Jonathan Fielding

Jonathan Fielding
Director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health
Incumbent
Assumed office 4 April 2008
Health Officer for Los Angeles County
Personal details
Born	1942 (age 74)
Spouse(s)	Karin Fielding
Alma mater	Williams College Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Harvard Medical School Harvard School of Public Health Wharton School of Business
Occupation	Physician and professor

Jonathan Evan Fielding M.D., M.P.H., M.A., M.B.A. (born 1942) is the former Director/Health Officer of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. Currently he is a Distinguished Professor at UCLA in the Fielding School of Public Health and the Geffen School of Medicine.^[1] He is the founder and Co-Director of the School of Public Health’s Center for Health Advancement.^[2] The Center has expertise in forecasting and modeling future health and analyzing the health impact of policies and programs in non-health sectors such as education, transportation, and natural resources.

As Director of one of the largest health departments in the United States, Fielding oversaw public health activities, including those for environmental health, disease control, health education, health assessment, and chronic diseases. During his over 16 years tenure, Fielding led efforts to develop plans to deal with emergencies related to bioterrorism, pandemic flu, and other emerging diseases and conditions. He also called attention to the underlying health determinants: the physical and social environments in which we live. He was responsible for implementing the restaurant grading system which has been widely emulated. Fielding also served as Commissioner and vice-chair and chair, of the First 5 Los Angeles Los Angeles Commission, whose mission is to improve health and development of children 5 years of age and under.

Fielding has been a founding member of a number of national task forces that assess best evidence and make recommendations to improve the health of the public. These include the U.S. Clinical Preventive Services Task Force and the U.S. Community Preventive Services Task Force, which he has chaired for over a decade. Fielding has published on a wide range of public health as well as preventive medicine issues. He has authored over 200 peer-reviewed articles, chapters and editorials. He has served as Associate Editor and then Editor of the Annual Review of Public Health over a 35 year period. Fielding is the a Board Member and former chair of the American Legacy Foundation, and also former Chair of the national Partnership for Prevention. He is also an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine and the former President of the American College of Preventive Medicine. In 2006 he received the American Public Health Association (APHA)’s oldest and most prestigious award, the Sedgwick Memorial Medal for Distinguished Public Health. In 2008, he was appointed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Leavitt to chair the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on the 2020 Health Objectives for the Nation. He was also appointed to the California Department of Public Health Advisory Committee. In April 2009 Fielding received the UCLA Medal, the university's highest honor, for his work as an innovator, leader and public health visionary. https://ph.ucla.edu/news/press-release/2011/mar/jonathan-fielding-public-health-leader-awarded-prestigious-ucla-medal In January 2011 he was appointed by President Barack Obama to the Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Integrative and Public Health, becoming one of the 13 founding members of the group.[4] In 2012 he received the Fries Prize for pioneering work in identifying and applying effective worksite and public prevention programs and policies that have improved health for million of Americans. The prize was given by the James F. and Sarah T. Fries Foundation. http://www.friesfoundation.org/prizerecip.html He was also named 2012 Honorary Fellow of the Society for Public Health Education for his visionary leadership and lifetime of contributions to public health.

Previous work

Fielding's other previous appointments include: Director, Division of Peer Review, Bureau of Quality Assurance, Health Services Administration, Department of Health, Education and Welfare. Commissioner of Public Health, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Co-Director, Center for Health Enhancement, Education and Research, University of California, Los Angeles. He has also served as a Vice President of Johnson & Johnson. P

Academic appointments

He is currently Professor of Health Services and Pediatrics in the Schools of Public Health and Medicine University of California, Los Angeles. On February 15, 2012, the school received a $50 million gift, the largest single donation the school received since its creation in 1962. The school bears a new name: the UCLA Jonathan and Karin Fielding School of Public Health.^[3]

Education

• 1977 Wharton School of Business Administration, M.B.A., Finance
• 1971-1972 Georgetown University Medical Center, Pediatric Resident
• 1971 Harvard School of Public Health, M.P.H., Health Services Administration and Health Economics
• 1969-1971 Boston Children’s Hospital, Intern and Resident
• 1969 Harvard University, School of Medicine, M.D., cum laude
• 1969 Harvard University, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Josiah Macy Fellow, M.A., History of Science
• 1964 Williams College, B.A., French, magna cum laude

Awards and honors

• Porter Prize, for National Impact on Improving the Health of Americans, 1994
• Member, Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences, 1995–present
• Investing in Information Award by the Massachusetts Health Data Consortium, Inc., 1997
• Distinguished Service Award, for Outstanding Service to the American College of Preventive Medicine, 2000
• Milton and Ruth Roemer Prize, for Creative Local Public Health Work, American Health Association 2003
• Outstanding Alumnus Award, Harvard School of Public Health, 2006
• Sedgwick Medal from American Public Health Association 2006 ^[4]
• UCLA Medal from University of California Los Angeles, 2009

Selected presentations

Using Evidence to Improve Public Health Infrastructure. (January 7, 2004) ^[5]

Public Health Agencies—Roles, Responsibilities and Challenges Testimony of Jonathan E. Fielding M.D. M.P.H. Director of Public Health and Health Officer Department of Health Services, Los Angeles County to the Little Hoover Commission June 27, 2002, Sacramento, California ^[6]

Beyond Bioterrorism: Building Public Health in the 21st century. September 26, 2002.^[7]

Recent publications

• Cole, B.L., Shimkhada, R., Morgenstern, H., Kominski, G., Fielding, J.E., Wu, S., “Projected Health Impact of the Los Angeles City Living Wage Ordinance” JECH, 59:645-650. (2005).
• Anderson, L.M., Brownson, R.C., Fullilove, M.T., Teutsch, St.M., Novick, L.F., Fielding, J.E., Land, G.H. “Evidence-Based Public Health Policy and Practice: Promise and Limits” Am Journal of Prev Med, 28 (5S) (2005).
• Georgenson, M., Thorpe, L.E., Merlino, M., Frieden, T.R., Fielding, J.E., The Big Cities Health Coalition, “Shortchanged? An Assessment of Chronic Disease Programming in Major US City Health Departments” J Urban Health.June;82 (2):233-4 (2005).
• Simon, P.A., Leslie, P., Run G. Jion, G.Z., Rporter, R. Aguirre, A., Fielding, J.E., “Impact of Restaurant Hygiene Grade Cards on Foodborne-Disease Hospitalizations in Los Angeles County” JEnviron Health, Mar;67 (7):32-6, 56; quiz 59060, (2005).
• Cole, B.L., Shimkhada, R., Fielding, J.E., Kominski, G., Morgenstern, H., “Methodologies for Realizing the Potential of Health Impact Assessment” Am J of Prev Med, May;28 (4):382-9, (2005).
• Cole, B.L., Shimkhada, R., Morgenstern, H., Kominski, G., Fielding, J.E., Wu, S., “Projected Health Impact of the Los Angeles City Living Wage Ordinance” JEpidemiol Community Health, 59:645-650 (2005).
• Eisenman, D.P., Wold, C., Fielding, J.E., Long, A., Setodji, C., Hickey, S., Gelberg, L., “Differences in Individual-Level Terrorism Preparedness in Los Angeles County” Am J Prev Med, (2005).
• Dannenberg, A.L., Bhatia, R., Cole, B.L., Dora, C., Fielding, J.E., Kraft, K., McClymonth-Peace, D., Mindell, J., Onyekere, C., Roberts, J.A., Ross, C.L., Rutt, C.D., Scott-Samuel, A., Tilson. H.H., “Growing the Field of Health Impact Assessment in the United States: An Agenda for Research and Practice” AM J. PH, Vol. 96, No. 2 (2006).
• Simon, P.A., Fielding, J.E., “Public Health and Business: A Partnership That Makes Cents” Health Affairs 25, no.4, 1029-1039 (2006).
• Fielding, J.E., Briss, Peter A., “Promoting Evidence-Based Public Health Policy: Can We Have Better Evidence And More Action?” Health Affairs 25, No.4, 969-978 (2006).
• Cole, B.L., Shimkhada, R., Fielding, J.E., Kominski, G., Morgenstern, H., “Health Impact Assessment: Current Practice and Future Potential to Increase Awareness of Population Health Impacts of Policy Decisions” (accepted – AM J of Prev Med).
• Cole, B.L., Shimkhada, R., Morgegenstern, H., Kominski, G., Fielding, J.E., Wu, S., “An Examination of the Potential Health Consequences of Expanded Funding for After-School Programs – The Role of Research Versus Rhetoric” (in Review – J of Policy analysis and Management).
• Yancey, A., Lewis, L., Sloane, D., Diamant, A., McCarthy, W., Guinyard, J.J., Fielding, J.E., “Walking the Talk: Process Evaluation of a Local Health Department-Community Collaboration Incorporate Physical Activity Into Organizational Practice” (in press – PubMed).
• Ockene, J.K., Edgerton, E.A., Teutsch, S.M., Marion, L.N., Miller, T., Genevro, J.L., Loveland-Cherry, C.J., Fielding, J.E., Briss, P.A., “Integrating Evidence-Based Clinical and Community Strategies to Improve Health” (in press – AJPM).

References

3. Gorman, Anna (February 16, 2012). "UCLA School of Public Health gets $50-million gift". Los Angeles Times.
4. APHA: Jonathan Fielding Wins APHA’s Oldest and Most Prestigious Award, the Sedgwick Medal
5. http://www.publichealth.pitt.edu/supercourse/SupercoursePPT/17011-18001/17731.ppt#256,2
6. http://www.lhc.ca.gov/lhcdir/pubhealth/FieldingJune27.pdf
7. File Not Found

External links

• Los Angeles County Department of Public Health
• Web Presentation on Worksite Health Promotion
• Interview about pandemic flu with Dr. Fielding on Living on Earth 2005 "Cities Get Ready"