Dear Colleagues and Friends,
As we begin 2026, I want to wish you a happy New Year and recognize the resolve and dedication that carried public health through an exceptionally demanding year.
Public health saw unprecedented changes at the federal level in 2025. A surge of executive orders and actions arrived faster than any system could reasonably absorb, eliminating programs and research, dismantling federal agencies, and straining the capacity of practitioners to respond. Public health officials were often left to interpret new directives even as they implemented them, making decisions with immediate consequences for communities and jeopardizing long established foundations of public health. Community groups felt those effects as well and worked urgently to understand what the changes meant for the people they serve. The result was a field operating under pressure. Many of us found ourselves trying to protect and reassure communities within frameworks that no longer provided the stability they once did.
What carried the field through was collaboration. That spirit defined the Network’s efforts throughout the year. We stood with practitioners and advocates, helping them find direction when the law felt unclear.
Our Work in 2025
This past year, we affirmed our commitment to supporting health agencies, community organizations, and advocates in using law and policy to protect health in communities, advance equity, and strengthen public health systems, and we feel proud of the work we undertook with so many of you.
Our work was shaped by thousands of conversations with those on the front lines: a researcher asking whether we were tracking new executive orders and their community impact; a state health department seeking guidance on the federal government’s collection of sensitive reproductive health information; a jurisdiction clarifying whether its vaccine waiver requirements complied with state law; state health agencies looking for ways to collaborate with one another regionally.
Some questions had quick answers; others required deeper analysis. When issues surfaced repeatedly or signaled emerging trends, we investigated further and developed new resources for the field. Our resource, New Federal SNAP Database Notice is a Call to Action for Data Privacy Protections for Working Families, Immigrants, and Other Individuals, grew directly from one such inquiry, turning a single question into guidance that helped agencies examine their data practices. In every instance, we shared evidence-based information to help extend the capacity of practitioners working under mounting demands.
Through Act for Public Health—our collaboration with Public Health Law Watch, Public Health Law Center, Center for Public Health Law Research, and ChangeLab Solutions—we produced coordinated legal and policy analyses in response to executive orders and legislative proposals affecting public health authority; diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility; immigration; and protections for LGBTQ+ communities. This collective expertise helped jurisdictions respond to proposals that threatened to limit core public health functions.
We also saw tangible progress across our strategic priorities. We worked with health agencies to navigate evolving reproductive health laws, and we joined the amicus brief, Moyle v. United States, urging the court to uphold the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA); we expanded our guidance on privacy, data governance, and technology law to address emerging challenges from artificial intelligence; and strengthened support for evidence-based harm reduction, helping jurisdictions align practice with the best available science. We raised awareness about emerging trends and effective practices in advancing health equity; addressing housing, food security and other social and structural conditions that shape health; tackling extreme heat and other health impacts of climate change; and examining the health impacts of immigration policy.
Thousands of practitioners joined our webinars to understand fast-moving developments in law and policy, from harm reduction and climate change to privacy and data governance. These sessions created space for candid discussion, shared problem-solving, and practical guidance grounded in evidence and equity.
Close to 450 in the public health community attended our Public Health Law Conference to increase their understanding of how to leverage law and policy to not only ensure the continuation of the progress we have made, but also to advance the work we remain committed to. We gathered together to learn, connect, collaborate, and advocate to protect the health of our communities, and left feeling less isolated in our efforts.
Our 2025 Impact Report captures the reach and depth of this work. It reflects a year in which more practitioners than ever turned to the Network for guidance through presentations, webinars, trainings, and resources focused on equity-centered practice and advancing the use of law as a tool for public good.
Looking Ahead
In 2026, we will focus on expanding our public health law network, reaching even more partners and collaborators who want to leverage law and policy to improve health. We will accelerate our work to connect and bridge governmental public health, communities, health care, research, policy, advocacy, and philanthropy.
We will continue to be an essential resource, helping jurisdictions navigate a tumultuous policy landscape. We will deepen our work on racial health equity; privacy and data governance; evidence-based harm reduction; access to reproductive health care; housing and food security; and the health impacts of climate change.
We will continue strengthening public health authority by helping agencies and communities understand and apply the legal tools that support their work. This includes supporting regional and state health authorities provide access to vaccines and other public health necessities.
Collaboration will continue to define how we do this work. The Network’s impact has always come from our strong connections with many of you and from the trust that allows us to face uncertainty together. In the year ahead, equity will remain central to all this work. The Network enters 2026 committed to strengthening the legal and policy foundations that make public health both effective and just.
As always, the Network is ready to be a sounding board, provide guidance, answer questions, or collaborate with you on more substantial challenges. Thank you for your partnership and your trust. Together, we will meet the challenges ahead. We wish you a healthy and successful new year.
With Gratitude,
Quang “Q” Dang
Executive Director
Network for Public Health Law
