The How of Healthy Communities: SOPHIA's Practitioner Workshop

Thursday and Friday, April 23-24th, 2026

Arlington, VA -- Hosted by George Washington University

Visit the Workshop page for all the details.

We know that embedding health into planning, policy, and community development is hard — not because the evidence isn't there, but because the how is where things get complicated. How do you move from assessment to action? How do you translate community voice into policy language that sticks? How do you sustain this work when political winds shift?

This workshop is built for practitioners who are doing that work every day. Over two days, you'll dig into real cases, share what's working (and what isn't), and leave with tools and relationships that will make your practice stronger.

Highlights

Keynote: Mayor Alyia Gaskins, City of Alexandria, Virginia

We're honored to welcome Mayor Alyia Gaskins as our opening keynote speaker. A public health professional and urban planner by training, Mayor Gaskins has spent her career at the intersection of health and local governance — from leading a national learning collaborative on health disparities at the National League of Cities to managing the Let's Move! Cities initiative across 500+ communities. Now serving as Mayor of Alexandria, she brings a rare perspective on what it takes to make health a priority at the local level. Her keynote, "The Future of Local Governance in a HiAP World," will set the stage for our two days together.

Practitioner-Driven Sessions

This isn't a sit-and-listen conference. Expect interactive sessions designed for real exchange, including:

• A community engagement panel exploring one of the toughest questions in our field: once you've brought the community to the table, what happens next? How do you process input, feedback, and lived experience into recommendations and policy? Practitioners from the Alexandria Health Department and the Purple Line Corridor Coalition will share lessons from the front lines.
  
  

• Problem-solving workshops where you bring your stickiest HiAP challenge and crowdsource solutions with fellow practitioners.
  
  

• Lightning talks featuring innovation, community voice, cross-sector wins, and honest lessons from the field.
  
  

• A lively practitioner debate on the big questions we all wrestle with — like who really pays for HIA and HiAP, and whether data is overrated.
  
  

• Networking activities designed to build the kind of connections that lead to phone calls six months from now, not just business card swaps.

Evening tours and small group dinners across the D.C. metro area — because some of the best conversations happen outside the sessions.

The SOPHIA Practitioner Workshop provides the community of practitioners of HiAP and HIA an opportunity to participate in networking, sharing recent work, and hear about ways to move their practice to the next level. You will work alongside a diverse group of people all looking to share expertise and learn together.

Wednesday, April 22nd

Integrating Cumulative Impacts into Health Impact Assessment (HIA-C)

On April 22nd, we plan to offer an in-person half-day training session on HIA-C. This is for people who are newer to the field and want to learn more before attending the Workshop. We'll work through a real case study, map overlapping stressors, and practice building the kind of recommendations that actually protect communities near new development. If you've been curious about cumulative impact assessment or want hands-on practice, this is your session.