Call for Abstracts
Call Opens: October 15, 2026
Submission Deadline: November 27, 2026, 11:59 PM CT
The abstract submission period for the 2027 Public Health Law Conference is officially open!
Across the United States, health agencies, communities, organizations, and coalitions are working toward a more robust and equitable public health system to protect and promote the health of communities. This work has grown more urgent and more complex over the past year, as federal executive orders, funding cuts, and grant terminations have disrupted programs, reduced the public health workforce, and restricted the language and data used to describe and address health disparities. Public health practitioners and social justice advocates are addressing many intersectional determinants impacting health outcomes, such as access to quality healthcare, stable housing, harm reduction, climate impacts, immigration status, and racial justice. As structural racism and other forms of discrimination continue to exacerbate health disparities, it is essential to ensure community voices are informing solutions to address these and other fundamental determinants of health. Advancing health and health equity requires dialogue and collaboration among diverse partners in public health, and community advocates play a crucial role.
This year, we gather in Detroit, a city whose residents have long demonstrated what community power and resilience looks like in practice. From organizing against water shutoffs and environmental pollution, to building community benefits programs and neighborhood-led recovery. Guided by this year’s theme, Community Power and Resilience, the conference will explore how public health and community partners can build and share power, protect hard-won progress, and sustain the work ahead.
To foster this engagement and create opportunities for shared learnings, the Network for Public Health Law invites you to submit an abstract for the 2027 Public Health Law Conference, taking place October 4 – 6 in Detroit, Michigan. We welcome abstracts for panel presentations or individual presentations, though panels are prioritized. We are seeking submissions related to these priority areas: Advocacy and Community Engagement; Data Access, Sharing and Privacy; Emergency and Legal Preparedness and Response; Emerging Issues; Environmental, Climate, and Health; Harm Reduction; Health and Racial Health Equity; Public Health Authority and Systems; Public Health Law Practice; and Tribal Public Health. Public health practitioners, attorneys, researchers, health care providers, community-led organizations and coalitions, advocates working in public health, as well as those in health care and other sectors, are all encouraged to submit abstracts. Please note that the Public Health Law Conference focuses exclusively on U.S. public health law and policy.
The following priority areas include examples of subtopics for the purpose of illustration. We welcome relevant abstract submissions not specifically mentioned on this list:
- Advocacy and Community Engagement: community-led health initiatives; community engagement in public health; public health policy advocacy; ballot initiatives; health and democracy; mis/disinformation and public health messaging.
- Data Access, Sharing and Privacy: Tribal public health data; cross sector data sharing; equity in public health data; data disaggregation; trends in data privacy/data sharing; and public health data modernization.
- Emergency and Legal Preparedness and Response: emergency declarations and powers; disease control orders; intergovernmental coordination; crisis standards of care; syndromic surveillance; extreme weather and disaster preparedness; impacts of federal funding cuts and executive orders; and equitable emergency planning.
- Environment, Climate and Health: extreme heat protections; “make polluters pay” and climate superfund laws; climate adaptation and resilience; safe drinking water and PFAS; environmental justice; the built environment and land use; healthy housing; public health impacts of data centers; responses to federal environmental rollbacks.
- Harm Reduction: overdose prevention and harm reduction laws and policies; community-based harm reduction; substance use disorder (SUD) treatment; naloxone distribution; opioid settlement funds; cannabis legalization and regulation.
- Health and Racial Health Equity: navigating anti-DEI and other equity barriers; antiracism in public health; culturally inclusive approaches to health and well-being; health impacts of incarceration and policing; LGBTQ+ health; reproductive and sexual health; disability justice; rural health; immigrant health; intersectional approaches to advancing health equity.
- Public Health Authority and Systems: public health legal authority and powers; executive orders; Medicaid in non-expansion states; operationalizing racial equity tools and frameworks; politicizing public health measures; immunization requirements; the role of health department legal counsel, public health agency accreditation.
- Public Health Law Practice: the Five Essential Public Health Law Services; ordinances, regulations, and model laws; preemption and home rule; administrative law and enforcement; legal epidemiology; implicit bias in public health law; ethics for public health attorneys; transdisciplinary legal teams; medical-legal partnerships; public health law workforce training.
- Tribal Public Health: Tribal sovereignty in public health; Tribal public health codes; Tribal–state–local coordination; Tribes as public health authorities; Tribal data sovereignty; youth suicide prevention and behavioral health; food sovereignty; broadband and telehealth access; and climate impacts on Tribal lands.
- Emerging Issues: New and fast-moving legal and policy developments
Abstract Information
- Abstracts are submitted through the Oxford Abstracts submission portal (account required).
- Abstracts are limited to 250 words.
- Public health practitioners, attorneys, researchers, health care providers, and advocates working in public health, health care and other sectors, as well as community-led organizations and coalitions, are all encouraged to submit abstracts.
- Preference will be given to abstracts that have strong law and policy, and equity components.
- Preference will be given to panels that have at least one lawyer/legal expert presenting.
- Preference will be given to panels that include a community representative/advocacy group.
- Abstracts may be submitted for a panel presentation or an individual presentation. Preference will be given to abstracts submitted as part of a complete panel.
- An abstract submitted individually may be combined with other individual abstracts to form a complete panel.
- If a proposed panel is not accepted in full, the individual abstracts from it may be considered for other panels.
- Panels are limited to three presenters and a moderator, for a maximum of four participants. Please note: moderators are not differentiated in Oxford Abstracts, and should be entered as a speaker.
- Individual presentations are limited to a maximum of one participant
- The time allotment for panels is 75 minutes, with 15 minutes per presenter and 30 minutes for Q/A.
Submission and Review Information
All abstracts, whether for individual or panel presentations, must be submitted through the online collection platform, Oxford Abstracts. The person who creates the submission in Oxford Abstracts is the submitter. Each submission has one submitter, who serves as the main point of contact and receives all communications from the Conference Planning Committee. Because only the submitter can edit a submission, we recommend that the person who will manage the abstract through the review process be the one to create it. Co-presenters should be listed in the authors and affiliations section of the form, and the submitter is responsible for sharing all correspondence with them.
Abstracts will be reviewed by the Conference Planning Committee and a group of external reviewers through a confidential, blind review process. When warranted, the Committee reserves the right to accept only a subset of abstracts from a proposed panel or to restructure a panel. Notifications of acceptance or rejection will be e-mailed to the submitter by February 2027. Presenting speakers will receive a reduced registration rate.
For help or if you have questions about the submission process, contact:
Public Health Law Conference
phlc@networkforphl.org