Brief outline of workshop:
I didnt define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other peoples fantasies for me and eaten alive.”_ Audre Lorde In alignment with the vision of the main conference, seeking to build a sustainable and equitable future, this workshop will provide a platform for early career public health professionals (ECPs) as future leaders in public health. These future leaders will reflect on globally relevant challenges and discuss the need for responsive and adaptive models to address these current and emerging health threats. The recent pandemic has propelled public health into the limelight and reminded the world of the important role that public health professionals play in population health. However, the unintended consequence of this remains the risk of portraying public health as simply a specialty concerned with infectious diseases or pandemics. Some of the challenges facing public health, presently and into the future, include non-communicable diseases, climate change, air pollution, digital transformation and other social determinants of health. Public health core values centre around health equity and social justice which is rooted in the understanding that optimal health is predicated on the eradication of issues such as racism, conflict and displacement. The future of public health needs to be bold and embrace this fundamental part of its identity. Whilst it is to be welcomed that, as part of ‘building-back-better’ initiatives post Covid-19, public health leaders are engaging in discussions about the future of public health and importance of strengthened public health systems, these conversations are often lacking the voice of ECPs. It is important to engage these future leaders in discussions that will inform future public health structures. If we are serious about building a sustainable and fair future, it will require the energy and determination of ECPs at the helm. This is an opportunity for future leaders to lead the discourse that will inform future direction and set the vision of public health for the 22nd century.

Specific aims/objectives:
The session will: * Explore reflections among panellists and audience on the challenges/opportunities of global public health * Provide panellists and audience opportunity to share visions of how future public health needs to be shaped to meet those challenges * Generate an output that will form the basis of an editorial article for publication.

Component parts:
After playing an introductory “vox pop” from a broad range of ECPs, the expert panel of ECPs will share their insights on challenges/opportunities facing public health today and in the future. Audience will also be invited to participate via Mentimeter/Q&A to share their views on the subject. There will be discussion on the case for a multidisciplinary, value-driven public health systems that recognise global nature of the challenges facing public health.

The key questions the workshop will address:
* What are the perspectives of ECPs on the public health challenges of the future? * How should the public health systems be shaped to meet those challenges? * How do we empower ECPs to take ownership in designing solutions to address future public health challenges?