Contact: Jill Holder

Cynthia Lamberth presents F. Douglas Scutchfield with the Balderson Lifetime Public Health Leadership Award.

“Throughout his career, Scutchfield has held a passion for the practice of public health and has supported and demanded programming for the development of leaders in the field."

-- Cynthia Lamberth,
chair,
National Public Health Leadership Development Network

LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 10, 2004) -- F. Douglas Scutchfield, M.D., former director of the University of Kentucky School of Public Health, was awarded the Balderson Lifetime Public Health Leadership Award at the 11th annual Public Health Leadership Development Network Conference in St. Louis.

The Balderson Award was established in 2002 to honor Tom Balderson, who served as the acting branch chief of the State and Community Services Branch in the Public Health Practice Program Office of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Balderson was widely known as a mentor and partner in the development of state, regional and national leadership institutes and the National Public Health Leadership Development Network. Scutchfield and Balderson were friends.

“I am honored to receive an award given in his name,” Scutchfield said.

Scutchfield is now on sabbatical and serving as a visiting scholar at the Kettering Foundation. Recently, he was named a Dozor Visiting Professor at Ben Gurion University of the Negrev. In July 2004, Scutchfield will return to Kentucky as the Peter P. Bosomworth endowed professor in the UK College of Public Health.

“Throughout his career, Scutchfield has held a passion for the practice of public health and has supported and demanded programming for the development of leaders in the field,” said Cynthia Lamberth, chair of the National Public Health Leadership Development Network.

Scutchfield served as the director of the Kentucky School of Public Health at the University of Kentucky from 1999 through 2003. Scutchfield joined UK in 1997 with the
goal of instituting a School of Public Health at the UK Chandler Medical Center and establishing a health services research center. He has served as founding director for the Center for Health Services Management and Research, UK Chandler Medical Center. He holds joint appointments as professor, Department of Preventive Medicine and Environmental Health, UK College of Medicine; professor, Department of Family Practice and Community Medicine, UK College of Medicine; professor, Department of Health Services Management, UK College of Health Sciences; and professor, Martin School of Public Policy and Administration, UK Graduate School.

"This has been a good year for me; AMA’s Distinguished Service Award, the Balderson Award, being named the Dozor Professor at Ben Gurion University of the Negev, and Visiting Scholar to Kettering Foundation. All in all; I feel comfortable with me!” Scutchfield said.

Scutchfield’s graduate education includes business administration and economics at Morehead State University, epidemiology and biostatistics at University of Minnesota, and health services administration at the University of Michigan.

Scutchfield is a native of Wheelwright, Ky., and received his medical degree from the UK College of Medicine in 1966. He began his career in public health as a resident in preventive medicine at the UK College of Medicine and, from 1967 to 1969, as a surgeon in the Public Health Service, Epidemic Intelligence Service, of the Communicable Disease Center in Atlanta, Ga., a federal program that eventually was renamed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

He was the founding chair and served as executive associate dean of the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the College of Community Health Sciences at the University of Alabama. He also was the founding director of the School of Public Health at San Diego State University and subsequently served as its dean.

Previously, he has served as the president of the American College of Preventive Medicine and the Association of Teachers of Preventive Medicine. He was awarded the Dr. William Beaumont Award of the American Medical Association (AMA).

Currently, Scutchfield is editor of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine and was recently awarded the AMA Distinguished Service Award for meritorious service in the science and art of medicine.