The 2012 Unsung Heroes of Public Health Awards

The CPH Foundation hosted its Third Annual Unsung Heroes of Public Health awards event on Tuesday, December 4, 2012. The awards honored individuals who have worked tirelessly and produced meaningful public health results in disease control and prevention. Our award winners - Anna Gorman of the Los Angeles Times and Matt McDaniel of the Shelby County Health Department - had the opportunity to tour Capitol Hill and meet with over half a dozen members of Senate and House of Representatives, including two senators from the state of Tennessee. Afterwards, the awardees were honored at a reception on Capitol Hill in the Rayburn House Office Building.

In a 'first' for our annual event, three members of Congress served as our Honorary Co-Chairs this year. We are grateful to Congressman and Dr. Phil Roe (R-TN), Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA) and Representative James P. McGovern (D-MA) for helping us highlight the valuable contributions of our nation's prevention and disease control experts.

We are especially thankful to have the Kaiser Permanente Program Offices Fund for Community Benefit at the East Bay Community Foundation and GlaxoSmithKline's support of our 2012 Unsung Heroes of Public Health awards. This event would not have been possible without their generous contribution.

See press release "National Awards Given to ‘Unsung’ Disease Control and
Prevention Experts, Journalist".

Photos from the 2012 Awards

Photos clockwise from top left:  (1) Award winner Matt McDaniel speaking on preparedness and response initiatives with Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee; (2) From left in order award winner Matt McDaniel; Senator Lamar Alexander; Executive Director of The CPH Foundation, Karl Moeller; award winner Anna Gorman; Senator Bob Corker and Helen Fisun, Graduate Intern at The CPHF Foundation; (3) Karl Moeller, Matt McDaniel, Anna Gorman and Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA); (4) Anna Gorman discusses public health initiatives with Brandon Ball, Senator Lamar Alexander's Health Policy Aide

Meet the 2012 Unsung Heroes of Public Health

Greater Rochester, New York

Mr. Wade Norwood, Rock in the Pond Award

This award recognizes Wade’s outstanding work on community-based public health efforts in the greater Rochester area. Mr. Norwood, the Director of Community Engagement in the Finger Lakes Health Systems Agency, has spent more than 20 years working to improve the health of those in his community. He has brought together governments, businesses and community groups in order to combat a host of preventable and costly health conditions.

Three-state Memphis Metropolitan Area

Mr. Matt McDaniel, Wavemaker Award

Our Wavemaker award recognizes Matt’s work on larger-scale, multi-state disease control or prevention initiatives. Mr. McDaniel works to improve preparedness and response programs in the three-state Memphis metropolitan area. His efforts greatly improved the region’s readiness and response capacity. Among his many accomplishments, he has devised a preparedness and response system to distribute medications to more than 1.2 million people within 48 hours.

The Los Angeles Times

Ms. Anna Gorman, Excellence in Media Award

This award recognizes Anna’s science-based reporting of factual public health and prevention information. Ms. Gorman’s health reporting for the Los Angeles Times has covered childhood obesity, lead poisoning, asthma, hepatitis, mental illness, health insurance coverage rates, sexually transmitted diseases programs and vaccination issues. Her work is informative and compelling. Ms. Gorman’s articles reach individuals throughout the country, helping the public understand complex and — often preventable — health issues.

Meet Past Winners & Learn More

Nomination forms used for the 2012 Wavemaker and Rock in the Pond awards can be found here and for the Media award can be found here.

Visit our 2011 Unsung Heroes awards webpage. Our 2011 event was supported by a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. You can also find the acceptance speeches from our 2011 winners on our YouTube page.

Visit our 2010 awards page and learn about our 2010 winners here. Our 2010 event was sponsored in part by AMGEN.

Photos from both the 2010 and 2011 awards events can be found here.

A four minute video with highlights from the inaugural awards ceremony is posted here.