This past month was the 4th anniversary for the release of our book, Shaping the Healthy Community: The Nashville Plan. A lot of factors influence what makes a "healthy" community, from encouraging the use of public transit physical mobility to healthy food accessibility. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, more factors have been brought to light, like safety of our homeless population and whether or not air pollution has affected susceptibility to the virus.

Health emergencies can also be exacerbated by natural disasters. Tennessee was doubly affected first with the Nashville tornado and then the Chattanooga tornado. The people who experienced any damage or loss of power to their homes have been in a vulnerable situation during the outbreak.

On Wednesday, May 27th, we are excited to welcome the co-authors of Shaping the Healthy Community, Gary Gaston, and Christine Kreyling, to moderate a discussion on adapting to health emergencies in terms of healthy environment factors, community engagement, and city planning.

Panelists include:

Leslie Mehann - MPA, AICP:  Director of Office of Primary Prevention for the Tennessee Department of Health and;

Dr. Sanmi Arriola -   former Deputy Health Director of Metro Public Health Department in Nashville and current Director of Health and Environment in Johnson County, TN.

Edward Henley - Principal & Project Executive at Pillars Development, LLC.

Eric Hoke - Design Director, Civic Design Center