Hundreds of public health practitioners and advocates gathered at the Royal Plaza Hotel and Trade Center in Marlboro, MA, on October 6, 2009, for the 12th Ounce of Prevention conference sponsored by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH). Roderick K. King, M.D., M.P.H., president of Next Generation Consulting Group in Boston, an organization that focuses on promoting positive social change through strategic planning. The conference included 24 workshops on a variety of prevention-related topics and three plenary discussions on healthy eating, community organizing and regional collaboration. Awards were given to exemplary organizations in each of the six DPH regions, including an award to Team FRESH of Fall River. Click here for photos of last year's conference. For more information about the conference, contact Southeast Regional DPH Director Ron O'Connor at 508-984-0615

(Top row, left ) Department of Public Health Commissioner John Auerbach updates the audience on the current status of DPH programs and funding. (Top row, center) Power 2 Save Lives coordinator Jenna Legasse, Fall River Health and Human Services Director Henry Vaillancourt, M.D., Children In Balance Project Manager Marcia Picard, Mass In Motion Coordinator Julie Kelly and Healthy City Fall River Coordinator David S. Weed, Psy.D. sit together at lunch. (Top row, right) Dr. Roderick K. King delivers the keynote address on positive social change. (Middle row, left) Dr. King is joined by DPH Senior Policy Advisor Geoff Wilkinson as he takes questions from the audience, including one from Massachusetts Public Health Association Executive Director Valerie Bassett. (Bottom row, left and center) Healthy Youth Task Force co-chair Jamison Souza accepts the award on behalf of Fall River's Team FRESH from DPH Medical Director Lauren Smith and Office of Healthy Communities Director Cathy O'Connor. (Bottom row, right) Luis Rivera and Laura Pillsbury of Holyoke's Moving! Food and Fitness Policy Council describe a method of arriving at a group consensus on healthy community strategies as Southcoast Hospitals Marketing and Community Relations Director Kerry Mello and Children In Balance Project Manager Marcia Picard (right) listen.