CONTACT: Paige Rohe

ATLANTA (June 23, 2021)—The National Association of Chronic Disease Directors (NACDD) is proud to release the applications for the Association’s 2021 Impact Awards. Each year, Impact Awardees are nominated and selected by their peers in state and territorial chronic disease prevention and health promotion to acknowledge extraordinary achievements in their field.

COVID-19 has disproportionately sickened and killed people who have chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease. The illness also has resulted in complications such as heart attacks and strokes as well as caused a cluster of severe symptoms that are commonly referred to as “long-term COVID-19.”

NACDD CEO John W. Robitscher, MPH, says that state and territorial Chronic Disease Units have the responsibility of not only responding to a pandemic that impacts the communities they serve the most, but also the herculean task of catching these communities up on their missed screenings and preventive healthcare to lessen the overall burden of chronic disease in the nation.

“Recovery from COVID-19 and the preparation for the next pandemic rely on more Americans receiving not only a COVID-19 vaccine, but also in their taking steps to reduce their risk of diabetes, a heart attack, or preventable cancers,” said NACDD CEO John Robitscher. “Chronic Disease Units across our country are the backbone of any effort to stop COVID in the United States, and we should take every opportunity to celebrate their achievements and to support them as they overcome significant challenges to improve lives.”

For more than a decade, state, tribal, and territorial Chronic Disease Directors have used the Impact Awards to acknowledge the exceptional work and progress chronic disease professionals and partners are making in the field of public health. The National Association of Chronic Disease Directors oversees the administrative responsibilities of the awards process, but the awards, themselves, are decided by NACDD Members.

“The public health response to COVID-19 has been extraordinary in so many ways, and so, too, has the response of state chronic disease staff in their efforts to work in new ways to address the challenges encountered during the past year,” said NACDD Board Member and Awards Committee Chair Jill Myers Geadelmann. “Nominating peers for the Impact Awards is a great way for Chronic Disease Directors and their teams to acknowledge each other for what is working well in public health.”

Recipients will be announced and honored in the fall during NACDD’s annual Business Meeting (to be held virtually). Awardees must be an NACDD Member (listed in NACDD’s Member roster) and may nominate themselves or be nominated by a peer or colleague. (To be an NACDD Member, you must be a public health professional working in chronic disease prevention and control. More information on NACDD Membership is available at https://www.chronicdisease.org/page/ForMembers.)

Award nominations are due Saturday, July 31, 2021, by 11:59 p.m. ET. Application forms are available online.

Award categories are as follows:

• ProVention Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award
  Awarded to a current or former Chronic Disease Director of a State, Tribal, or Territorial Health Department whose career has contributed to reducing the burden of chronic disease in the United States.
• Joseph W. Cullen Excellence Award
  Awarded to an individual outside the traditional public health field who has made outstanding contributions in the field of chronic disease.
• Community Impact Award (Individual and Team Awards available)
  NACDD offers this award for both an individual and a Chronic Disease Unit team that have made significant impacts or achieved significant influence in a community related to chronic disease prevention and control.
• Chronic Disease Innovator Award (Two Awards Given)
  Awarded to a state, tribal, or territorial Chronic Disease Unit that demonstrates an innovative approach to reducing the burden of chronic disease prevention and control.

• Health Equity Champion Award (Individual and Team Awards Given)
  Awarded to an individual and to a Chronic Disease Unit that has demonstrated progress in advancing health equity as a core value of their work and in addressing the social and economic factors that contribute to preventable health disparities, or who have applied health equity principles to improve public health practice.
• Rising Star Award (Two Awards Given)
  Awarded to an individual staff member in a state, tribal, or territorial Chronic Disease Unit who is not a director and who has demonstrated exceptional leadership and innovation to promote health.
• NACDD Mentor Award
  Awarded to an outstanding chronic disease prevention and control professional who has guided, supported, and promoted the training and career development of other chronic disease prevention and control practitioners working in a State Health Department. Nominees should have a sustained record of mentoring over time and nominators must be mentees of the nominee or colleagues who have personal knowledge of the nominee’s mentoring efforts.