A sponsor of the World Public Health Congress, the National Rural Health Association (NRHA) seeks to bring to light the public health issues surrounding rural America. Home to nearly 25 percent of the nation's population, many rural areas have no public health agency and few staff with formal training.
The NRHA supports the following for rural public health:

• Comparable access to essential services.
• Greater flexibility of resources to respond to local priorities.
• Utilization of bioterrorism and emergency preparedness resources to build public health capacity.
• Enhanced training and education of the workforce.
• Strengthened communications and technology.

The Public Health Foundation (PHF) is dedicated to achieving healthy communities through research, training, and technical assistance. For more than 35 years, this national, non-profit organization has been creating new information and helping health agencies and other community health organizations connect to and more effectively use information to manage and improve performance, understand and use data, and strengthen the workforce.

PHF is incorporated in the District of Columbia as a private non-profit 501(C)(3) organization. PHF is an independent, non-membership organization, governed by an eleven-member Board of Directors composed of two state health officers, two local public health officers, one local board of health member, and six individuals from academic, private sector, and other public health agency settings.