Washington, D.C., July 21, 2010 – The American Public Health Association is pleased by the appointment
of Linda Degutis, DrPH, MSN, a former APHA president and board chair, as director
of the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.
Additionally, Christopher J. Portier, Ph.D., and Rear Admiral Ali Khan, M.D.,
M.P.H., both APHA members, will assume director positions at the National Center for Environmental Health Office
of Public Health Preparedness and Response respectively.
In this critical role,
Degutis will be charged with fostering collaborative research and educational
outreach efforts and programs in the area of injury and violence prevention,
which accounts for more than 170,000 deaths every year.
“Dr. Degutis has displayed
a lifelong commitment to making injury and violence prevention a leading public
health priority in this country,” said Georges C. Benjamin, MD, FACP, FACEP
(E), executive director of APHA. “We are all extremely grateful for the life-saving
work Dr. Degutis has done to help all Americans live healthier, safer and more
productive lives, and expect that she’ll have many achievements in her new role.”
Degutis holds an
undergraduate degree from DePaul
University, and an MSN
and DrPH from Yale. She was a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow, working
in the office of the late Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.).
Portier previously served as senior advisor to the director
and Principal Investigator for Environmental Systems Biology at the National
Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). He is a Fellow of the
International Statistics Institute, the World Innovation Foundation, and the
American Statistical Association.
“Dr. Portier will bring a
breadth of experience unmatched in the area of environmental health, which will
be a tremendous asset for CDC and its ongoing efforts to build healthier
communities,” said Benjamin.
Portier is a recent
recipient of the Spiegelman Award, a prestigious award bestowed by the American
Public Health Association for outstanding accomplishments in public health.
Khan, an assistant surgeon
general, has been with the CDC for nearly 20 years working on a wide array of
health issues including health security, global health, and emerging infectious
diseases.
“With Dr. Khan leading the
charge for public health preparedness and response issues, I am confident the CDC
will be in good hands and that the public will be better protected from the
next health outbreak or emergency,” said Benjamin.
For more about APHA, visit
www.apha.org.