President's Message - March 2024
I’m writing this month’s column as I reflect on another wonderful Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine (SAHM) meeting in San Diego, CA. It was great to see many friends and colleagues; the time we spend together always reenergizes me!
For adolescents and young adults, the state of the world is uncertain. Conflict, climate change, and COVID have brought about global changes which will make the world of our children very different from the one we knew. And we are just starting to appreciate the impact of the 4th “C” computers and AI (artificial intelligence), which will change the nature of work for coming generations. Notwithstanding these challenges, there are many positive things to look forward to for adolescent health, and for the International Association for Adolescent Health (IAAH). IAAH has several transitions underway, which I will review in this month’s column.
Our long-time executive administrator, Jenna Baumgartner, is stepping down from that post at the end of this month. Jenna will continue her other work in adolescent health, program management, and health communications at the University of Minnesota. I, along with past leadership and our entire council, am grateful to Jenna for her cheerful and tireless service to IAAH, and hope she will stay involved as a volunteer. With the announcement of this transition, I also welcome our new executive administrator, Ms. Elli Resnick. Elli works at the University of Illinois at Chicago supporting the Center for Clinical and Translational Science and has global and domestic experience in tobacco control policy research and in medical education.
We are also excited to announce a new leadership team for International Adolescent Health Week (IAHW). Please join me in welcoming to Dr. Ngozi Oketah, our new IAHW Director and Dr. Vhari Jovanovic, our new IAHW Program Coordinator. We again thank IAHW Founder, Dr. Laura Offutt for her service and guidance during this transition. In addition to our leadership change, IAHW will also move from March to October (7-13). This change is exciting as it allows the week to align with the 1-year anniversary of the Global Forum for Adolescents; it will take place during the European regional IAAH meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark (10-11 Oct 2024), and it will be held in partnership with the World Health Organization and with the Partnership for Women’s Children’s and Adolescents’ Health (PMNCH).
IAAH developed several policies in 2023, including one on Education & Training of Healthcare Providers, one Statement on the Conflict and Violence in Israel and Palestine, and one on Comprehensive Sexuality Education in Schools. Our very active Education Committee has conducted a series of webinars addressing implementation of educational goals and addressing access and other issues health systems face in caring for adolescents. We are also working with WHO, with Rotary International, and with several other health professional groups to address national policy and advocacy to counter common misinformation and support evidence-based comprehensive sexuality education for young people. We are also in the final stages of approvals for a 2024 joint SAHM and IAAH policy statement on the Impact of Climate Change on Adolescent and Young Adult Health.
IAAH also has an ongoing consultation project underway with the World Health Organization, which involves facilitating global consultation with youth and with adolescent health technical experts into the revision of the 2015 WHO guidelines for adolescent care and the adolescent health competencies documents. These will be conducted in all of the UN languages, and will join WHO’s recently published AH-HA! version 2, updated evidence reviews being conducted by WHO and the University of Melbourne, and the forthcoming global adolescent measurement initiative launch. IAAH’s youth consultation, in partnership with PMNCH, will also gather input from the 1.2 million young people who participated in the 1.8 Billion Global Forum campaign on What Young People Want. Collectively these efforts will provide a clear and compelling roadmap for country-level and other commitments to young people, and for accountability and tracking of those commitments to what young people want and need.
And finally, I must tell you how excited I am about the 13th IAAH World Congress, which will be held in Montego Bay, Jamaica, November 6-8th 2025. Abigail Harrison, Sheila Campbell-Forrester, Asha Pemberton, and Meera Beharry are co-chairs for the Congress, and the call for volunteers is now live for volunteers to serve on the scientific committee and help with abstract review, workshop, and symposium planning.
2024 will be an exciting year for IAAH. I encourage all of you to join an IAAH committee or a World Congress committee. Don’t hesitate to reach out to us ([email protected]) if you have questions or comments.
With warm best wishes,
Jonathan D. Klein, MD, MPH
IAAH, President
Palo Alto, CA, USA
[email protected]