The Challenge

Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) is a leading authority on the nation’s public health system, consistently producing rigorous, influential research on everything from disaster preparedness to obesity prevention and substance abuse. But in today’s crowded public health landscape and relentlessly competitive media market, even the most credible research can struggle to break through. To ensure TFAH’s insights cut through the noise, the organization partnered with Burness to increase media reach, elevate its expert voices, and deliver critical findings to the policymakers and public health leaders positioned to act on them.

Our Approach

Burness led media outreach for TFAH’s four flagship reports in 2025: “Ready or Not: Protecting the Public’s Health from Diseases, Disasters, and Bioterrorism;” “Pain in the Nation: The Epidemics of Alcohol, Drug, and Suicide Deaths;” “Public Health Infrastructure in Crisis;” and “State of Obesity: Better Policies for a Healthier America.” 

For each report, we developed a tailored strategy to ensure we were reaching TFAH’s priority audiences at the national, state and local levels. This included crafting timely, compelling messages aligned with the current news cycle, building customized media lists, and orchestrating press briefings featuring TFAH experts and leading voices across public health including from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, National Association of County and City Health Officials, Safe States Alliance and Healthy Eating Research. The goal: make it easy for reporters to understand, cover and amplify TFAH’s critical findings.

Results and Impact

In just the first year of partnership, TFAH saw record media coverage:

  • 748 placements across national, local, international and Spanish-language outlets

  • Coverage in high-profile outlets including the The Guardian (US), Associated Press, C-SPAN and more

  • Views from 9.3 million people online and 11.7 million through broadcast channels

These were some of the strongest media results in TFAH’s 25-year history, helping move their research from respected reports to widely recognized, actionable public health insights.