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Public Health Epidemiology Conversations

Public Health Epidemiology Conversations

Dr. Charlotte H. Huntley 483 episodes Nov 10, 2026

Public Health Epidemiology Conversations (PHEC) features real stories from public health professionals creating change beyond traditional roles. Hosted by Dr. Charlotte Hughes Huntley, a seasoned epidemiologist and public health consultant, the podcast has delivered a new episode every Tuesday since 2017. Each episode explores the broad, often unexpected reach of public health through in-depth conversations with practitioners working across traditional and emerging roles. The show is designed for public health professionals at every career stage, as well as interdisciplinary professionals who work alongside public health.

Episodes

PHEC 482: What Makes a Community Sticky, with Chelsea Richard, PhD, MSPH
PHEC 482: What Makes a Community Sticky, with Chelsea Richard, PhD, MSPH Nov 10, 2026 38:05 What makes a community the kind of place people want to call home? In this episode, Dr. Huntley sits down with Dr. Chelsea Richard, Vice President of Strategy and Operations at the Central Carolina Community Foundation, who set out to answer that question across 11 counties in the Midlands of South Carolina. After a decade in state public health and early childhood work, Dr. Richard is now leading
PHEC 481: Health Beyond Hospital Walls, With Monty Robertson, MHA
PHEC 481: Health Beyond Hospital Walls, With Monty Robertson, MHA Nov 3, 2026 29:51 What happens when a plan to become a dentist turns into a career bringing 55 organizations together to improve health across an entire state? In this episode, Dr. Huntley sits down with Monty Robertson, executive director of the Alliance for a Healthier South Carolina, who was born, raised, and educated in small-town South Carolina. Monty shares how a pivot into health administration and his time
PHEC 480: Making Public Health Make Sense
PHEC 480: Making Public Health Make Sense Oct 27, 2026 36:40 How would you explain public health to someone who has never heard of it? In this episode, Dr. Huntley sits down with four Master of Public Health candidates from the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC): Emily Burdette, Keara Hagerman, Cania James, and Taylor Simon. Each of them answers that question with a fresh, everyday picture, from a car that runs best with routine maintenance, to a b
PHEC 479: Care After Dark, With Jeff Hom, MD
PHEC 479: Care After Dark, With Jeff Hom, MD Oct 20, 2026 32:50 What happens when someone who uses opioids finally feels ready for help at 10 o'clock at night? In this episode, Dr. Huntley sits down with Dr. Jeffrey Hom, an internal medicine physician and the Medical Officer for Science and Policy in the Substance Use Services section of the San Francisco Department of Public Health. Dr. Hom shares how years of volunteering at one of San Francisco's busiest so
PHEC 478: One Year Leading Baltimore Health, With Michelle Taylor, MD, MP
PHEC 478: One Year Leading Baltimore Health, With Michelle Taylor, MD, MP Oct 13, 2026 50:46 What happens when three different people tell you a job is meant for you, and you laugh off every one of them? Dr. Michelle Taylor returns to the podcast on her one-year anniversary as Commissioner of Health for the Baltimore City Health Department, and she shares the surprising chain of conversations that carried her from her hometown of Memphis to Baltimore. Dr. Huntley and Dr. Taylor also celeb
PHEC 477: The Public Health Utility Belt, With Brian Castrucci, DrPH
PHEC 477: The Public Health Utility Belt, With Brian Castrucci, DrPH Oct 6, 2026 42:58 Can you draw public health? Brian Castrucci, DrPH, President and CEO of the de Beaumont Foundation, has asked thousands of people to try, and even the most seasoned professionals come up stumped. In this episode, Dr. Castrucci joins Dr. Huntley to share how a last-minute invitation to a seminar on gun violence launched a 30-year career that has taken him from local health departments to national p
PHEC 476: New Book, New Voice
PHEC 476: New Book, New Voice Sep 29, 2026 13:24 What happens when a podcast that has published a new conversation every Tuesday since 2017 decides to try something it has never done before? In this solo episode, Dr. Huntley pauses to reintroduce herself to new and longtime listeners, sharing how her work as an epidemiologist and entrepreneur spans consulting with nonprofits (primarily tribal nations), hosting two podcasts, and now writing a boo
PHEC 475: Redefining Public Health Together
PHEC 475: Redefining Public Health Together Sep 22, 2026 35:56 What does it actually take to explain public health when the field itself feels like it's under attack? In this special roundtable episode, Dr. Huntley brings together three public health professionals, Dr. Belina Shaw, Jenna Paladino, and Ashley Peterson, for a real time conversation about how they translate their work into language that friends, family, and coworkers can actually understand. Fro
PHEC 474: A National Voice, With Georges C. Benjamin, MD
PHEC 474: A National Voice, With Georges C. Benjamin, MD Sep 15, 2026 39:30 What happens when a twist of fate turns an emergency physician into one of the most influential voices in American public health? In this episode, Dr. Huntley talks with Georges C. Benjamin, MD, who has spent the past twenty four years with the American Public Health Association, about the winding path that took him from military medicine, to health commissioner in Washington, D.C., to health secr
PHEC 473: Rewriting Who Owns The Data, With Meghan Jernigan
PHEC 473: Rewriting Who Owns The Data, With Meghan Jernigan Sep 8, 2026 42:04 Meghan Jernigan spent her childhood in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma driving over an hour just to reach the nearest Indian Health Service hospital. That drive shaped everything that came after. Dr. Huntley talks with Meghan, a citizen of the Choctaw Nation, about the unlikely path from a theater degree at Oklahoma State to two decades of work in tribal epidemiology, research, and now federal relations fo
PHEC 472: Undoing Decades Of Harm, With David Margolius, MD
PHEC 472: Undoing Decades Of Harm, With David Margolius, MD Sep 1, 2026 31:26 Cleveland's smoking rate was double the national average — and it wasn't an accident. Tobacco companies targeted Black neighborhoods, low-income communities, and youth with free menthol cigarettes as smoking dropped everywhere else. Dr. David Margolius spent years watching the fallout as a primary care physician before taking that fight to Cleveland's Department of Public Health. The result: smoki
PHEC 471: Public Health Is Everywhere
PHEC 471: Public Health Is Everywhere Aug 25, 2026 34:28 A sidewalk. A nine-hour ER wait. Two very different stories, one question: what does "public health" actually mean? Oluoma Eze and Savaiz Siddiqui join Dr. Huntley to unpack the parts of healthcare nobody explains well — the housing, the waiting rooms, the policy decisions made about us, usually without us. Real stories. No jargon. Just a better way to talk about the system that shapes our lives l

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