“I am honored to serve as the President of NACCHO and look forward to championing the critical work of local health departments across the country, especially during this pandemic,” said Kertanis.
Washington, DC, July 2, 2020 — The National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) has announced that Jennifer C. Kertanis, MPH, Director of Health for the Farmington Valley Health District, is President of the organization’s 2020-2021 Board of Directors. NACCHO is the voice of the nation’s nearly 3,000 local health departments. As president, Ms. Kertanis will continue to serve on the Board of Directors’ Executive Committee in 2020-2021 before assuming the position of past president in 2021-2022. She began her year term as president on July 1, 2020.
“I am honored to serve as the President of NACCHO and look forward to championing the critical work of local health departments across the country, especially during this pandemic,” said Kertanis.
“Jennifer has been a long-standing volunteer leader within NACCHO, and has contributed significant amounts of time, energy, and expertise to the organization in a variety of leadership capacities. I congratulate Jennifer on now moving into the President’s role at NACCHO and look forward to her continued leadership,” said NACCHO’s CEO Lori Tremmel Freeman, MBA.
As President-elect of NACCHO’s 2019-2020 board, Ms. Kertanis has been a strong advocate for public health. She has conducted interviews on the Covid-19 pandemic with national and local media outlets including: CNN, Connecticut Public Radio, Hartford Courant, POLITICO, and WebMD.
About Ms. Kertanis
Jennifer Kertanis is the Director of Health for the Farmington Valley Health District serving a population of approximately 110,000 in ten towns west of Hartford, Connecticut. Ms. Kertanis has 30 years of public health experience serving in multiple capacities in non-profit, state, and local public health agencies. She was appointed Director of the Farmington Valley Health District in September 2012. Prior to joining the Health District, Ms. Kertanis served for ten years as the Executive Director of the Connecticut Association of Directors of Health (CADH), a state-level affiliate of NACCHO. During her tenure at CADH she co-established the Connecticut practice-based research network and was a contributing architect of the Health Equity Index, a tool that measures the relationship between social conditions and health outcomes. Prior to her position at CADH, Jennifer worked for eleven years with the Connecticut Department of Health in environmental epidemiology working with communities to assess the health implications of hazardous waste sites.
About NACCHO’s Board of Directors
NACCHO is governed by a 22-member board comprising local and tribal health officials who are elected by their peers, as well as three ex-officio members representing partner organizations.
As the governing body, NACCHO’s Board of Directors establishes the association’s strategic direction and initiatives, sets the annual legislative agenda, approves official policy statements, ensures that annual goals are met, and provides financial oversight. The Board is NACCHO’s public face and represents members in matters of policy, public health practice, and collaboration with health partners in the public and private sectors.
NACCHO’s Board is led by four Executive Officers. In addition to Kertanis, this includes:
- President-Elect, Sandra Elizabeth Ford, MD, MBA, District Health Director of DeKalb County Health Department, GA
- Vice President, Lisa Macon Harrison, Local Health Director, Granville Vance Public Health
- Immediate Past President, George T. Roberts, Jr., MHA, FACHE, Chief Executive Officer of the Northeast Texas Public Health District, TX
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About Farmington Valley Health District (FVHD)
Farmington Valley Health District serves the towns of Avon, Barkhamsted, Canton, Colebrook, East Granby, Farmington, Granby, Hartland, New Hartford, and Simsbury, Connecticut. From restaurant inspections, septic system approvals, disease outbreak investigations to health education, FVHD works hard to create a healthy and safe community for the approximately 110,000 residents of the Farmington Valley. For more information about FVHD, please visit http://www.fvhd.org/.
About NACCHO
The National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) represents the nation’s nearly 3,000 local governmental health departments. These city, county, metropolitan, district, and tribal departments work every day to protect and promote health and well-being for all people in their communities. For more information about NACCHO, please visit www.naccho.org.
