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ASTHO Recognizes State, Territorial, and National Leaders in Public Health ARLINGTON, VA—The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) presented several awards during its 2018 Annual Meeting this week to commend public health leaders for their service and dedication to improving our nation’s health. “On behalf of ASTHO, I am pleased to recognize this distinguished group of public health professionals who continuously strive to promote health and well-being in communities across the country,” says Karen McKeown, state health officer at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services and ASTHO past president and chair of ASTHO’s Nominations, Awards, and Membership Committee. “We admire their commitment to raising the bar and ensuring that state and territorial health agencies play an active role in creating the conditions that allow us all to be healthy. We are grateful for the work of these dedicated individuals and for their contributions to the field of public health.” The 2018 ASTHO awardees include: Anne Schuchat, MD, Principal Deputy Director, CDC Ed Thompson Lifetime Achievement Medal Schuchat has been CDC’s principal deputy director since September 2015 and has played key roles in CDC emergency responses including the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, the 2003 SARS outbreak in Beijing, and the 2001 bioterrorist anthrax response. Upon completing 30 years of service in 2018, Schuchat retired from the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service at the rank of Rear Admiral. Karyl Rattay, MD, MS, Director of the Delaware Division of Public Health Arthur T. McCormack Award Rattay leads over 600 employees as state health officer and director of the Delaware Division of Public Health. As a board-certified pediatrician, Rattay has practiced pediatrics for nearly 14 years. Between 2001-2004, she served as a senior public health advisor to the U.S. Surgeon General and HHS Assistant Secretary of Health. Joan Duwve, MD, MPH, Associate Dean for Practice, Indiana University Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health Noble J. Swearingen Award Duwve is the Associate Dean for Practice at the Indiana University Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health in Indianapolis and the former chief medical officer at the Indiana State Department of Health. Duwve was a private practice family physician for 11 years. Prior to medical school, she served in the Peace Corps and worked in international public health in North Africa and the Middle East. Grant Baldwin, PhD, MPH, Director, Division of Unintentional Injury Prevention, CDC Injury Center National Excellence in Public Health Co-Award Baldwin began his career at CDC in September 1996. In his nearly 10 years of leadership at the Injury Center, he has helped raise the profile of motor vehicle injury prevention and scaled up CDC’s response to the prescription drug overdose epidemic. He has also advanced the work in older adult fall prevention and CDC’s efforts in the prevention of traumatic brain injury. Patricia Mitchell, MPH, Deputy Director, Division of Unintentional Injury Prevention, CDC Injury Center National Excellence in Public Health Co-Award Mitchell joined CDC’s Division of Unintentional Injury Prevention as deputy director in March 2014. After over 20 years in the agency’s diabetes division, Mitchell quickly got up to speed on pressing and high priority unintentional injury prevention topics, including opioid overdose, traumatic brain injury, transportation safety, and older adult falls. Jennifer Clarke, MD, MPH, FACP, Medical Programs Director, Rhode Island Department of Corrections State Excellence in Public Health Award Clarke led a treatment program for opioid addiction launched by the Rhode Island Department of Corrections, which was associated with a significant drop in post-incarceration drug overdose deaths and, ultimately, resulted in an overall drop in overdose deaths statewide. The first-of-its-kind program screens all Rhode Island inmates for opioid use disorder and provides addiction treatment medications for those in need. Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) 2018 Legislative Champion Award Blunt was elected to the United States Senate in 2010. He serves on the Appropriations Committee; the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee; the Select Committee on Intelligence; and the Senate Rules Committee. Before serving in Congress, he was a history teacher, a county official, and in 1984 became the first Republican elected as Missouri’s Secretary of State in more than 50 years. Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) 2018 Legislative Champion Award Serving as a member of Senate Democratic leadership since 2007, Patty has established herself as a tireless and effective leader on education, transportation, budget issues, port security, healthcare, women, and veterans’ issues. She is currently Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. Terry Dwelle, MD, FAAP ASTHO Alumni Award Dwelle served as the state health officer for the North Dakota Department of Health from 2001-2016. He was previously the clinical director for the Indian Health Service clinic at Fort Totten, an assistant professor of pediatrics, an infectious disease consultant, and a medical missionary to Central and East Africa. Dwelle is the founder and director of the North Dakota Public Health Training Network and serves as the alumni society representative on the ASTHO Board of Directors. de Beaumont Foundation ASTHO Partner Award The de Beaumont Foundation’s mission is to strengthen and transform public health in the United States. The foundation improves the effectiveness and capacity of local and state health departments through research, collaboration, and strategic grantmaking. Texas Department of State Health Services Model Policies and Practices Challenge Winner ASTHO, in partnership with the de Beaumont Foundation, recognizes Texas’ health department for its grand rounds program, an organization-wide strategy that encourages thought-provoking conversations around the science of public health. Since its inception in 2008, the program has hosted 132 presentations and engaged nearly 25,000 learners on topics ranging from human trafficking to food access/insecurity and Zika to illegal pain clinics.    San Francisco Department of Public Health Model Policies and Practices Challenge Winner ASTHO, in partnership with the de Beaumont Foundation, recognizes San Francisco’s health department for its trauma informed systems model, designed to create a healing public health system of care that fosters wellness and resilience for everyone in the system. In addition, ASTHO presented its 2018 Vision Awards to the Texas Department of State Health Services, Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Tennessee Department of Health, and the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control. <!--Learn more about their award-winning programs here.--> ASTHO congratulates the 2018 award winners for demonstrating excellence in public health leadership and working tirelessly to protect and promote our nation’s health. ASTHO Press Release Boilerplate website yes

ASTHO Statement on Resignation of CDC Director ASTHO Statement on Resignation of CDC Director Fitzgerald ARLINGTON, VA—The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) president and executive director issued the following statements in response to the announcement on the resignation of CDC Director Brenda Fitzgerald: “We respect Dr. Fitzgerald’s decision to step down from her role as CDC director and understand the difficult choice she had to make,” says Michael Fraser, executive director of ASTHO. “While her tenure was a brief six months, Dr. Fitzgerald created momentum for improving the health of our nation, specifically around her agency’s role in fighting infectious disease and promoting health security, addressing the opioid epidemic, combating this year’s deadly flu season, and bringing a public health perspective to early childhood development in a new way for CDC. ASTHO stands ready to support the future CDC director, whom we hope has the same depth of experience in leading a state, local, or territorial public health agency. It is also our hope that a new director will continue to value state and territorial public health leaders as primary partners in the implementation of CDC’s work. We know these kinds of changes can be disruptive to an agency that is already underfunded and works around the clock to protect us from our nation’s gravest health threats.” “As public health officials, we uniquely understand that the role of CDC director is critical to protecting and promoting the health and well-being of the American people above all other interests,” says John Wiesman, ASTHO’s president and secretary of health at the Washington State Department of Health. “We hold Dr. Fitzgerald in great esteem for her many contributions as Georgia’s health commissioner, where she spearheaded efforts to reduce childhood obesity and promote early brain development, laying the foundation to help people enjoy longer and healthier lives. We accept her decision to step down, and we look forward to working closely with CDC’s next director to continue advancing the work of our nation’s top public health agency.”   ASTHO is supportive of HHS Secretary Alex Azar’s announcement of Anne Schuchat as the interim CDC Director. “Dr. Schuchat’s experience working in the field and at CDC headquarters gives her the perspective one needs to understand the breadth, scope, and importance of the agency,” Fraser says. “We look forward to working with her during her tenure as interim director.” ASTHO Press Release Boilerplate website yes

If there’s anyone who has spent their career preparing for a global pandemic, it’s Anne Schuchat, MD. Currently, she serves as the principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). She sat down with ASTHO for a one-on-one that covers her reaction to the COVID-19 response, what policymakers should be thinking about next, and what keeps her up at night.

ASTHO Honors 2015 Public Health Heroes SALT LAKE CITY—The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) is pleased to announce the winners of the 2015 ASTHO public health heroes awards. Anne Schuchat, director of CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases and assistant surgeon general, was awarded the National Excellence in Public Health Award. Schuchat has made vital contributions to preventing infectious diseases in children. She led the development of CDC′s guidelines on perinatal group B streptococcal disease, which resulted in an 80 percent reduction in newborn infections and a 75 percent narrowing of racial disparities among sufferers. She previously worked in West Africa on meningitis vaccine studies, South Africa on surveillance and prevention projects, and China on SARS emergency response. Sylvia Pirani, director of the Office of Public Health Practice within the New York State Department of Health, received the State Excellence in Public Health Award. Pirani has been a driving force behind the New York State Prevention Agenda 2013-2017, the five-year state health improvement plan to make New York the healthiest state in the nation, and was instrumental to assembling a large network of partners across the state to improve understanding of the social determinants of health and promote the Health in All Policies approach. José T. Montero, vice president of population health and health systems integration at Cheshire Medical Center/Dartmouth-Hitchcock Keene, is the 2015 McCormack Award winner. Established in 1950 to honor Arthur T. McCormack, a Kentucky state health official, the McCormack Award is presented each year to a current or former public health official who has served for at least 10 years, been a chief state health official for at least five years, demonstrated excellence, and made a significant contribution to the knowledge and practice of the field. From 2008 to 2015, Montero was the public health director at the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Public Health Services, and served as ASTHO president from 2012-2013. He is a leader in developing population health at the national level and integrating public health and healthcare to improve population health outcomes. The Noble J. Swearingen Award was awarded to Guthrie S. Birkhead, deputy director of New York State Department of Health. Since 1979, the Swearingen Award, named for a former ASTHO executive director, has been bestowed on one individual in public health administration who has five or more years of experience in a state health agency, and five or more years in service to the ASTHO Senior Deputies Committee or in some other capacity. Birkhead is a communicable disease epidemiology specialist whose work in New York includes directing the Center for Community Health, AIDS Institute, Center for Environmental Health, Wadsworth Center Laboratory, Office of Public Health Practice, Office of Health Emergency Preparedness, and Office of Public Health Informatics and Project Management. The Presidential Meritorious Service Award is given by the ASTHO president to honor a health leader who has made outstanding contributions to ASTHO and state public health. This year, ASTHO President Jewel Mullen recognized Joycelyn Elders, the sixteenth Surgeon General of the United States. Elders was the first African American and second woman to head the U.S. Public Health Service. Elders grew up in a rural, segregated, poverty-stricken pocket of Arkansas before becoming the first person in Arkansas to be board-certified in pediatric endocrinology. She is a professor emeritus at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, and remains active in public health education. ASTHO’s Alumni Award is presented to a former chief state health official who has demonstrated his or her continued commitment to public health. This year’s Alumni Award winner is Bob Harmon, a physician executive at Cerner Corporation and director of the Missouri Department of Health from 1986 to 1990. Harmon has authored more than 70 publications dealing with health information technology, quality improvement, managed care, primary care, public health administration, and health policy. ASTHO in honored to recognize these public health leaders for their dedication and service to improving health and wellness. ASTHO Press Release Boilerplate website yes