Michael Fraser Biography
Last updated March 1, 2024
Michael Fraser, PhD, MS, CAE, FCPP, served as the chief executive officer at the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) from August 2016 through March 1, 2024. Under his leadership and in partnership with the ASTHO Board of Directors, ASTHO received multiple awards including the 2022 Fries Prize for Improving Health on behalf of all state and territorial health agencies for their work to respond to COVID-19 and several Power of "A" Awards from the American Society of Association Executives for ASTHO's outstanding performance and the contributions the ASTHO team has made to advance the work of ASTHO. ASTHO has grown in influence and organizational capacity since his arrival, including increasing the size and diversity of the ASTHO team and growing the organization’s budget with significant new investments from both federal agencies and national and global philanthropies.
Fraser is a dynamic leader in public health and brings to this position experience leading both public health associations and medical societies. He has been featured in interviews with the Washington Post, New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Politico, The Hill, CNN, Bloomberg, MSNBC, Governing, and other national and regional media outlets. Fraser is the author of more than 40 peer-reviewed scientific publications and commentaries and contributed to several book projects including as the co-author of Vaccinating America: The Inside Story Behind the Race to Vaccinate America, Save Lives, and End a Pandemic, co-editor and author of A Public Health Guide to Ending the Opioid Crisis, and A Communications Playbook for Public Officials: How to Effectively Manage the Message, the Media, and Yourself with Robert Johnson. He is currently an editor and author of Strategic Skills for Public Health: An Essential Primer for an Evolving Workforce and Systems and Strategic Thinking in Public Health: A Primer. Fraser is an Affiliated Faculty in the Department of Global and Community Health and the Department of Health Administration and Policy at the George Mason University School of Public Health in Fairfax, Virginia.
Prior to joining ASTHO, he served as the executive vice president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Medical Society in Harrisburg, PA. Fraser has been a distinguished leader in public health for twenty years. He served as CEO of the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs (AMCHP) from 2007 to 2013, where his leadership was recognized nationally by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau’s Director’s Award in 2014. In addition, the American Public Health Association’s MCH Section awarded AMCHP the Outstanding Leadership and Advocacy Award. Prior to joining AMCHP, he was the deputy executive director of the National Association of County and City Health Officials from 2002 to 2007 and served in several capacities at the US Department of Health and Human Services, including positions at the Health Resources and Services Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In Spring 2015, he was admitted as a Fellow in the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, one of just a handful on non-physician Fellows in the nation’s oldest professional society.
Fraser received his doctorate and master's degrees in sociology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and a master's of science in management with a concentration on management, strategy and leadership from the Eli Broad School of Management at Michigan State University. He received his B.A. in sociology from Oberlin College in 1991.