ASTHO Recognizes State, Territorial, and National Leaders in Public Health
September 28, 2018
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.
ASTHO congratulates the 2018 award winners for demonstrating excellence in public health leadership and working tirelessly to protect and promote our nation’s health.
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ASTHO is the national nonprofit organization representing the public health agencies of the United States, the U.S. territories and freely associated states, and Washington, D.C., as well as the more than 100,000 public health professionals these agencies employ. ASTHO members, the chief health officials of these jurisdictions, are dedicated to formulating and influencing sound public health policy and to ensuring excellence in public health practice.