APHA

ORAL HEALTH SECTION

2010 John W. Knutson Distinguished Service Award

 In Dental Public Health

Caswell A. Evans, DDS, MPH

Presented During the 138th APHA Annual Meeting in Denver November 8, 2010

Ceremony Program

Presider:  Larry Hill, 2010 Chair, Awards Committee

Introductory Comments: Scott Presson, Chair, APHA Oral Health Section

Introduction of Caswell A. Evans: Chester Douglass

Presentation of the Award: Scott Presson & Aimee Johansen, Colgate Oral Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Acceptance of the Award: Caswell A. Evans

Closing Remarks: Scott Presson

About Dr. Evans

Caswell A. Evans DDS, MPH, a Diplomate of the American Board of Dental Public Health, is the Associate Dean for Prevention and Public Health Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago (UlC) College of Dentistry and a Professor at the UIC School of Public Health. He also serves as a Visiting Professor, Columbia University School of Dental and Oral Surgery. Dr. Evans completed his undergraduate studies at Franklin and Marshall College, his DDS degree from Columbia University and his MPH from the University of Michigan. His efforts have resulted in programs and policies nationally and internationally that have benefited the oral health of hundreds of thousands of individuals.

He is a strong, effective advocate for health promotion and disease prevention and is deeply committed to health equity and eliminating health disparities. Dr. Evans is a member of the Institute of Medicine and has served as president of leading associations, including APHA, the Association of Public Health Dentistry and the American Board of Dental Public Health. He was the first chair of the Community Preventive Services Task Force; his work resulted in spearheading criteria for assessing community-based and community-wide efforts. He continues to serve on numerous foundation boards, policy centers and municipal Boards of Health. He has consulted with accreditation bodies and with governments in the United States and abroad. For example, he served on the Public Health Functions Steering Committee for the PHS Assistant Secretary for Health in 1995, an initiative whose product still guides the structure of the voluntary public health accreditation process.

Widely known is Dr. Evans' outstanding work with Surgeons General Satcher and Carmona. Dr. Evans served as the project director and Executive Editor of the Surgeon General's first ever report on oral health, Oral Health in America: A Report of the Surgeon General. The process of the report's development and dissemination was extensive and elevated the visibility of oral health and its relation to general health in our nation and abroad. He then led a National Oral Health Initiative resulting in a "National Call to Action" for oral health that was a public private partnership with the Office of the Surgeon General and served as a guide to states, organizations, foundations and federal agencies.

Dr. Evans has held senior positions at local and state levels. In the early 1970s he launched his career by building a Comprehensive Health Care Center in North Carolina. In the mid-1970s, he served in multiple senior positions with the Seattle-King County Department of Health. He began as the Chief of Dental Services and concurrently during the latter part of his tenure also served as Director, King County Health Services Division. Among his many accomplishments, he led the development of program performance and public health practice guidelines and greatly expanded the service delivery platform. In 1985 he joined the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services as Assistant Director of Health Services. He oversaw the executive administration of all Public Health programs and services and managed a budget of $340 million. While in Los Angeles, Dr. Evans led a number of initiatives including: a collaborative community effort to market public health that led to the formal creation of Public Health Week; launching Great Beginnings for Black Babies, a campaign that encouraged prenatal care for African American women; establishing the Healthy Los Angeles 2000 Coalition for Healthy People 2000; and creating a Health and Faith Coalition of Greater Los Angeles that catalyzed faith-based efforts.

His accomplishments and contributions to the public's health and to public health practice are outstanding and are a model for all in the public health profession. It is our pleasure to honor Dr. Caswell Evans with the APHA, Oral Health Section, 2010 John W. Knutson Distinguished Service Award in Dental Public Health.

(L to R) Larry Hill, Aimee Johansen, Caswell Evans, Scott Presson, Chester Douglass

[The award has been presented each year since 1982 to honor an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to improve oral health in the United States. An award of $1,500 is provided by Colgate Oral Pharmaceuticals of the Colgate-Palmolive Company. An inscribed silver tray commemorating the occasion is presented by members of the APHA Oral Health Section.]