Over 500 public health practitioners and advocates came together at the Royal Plaza Hotel and Trade Center in Marlboro, MA, on October 22, 2013, for the 16th Ounce of Prevention Conference sponsored by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH). Following welcoming remarks by Geoff Wilkinson and Commissioner Cheryl Bartlett, Keynote Speaker Jeff Levi, Ph.D., Executive Director of The Trust for American's Health, spoke on "Many Paths to Healthier Communities". Plenary sessions were then held covering, Health Care Reform and Primary Prevention, Integrating Behavioral Health and Primary Care, Leadership in Communities of Color, and Cross-sector Collaboration and Community Resiliance. Following lunch at which both Commissioner's Leadership Awards and the Peter R. Lee Healthy Communities Awards were given, eleven workshops were held covering a wide range of topics. Click here for the video of the keynote presentation and here for the Commissioner's Award presentation.. 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 ) Senior Policy Advisor to the Commissioner Geoff Wilkinson introduces Commissioner Bartlett who then introduced Dr. Levi. (Top row, center) Dr. Levi chats with Office of Healthy Communities director Cathy O’Connor. (Top row, right) Commissioner Bartlett introduces Dr. Ann Hwang, Director of Health Care Policy and Strategy for the Executive Office of Health and Human Services at one of the plenary sessions. (Row three, left) Dr. Paul Hattis of the Public Health Council chats with Dr. Tom Land, Director of Health Information Policy and Informatics for the Department. (Row three, center and right) Commissioner's Leadership Awards are presented to Sarah Perez McAdoo of the YEAH! Network and to the Integrated Care Project at the Lynn Community Health Center. (Bottom row, center and right) Kitty Jerome of the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute introduces Wendy Garf-Lipp of Greater Fall River Partners before she presents on the Success from the Robert Wood Johnson Roadmaps to Health Prize winners with Claude-Alix Jacob of Cambridge.