Transparency and collaboration were at the forefront of the second annual PA One Health Consortium meeting

Representatives from academia, health care, industry, wildlife, agriculture, veterinary medicine, environmental health and public health joined community organizations and government representatives from across the commonwealth at the second annual meeting of the Pennsylvania One Health Consortium (PAOHC), a coalition of experts focused on improving health and well-being for all Pennsylvanians. The meeting, convened by Pitt’s School of Public Health, was held June 21-23 in Pittsburgh.

“One Health links people, animals, plants and ecosystems,” said Maureen Lichtveld, dean of the School of Public Health, which has served as the consortium’s coordinating institution since 2024. “That linkage is central to our mission and to the mission of our consortium and its partners.”

The PAOHC builds off the One Health Task Force that was first launched in 2018 by Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture. In addition to Pitt Public Health, PAOHC partner educational institutions include the University of Pennsylvania and Penn State as well as Delaware Valley, Temple, Carnegie Mellon and Villanova universities.

PAOHC’s mission is to advance One Health in Pennsylvania by building cross-sector partnerships that support research, education and community engagement.

Aligned with the theme of this year’s meeting, “One Health in Action: From Data to Decisions,” 33 speakers and more than 200 meeting attendees agreed that information sharing and collaboration among academic, government and nonprofit sectors — the kind exemplified by the PAOHC — is key to facing threats to human, animal and ecosystem health.

“Collaboration can be clumsy, but it is necessary if we are to be ready to solve problems and face the next pandemic,” epidemiologist Harris Pastides, president emeritus of the University of South Carolina, said in his keynote address. “But I say ‘Bravo’ to Pennsylvania and this consortium, for you are in the vanguard.”