Leslie Best has more than 40 years of experience in health and human services in Pennsylvania. She has held a variety of positions, including statewide oversight of the licensure of personal care homes. In 1993 she joined the state Primary Care Office to implement a new program to increase the quantity and distribution of primary care practitioners, becoming program director in 1997. For nine years Leslie served as the Chronic Disease Director for the Department of Health, where she directed statewide planning and program implementation for the Divisions of Health Risk Reduction, Cancer Prevention and Control, Nutrition and Physical Activity, and Tobacco Prevention and Control.

Leslie served as the President of the NACDD Board of Directors in 2011 and has been a Senior Public Health Consultant with NACDD since 2014. Accomplishments include leading the development of the National Public Health Agenda for Lupus; recommendations for cancer prevention during early and older adulthood; management of three workgroups focused on primary cancer prevention in persons with adverse childhood experiences, American Indian/Alaska Native peoples, and Latinos. She led the development of resources for use by states that integrate messages about Alzheimer’s Disease into chronic disease programs.

Leslie also manages community-based grants in strategic planning, data collection, and lupus education for the American College of Rheumatology. She holds a degree in social work from The Pennsylvania State University.