Building a larger tent for public health: implications of the SOPHE-AAHE unification.

The unification of the American Association for Health Education (AAHE) and the Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE) generates a long-desired synergy, a ramping up of our leadership influence in promoting health. It also serves as an ongoing opportunity to reflect on how we synergize the distinct philosophic, scientific, and practical approaches that our AAHE colleagues bring in constructing a larger tent for public health education. Running parallel to our union with AAHE is the undertaking by several schools of health, physical education, and recreation (HPER) to become schools of public health.