S. as well as an opportunity to connect with an engaged community of policy researchers, with diverse perspectives and shared interests.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for our students and faculty members to showcase the caliber of their research to an international community of scholars,” says Dean Adalsteinn Brown, “I look forward to seeing the multidisciplinary work of the DLSPH community on full display.”

Students, faculty and alumni are invited to submit proposals for papers, panels, posters, roundtables by February 7.

Further details about the various policy areas, submission guidelines, and more about the conference can be found by visiting the APPAM’s conference website.

“I’m excited to be working with so many of our faculty across the School and other departments at U of T such as the Munk School, and Department of Economics, to build a strong conference foundation and to highlight the very best of what Canadian policy researchers and the DLSPH has to offer,” says Allin.