Co-authors from CDC and the Alzheimer’s Association provide details about the new 2018-2023 Healthy Brain Initiative Road Map, which offers strategies for public health agencies to promote cognitive health and support people living with dementia and their caregiver, and a forthcoming companion guide for Indian Country.
Discover how leadership coaching sessions reinforced partnerships between public health and community-based organizations.
In this podcast episode, experts offer perspectives on the value of cultivating partnerships between state public health agencies and state units on aging. In addition, officials from Georgia describe their collaboration to improve the health of older adults in the state.
This episode explains what the Shared Risk and Protective Factors framework is, and how states and territories can collaborate with a broader range of partners to implement research-based programs, policies, practices, and strategies that will improve the existing fractured and unstable systems.
Association of State and Territorial Health Officials Announces New Leadership Appointments SALT LAKE CITY—Edward Ehlinger, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Health, was elected president of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) during the association’s annual meeting. Brenda Fitzgerald, commissioner for the Georgia Department of Public Health, was elected as secretary-treasurer at the same meeting. Jay Butler, chief medical officer and director of the Division of Public Health at Alaska Department of Health and Social Services, became president-elect. All appointments take effect immediately. Ehlinger has served as Minnesota’s health commissioner since January 2011. Previously, he was the director and chief health officer for Boynton Health Service at the University of Minnesota, as well as director of personal health services for the Minneapolis Health Department. He has been honored with the Albert Justus Chesley Award from the Minnesota Public Health Association, the Advancement of Justice Award from the Hennepin County Bar Association, the first Ed Ehlinger Award from CityMatCH, and the Physician Communicator Award from the Minnesota Medical Association. In Minnesota, he is famous for his “Pitch the Commissioner” tours, where he travels to different counties and invites their citizens to join him in a game of horseshoes as they share ideas about what their communities need to be healthy. Fitzgerald is a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist and a fellow in anti-aging medicine. Prior to her current role as George’s health commissioner, Fitzgerald served on the Georgia OB-GYN Society’s board and as its president. She also worked as a healthcare policy adviser with House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Sen. Paul Coverdell. As a major in the U.S. Air Force, Fitzgerald served at the Wurtsmith Air Force Base in Michigan and the Andrews Air Force Base in Washington, D.C. In 2012, Fitzgerald led the launch of Georgia SHAPE, a childhood fitness and obesity reduction program that received formal commendation from the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition in 2014. Butler was appointed chief medical officer and director of the Division of Public Health at Alaska Department of Health and Social Services in 2014. Previously, he was senior director for community health services at the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium in Anchorage, where he was also a clinical infectious diseases consultant and medical director for infection control and employee health. Butler served as a U.S. Public Health Service medical officer for more than 23 years, and participated in a number of emergency deployments, such as heading the H1N1 Vaccine Task Force at CDC and being a team co-leader during the CDC responses to the SARS outbreak of 2003, avian influenza in 2004, and Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. In 2010, he received ASTHO’s National Excellence in Public Health Award. Jewel Mullen, commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Public Health, became immediate past president; and Terry Cline, commissioner of the Oklahoma State Department of Health, became past president. All ASTHO offices are one-year positions. ASTHO Press Release Boilerplate website yes
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