NATIONAL ACADEMIES OF PRACTICE WELCOMES THE PUBLIC HEALTH ACADEMY

The National Academies of Practice (NAP) held their 2025 Annual Meeting and Forum on March 13-15, 2025, and as part of this event, welcomed their newest academy – Public Health.

The National Academies of Practice leadership unanimously approved Public Health as the newest academy to join the association. Founding Distinguished Fellows and Professional Members were inducted into NAP during the Induction Banquet and Awards Ceremony on March 15. Neil Maniar, PhD, MPH will serve as the Chair of the Public Health Academy and Vani Patterson, MPH will serve as Chair-Elect for the 2025-26 term.

The process to apply to become an academy in the National Academies of Practice requires submitting detailed information on how a specific profession meets the following criteria:

• Demonstrates evidence of being a collaborative profession
• Has a Code of Ethics for the profession
• Has a defined minimum level of professional education
• Utilizes a recognized accreditation process to establish and maintain high educational standards for the profession
• Uses an established process of licensing, registration, or certification to ensure its colleagues are qualified and in good standing in their profession
• Professionally disseminates peer reviewed scholarly activity

To ensure momentum for the new academy, the National Academies of Practice also asks how they could contribute to the advancement of the organization’s vision to lead and exemplify interprofessional healthcare that promotes and preserves health and well-being.

Neil Maniar shared: “The new NAP Public Health Academy launches at a critical time for our Nation’s health. Public health professionals play a vital role in ensuring the health and well-being of individuals, families, and communities in every corner of our country through expertise spanning the full spectrum of health professions. Interprofessional collaboration is a cornerstone of public health practice, and we look forward to working with colleagues across the other academies to identify innovative and sustainable approaches to tackle our most pressing public health needs and advocate for the policies and programs necessary for all individuals to achieve their full potential for health.”  

For more information on the National Academies of Practice, visit www.NAPractice.org.

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