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NEWS FROM CAMBRIDGE HEALTH ALLIANCE

April 18, 2007

Cambridge Public Health Department Announces Appointment of New Chief Public Health Officer Claude-Alix Jacob

Cambridge, MA….Dennis D. Keefe, Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA) Chief Executive Officer and Commissioner of Health, is pleased to welcome Claude-Alix Jacob as the new Chief Public Health Officer for the City of Cambridge and director of the Cambridge Public Health Department.

Keefe remarked that Jacob is a good fit for Cambridge: “Mr. Jacob brings a wide array of experiences to Cambridge. His background in disease prevention, community advocacy, oral health, children’s health, and youth violence made him a very appealing choice for this role. He has worked with so many constituents including every age group, men’s and women’s health programs, and immigrant populations too. He’s got the real breadth and depth we sought for our City’s most advanced needs,” said Keefe.

Claude-Alix Jacob

Jacob previously served as Deputy Director of the Office of Health Promotion at the Illinois Department of Public Health. He administered a variety of health promotion activities related to chronic disease programming, oral health education, screening efforts targeting children, and injury prevention initiatives. Jacob managed specific program areas such as men’s health education, asthma education and awareness, heart disease and stroke prevention, tobacco cessation and control, suicide education, and rape prevention activities.

“I’m excited to be here,” said Jacob. “Cambridge Health Alliance is known for thinking outside the box. In terms of improving health outcomes in the community, I see a lot of advantages to being part of a broader health care system.”

Earlier in his career, Jacob served as Chief of the Bureau of Disease Prevention and Control at the Baltimore City Health Department. In Baltimore, he managed the operations related to the prevention and control of communicable diseases and administered outreach programs that addressed the transmission of tuberculosis, HIV, and sexually transmitted infections. He was also the Director of Community Affairs at the Sinai Community Institute, a member of the Sinai Health System in Chicago, Illinois. In Chicago, he had oversight for a variety of neighborhood activities that included a senior outreach program, a youth violence prevention initiative and a health careers club that targeted elementary and high school students on Chicago’s Westside.

As a community advocate, he has participated on a number of initiatives related to serving immigrants from the island of Haiti which include volunteering with the Chicago Kent Law School / Harvard Immigration Project (Miami, FL) and l’Hopital Bienfaisance de Pignon (Haiti).

Jacob currently serves as the national Chair of the Black Caucus of Health Workers of the American Public Health Association. Jacob earned a master’s degree in public health from the University of Illinois at Chicago and has completed the W.K. Kellogg Fellowship for Emerging Leadership in Public Health as well as a National Public Health Leadership Institute fellowship.

The Cambridge Public Health Department is a municipal health agency operated by Cambridge Health Alliance through a contract with the City of Cambridge. It strives to improve the quality of life of residents and workers by reducing sickness and injury; encouraging healthy behaviors; and fostering safe and healthy environments in homes, schools, and workplaces. For more information: www.cambridgepublichealth.org

Cambridge Health Alliance is a regional healthcare system with three hospitals and more than twenty primary care practices in Cambridge, Somerville, and Boston's metro-North communities. As a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School, Cambridge Health Alliance offers medical residency/training programs and undergraduate learning experiences in hospital and community settings. Cambridge Health Alliance also includes the Cambridge Public Health Department, CHA Physicians Organization (CHAPO), and Network Health, a managed Medicaid plan.