2011 WinnersThe Rock in the Pond Award recognizes outstanding work on community-based public health efforts. This year’s award will go to Dr. Luis Garcia, a psychologist who has committed more than 20 years of his career to mental health awareness efforts in his community. His work particularly targets the mental health needs of the Latino youth. The CPH Foundation and our Selection Committee also took the unusual step of recognizing Marjorie Lunsford, FNP, with an Honorable Mention in the Rock in the Pond category. Ms. Lunsford, a Family Nurse Practitioner, has been working from a remote rural clinic to improve the health of her neighbors in rural Tennessee for nearly three decades.
Dr. Garcia guided the establishment of a comprehensive youth suicide prevention program which has expanded from three to 14 schools. This initiative provides needed services to elementary, middle and high school students in his metropolitan community. Dr. Garcia also oversees programs focusing on behavioral health and substance abuse services in five counties in and around Los Angeles; facilitates the Alliance for the Mentally Ill, a support group for Spanish-speaking families; and has created educational materials for Latino mental health professionals, clients and families. The majority of his career has been spent working with community leaders to promote mental health awareness and to overcome the stigmas that accompany mental health or substance abuse cases. Dr. Garcia is honored for his decades of leadership and advocacy that have engaged and inspired others to support the issue of mental health throughout his community and the nation.
Ms. Lunsford received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 1980 and soon after she began working in her local public health department. There she learned the value of home visits and enjoyed teaching good parenting skills to young mothers. By 1985, she was certified as a Family Nurse Practitioner and took on responsibility for updating the remote and isolated Grassy Fork Clinic in rural Tennessee. For 26 years Ms. Lunsford has worked to improve the health of her community from this ever-strengthened base of operations. Some of her successes include increasing infant vaccination rates from 62 to 82 percent and providing flu shots, blood screenings and school physicals to children and families in her community, at a reduced cost if needed. Those nominating Ms. Lunsford also praised her leadership role in implementing a high-tech, patient-centered medical home program at her rural clinic where she leads the way in using this system to track patients through the health system.
The Wavemaker Award recognizes an individual for work on a larger-scale disease control or prevention program of a more global nature. Dr. Lynn Silver, an innovative public health leader working across traditional public health lines to improve health in New York, is our 2011 Wavemaker Award winner. Her work has attracted a great deal of attention here in the United States and around the world. The nomination letter from the Center for Science in the Public Interest, seconded by Dr. Mary Bassett, captured Dr. Silver’s credentials succinctly, stating: “She has had a quiet, but enormous, beneficial effect on public health while working from 2004 to 2011 as Assistant Commissioner and Director of Chronic Disease Prevention and control of New York City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. In that capacity she has designed and implemented programs to reduce rates of obesity, diabetes, cancer, asthma and cardiovascular disease as well as programs in physical activity, nutrition and built environment.” New York City’s work to ban artificial trans fat, to require calorie postings in restaurants, to reduce salt in our food supply, to create food procurement guidelines to limit sugar-laden beverages and serve healthier foods, and to create a built environment that facilitates physical activity have all gained national attention. Many of these efforts have been replicated in other cities or are being promoted nationally, and in the case of calorie labeling, became federal law. These regulations, laws and new policies have had major impacts across the nation, and yet Dr. Silver has remained an unsung hero for her visionary leadership. Her strategic approach to chronic disease prevention through environmental change has significantly improved the health and quality of life of Americans and we commend Dr. Silver for her extensive disease control and prevention contributions. Excellence in Media Winner Finally, our new Excellence in Media Award honors a member of the media whose work has shed light on a public health issue in a compelling manner. Ms. Liz Szabo, a medical news reporter with USA TODAY who has passionately covered numerous public health topics in an approachable and science-based manner, was the ideal candidate to receive this inaugural award. Ms. Szabo wrote our organization saying, “evidence-based medicine is the backbone of all my reporting.” She has repeatedly used the stories of real people to illustrate the science behind public health efforts and is personally driven to ensure her work is trustworthy and accurate. In a June 2011 story, “Childhood disease return as parents refuse vaccines,” Ms. Szabo refuted the false claims regarding the dangers of being vaccinated by showing the real threat to unvaccinated children from vaccine-preventable diseases. In a second notable story, “Nurses’ home visits help new moms with babies” from April 2010, Ms. Szabo enumerated the health benefits that result from these earliest of public health interventions. Her article also explored the prevention research these programs are founded on. Recently, Ms. Szabo crafted a 10-story series titled “Saving Childhood” that focused on the many threats facing children. The series included multimedia reporting, Twitter discussions and photo galleries. A follow-up story focused on the link between the disappearance of shade in playgrounds and the need for children to be more physically active was printed on page A1 of the paper. Ms. Szabo is helping to provide the public with reliable, science-based facts all Americans can use to better their health. Ms. Szabo’s 10,000 Twitter followers, USA TODAY’S 3.2 million print edition readers, the paper’s 24 million unique online visitors and millions more who access Ms. Szabo’s stories through USA TODAY’s affiliated Gannett newspapers and TV stations are being provided a valuable service. We commend Ms. Szabo’s work and are pleased to award her with our 2011 Excellence in Media Award.
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