January 13, 2026
Jane Murphy successfully defended her dissertation in the fall of 2025! Earlier that year, she leveraged LHC’s Health Policy Conference Travel Scholarship to attend the IAPHS Annual Meeting.
Attending the Interdisciplinary Association of Population Health Sciences (IAPHS) 2025 Annual Conference in Pittsburgh was a pivotal step in my doctoral journey. The opportunity arose from a conversation with my mentor, Dr. Gabe Miller, a Lister Hill Center Scholar and Associate Professor in the Department of Medical Sociology. When I expressed a desire to present my research findings ahead of my dissertation defense, he introduced me to IAPHS as an ideal venue.
My presentation focused on the prevalence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors (physical activity, alcohol consumption, tobacco use, and poor mental health) among adult populations using the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey (BRFSS). In researching health behaviors and even policy outcomes, BRFSS is a great tool, especially for students who are interested in quantitative data analysis. It is a large, population-based survey and the datasets are publicly available on the CDC’s website for researchers to use. The core questionnaire covers topics about health behaviors, chronic health conditions, and use of healthcare services among adults in the U.S. States and territories may opt to include additional surveys to complement this core. Analyses of BRFSS data can be helpful for researchers to better understand in which populations certain chronic health conditions or behaviors are seen. These findings can be used to promote and inform policy changes on both the state and federal level.
The conference provided a diverse environment filled with professionals, students, and researchers, which made the sessions particularly engaging. One of the most memorable presentations I attended offered an overview of how researchers worked directly with community members to conduct and analyze qualitative data. It was fascinating to hear the perspective of non-research audiences; while they enjoyed the overall process, they candidly admitted that the actual qualitative coding process was “boring” and time-consuming.
Networking was another highlight. I enjoyed connecting with other students to discuss our respective places in the dissertation process. Additionally, I served as a student volunteer, which gave me a behind-the-scenes understanding of the logistics required to make a large professional conference run smoothly. Perhaps most impactful was the IAPHS mentorship program; I was paired with a professor from Emory University, and our discussions regarding professional development and post-graduation plans have been incredibly helpful.
I would recommend that other students interested in population health sciences and working with community organizations should attend IAPHS meetings. This was a very diverse event with professionals, students, and researchers from many different backgrounds which made the talks very interesting. In addition to the conference itself, the mentorship program has been so helpful in considering professional development options and what I am going to do after graduation!
