The Public Health Leadership Program (PHLP) has presented the Arnold D. Kaluzny 2013 Distinguished Alumnus Award to Lisa Macon Harrison, MPH. Harrison, director of the Granville-Vance (N.C.) District Health Department, received the award at a luncheon ceremony in Chapel Hill on May 3.
Harrison received a Master of Public Health degree from the Gillings School of Global Public Health in 2006, after simultaneously earning a Bachelor of Arts in public policy analysis and Bachelor of Science in what was then health policy and administration from the Schoolin 1996. She subsequently served as adjunct research associate with the PHLP and has directed a number of programs and initiatives, including the North Carolina Public Health Incubator Collaboratives; the Southeast Public Health Leadership Institute; the Public Health Workforce Competency, Agency Capacity and Performance Study; and the Office of Healthy Carolinians and Health Education. She was appointed to her present position in 2012.
In a letter supporting the award, Dorothy Cilenti, DrPH, senior administrator at the North Carolina Institute for Public Health, praised Harrison’s “zest for innovation and willingness to try new ideas,” and Greg Randolph, MD, MPH, director of the North Carolina Center for Public Health Quality, noted that “she is always on the cutting edge in her thinking and constantly generating ways to improve things for our citizens.” Bill Sollecito, DrPH, former director of the PHLP, extolled Harrison’s energy and effectiveness, adding that “she is a joy to work with.”
The luncheon was attended by Sollecito, PHLP director Anna Schenck, PhD, MSPH, and Arnold Kaluzny, PhD, who was instrumental in founding the Public Health Leadership Program and is an emeritus professor of health policy and management at the Gillings School. The award was established in his honor in 2000, and is presented annually to an alumnus or alumna of the PHLP whose accomplishments and leadership embody the goals of the program.
“It is such an incredible honor to have the Gillings School of Global Public Health recognize the work of public health practice in North Carolina,” Harrison wrote in an email. “I enjoyed the PHLP so much and apply lessons learned all the time in my role as a local health director.”
Harrison said Kaluzny was one of her first public health professors and that he sparked her interest in organizational behavior, particularly in design research.
“As we prepare for accreditation at the Granville-Vance District Health Department,” Harrison said, “what Dr. Kaluzny taught me about quality improvement will be an asset to us.”
