Newsmakers: January 2021
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* Kailey Shanks

## Shah appointed secretary of health

Umair Shah, MD, MPH, was appointed secretary of health of Washington state by Gov. Jay Inslee in November. Shah, who previously was executive director and local health authority of Harris County Public Health in Texas, started his new position Dec. 21.

## Lichtveld named dean

APHA member Maureen Lichtveld, MD, MPH, was named dean of the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public Health in November. Lichtveld was most recently director of the Center for Gulf Coast Environmental Health Research, Leadership and Strategic Initiatives at Tulane University’s School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.

## Ford receives award

APHA member Chandra Ford, PhD, MPH, MLIS, was honored with a lifetime achievement award by the Association of Black Women Physicians in October. Ford is a professor of community health sciences at the University of California-Los Angeles Fielding School of Public Health and a co-author of “Racism: Science & Tools for the Public Health Professional,” published by APHA Press.

## NAM elects new members

The National Academy of Medicine elected 100 new members in October. Among those elected were APHA members Joel Kaufman, MD, MPH, a professor at the University of Washington’s Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, and Michelle Bell, PhD, an environmental health professor at Yale School of Medicine.

## Biden COVID-19 advisory board named

In November, David Kessler, JD, MD, a former Food and Drug Administration commissioner; Vivek Murthy, MD, MBA, a former U.S. surgeon general; and Marcella Nunez-Smith, MD, MHS, an associate professor at the Yale School of Medicine, were named co-chairs of president-elect Joe Biden’s COVID-19 advisory board. Ten board members were also named.

## EPA board names new leaders

John Graham, PhD, professor at the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University, was selected as chair of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Science Advisory Board in October. Barbara Beck, PhD, was appointed vice-chair. Beck serves as principal at Gradient, an environmental and risk sciences consulting firm.

## Wallace receives funding

In October, Cara Wallace, PhD, LMSW, APHSW-C, assistant professor at Saint Louis University’s College for Public Health and Social Justice, and her research team were awarded $202,000 from the National Institutes of Health for a study that assesses the health of patients and caregivers after the discharge from hospice care.

## Harkness receives grant

In November, the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities awarded Audrey Harkness, PhD, a grant to develop and test “Dime Más,” or “Tell Me More.” The program will address HIV in Hispanic communities. Harkness is a research assistant professor in the University of Miami’s Department of Public Health Sciences.

*   Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association