Michalak commemorated for selfless service to public health (Spring, 2008)

April 28, 2008

Craig Michalak

Craig L. Michalak, administrator of the North Carolina Local Health Agency Accreditation Program managed by the North Carolina Institute for Public Health (NCIPH) within the UNC School of Public Health, died on Aug. 20, 2007, after a valiant fight with leukemia. He was 59.

Michalak came to UNC in 2005, along with his wife, Sarah, a university librarian and associate provost for university libraries at UNC-Chapel Hill. With an MBA from the University of California at Los Angeles, administrative experience at the University of Utah and the University of California system, and several years in business, Michalak was a perfect fit to establish and administer the state’s first-ever local health agency accreditation program.

“Craig was a dear friend and a valued colleague,” says Dr. Edward Baker, NCIPH director. “So many of us benefited from his selfless service to public health in North Carolina and across the nation. Craig creatively built and managed the North Carolina Local Health Agency Accreditation Program, the first such program in the United States. The program he helped build will serve as a lasting legacy to his dedicated service, and it will stand as a model for others across the nation to emulate.”

Donations may be made in Michalak’s memory to a fund established in his honor by UNC Libraries. Please make checks out to “University Library,” and write “Craig Michalak Memorial Library Fund” in the memo field. Mail gifts to the Library Development Office, CB # 3900, UNC-Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, N.C. 27514-8890. For more information, contact Sarah Poteete at (919) 843-5660 or poteete@email.unc.edu.

Carolina Public Health is a publication of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health. To subscribe to Carolina Public Health or to view the entire Spring 2008 issue in PDF, visit www.sph.unc.edu/cph.