Health director’s conference to feature Surgeon General, new National Prevention Strategy

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North Carolina will host the second in a series of national events that showcase the new National Prevention Strategy (NPS), when the North Carolina State Health Director’s meeting is held in Raleigh, N.C., Jan. 26-27.

NPS was called for by the Obama administration’s Affordable Care Act and developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (DHHS) National Prevention, Health Promotion and Public Health Council.

Dr. Regina Benjamin

Dr. Elizabeth Mayer-Davis

U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin, MD, MBA, who serves as director of the Council, will describe the new prevention strategies in a keynote address at the health director’s conference, which will be held at the Marriott Crabtree Valley.

The first meeting to focus on the NPS was held in Chicago in early December 2011.

Elizabeth Mayer-Davis, PhD, professor of nutrition at UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and of medicine in the UNC School of Medicine, is a member of the advisory group for the NPS.

“Fortuitously, the annual health director’s meeting had been planned to focus on encouraging new, novel partnerships around the state to promote prevention,” Mayer-Davis said. “This is totally consistent with the collaborative philosophy of the NPS, and so it seemed fitting to facilitate an expansion of this meeting to promote the NPS. We are delighted to have the Surgeon General with us on the morning of Jan. 26 to offer the keynote address.”