This year’s HEAL Summit brought together municipal leaders, LiveWell communities, and field experts from around the country to advance healthy eating and active living (HEAL) across the state. Mayor Mick Cornett of Oklahoma City kicked off the summit by recounting Oklahoma City’s transformation from one of the most obese cities in the United States to one of the fittest by redesigning the city to support active living, jump-starting the city’s economy and pulling in fresh talent from across the country in so doing.
Karen McNeil-Miller, the new President and CEO of The Colorado Health Foundation, shared her thoughts on leadership with LiveWell Colorado CEO Shepard Nevel, insisting, “When a community really decides to do X, I’ve never seen X not happen.” Community engagement remained a theme through the rest of the summit as leaders from Sheridan, Littleton and other municipalities across the state spoke about using the collective voice of a community to advance policy options for active living.
Dr. Richard Jackson of the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health closed out the summit by urging municipal leaders to, “stop building to meet the needs of cars and start building to meet the needs of humans.” The HEAL Cities & Towns Campaign would like to thank all of the municipal and community leaders who attended and presented over the two-day summit for making the event such a success!
