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Recipient of the 2011 Ham
Stevens, MD Award
Merle Green
Guilford County Department of Public Health
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Guilford County
Department of Public Health (GCDPH) Director Merle Green has been
named recipient of the annual Ham Stevens Award from the North
Carolina Association of Local Health Directors (NCALHD). This Association
bestows the award to individuals who exemplify the qualities of
a former health director and friend of public health, Ham Stevens,
M.D. Dr. Stevens was largely responsible for bringing administrative
health directors and medical health directors together to form
the NCALHD. He served as the Association's first President and
was a former Health Director for Buncombe and Duplin Counties.
The award was presented during the North Carolina Public Health
Association (NCPHA) Annual Educational Conference, which was held
September 21-23, 2011 in Charlotte.
Mrs. Green began
her professional career as Health Education Program Manager at
Gaston County Health Department. Over the years and across the
state of North Carolina, she has worked as a college instructor,
assistant health director and health director. Mrs. Green has served
as Guilford's Health
Director since 2005.
Mrs. Green's
numerous accomplishments placed her in the category with deserving
recipients of the Ham Stevens Award such as past state Health Director,
Dr. Leah Devlin. The following is just a brief glimpse into Gree'’s
many success stories as Guilford's Health
Director.
Mrs. Green was
instrumental in leading the effort to create a health center for
underserved, adult residents of southeast Greensboro following
studies showing that this area of the community demonstrated consistent
heath disparities when compared to the rest of the county. The
Evans-Blount Community Health Center named for two local African-American
physicians, opened in November 2010 and is an example of a local
government partnership with a private business. Now, nearly a year
after this facility opened its doors, Mrs. Green remains personally
involved in the operations of the facility and is devoted to educating
and marketing the clinic's
services to the community.
Building partnerships
is a priority of Mrs. Green's and is demonstrated not only with
the creation of the health center but through other local corporate,
private industry and non-profit organizations to assure quality
health services are available to the county’s residents. One such
partnership is with Piedmont Health Services and NIA Community
Action where together these agencies and the Department of Public
Health provide community-based HIV and syphilis testing and education
at both traditional and non-traditional sites.
Another partnership
with Healthy Carolinians has identified chronic disease risk factors--obesity,
lack of exercise and poor nutrition--in high-poverty, high minority
population areas in southeast Greensboro and High Point. Working
with UNC-CH, the Department is focusing on the Warnersville community
to create farmers markets, establish community gardens, and identify
other needed initiatives to promote access to healthy foods. Her
dedication is best demonstrated in that her own staff has created
their own community garden at the Maple Street location. Produce
is donated to local food banks and shelters.
Mrs. Green leads
the way in the merging and streamlining of her agency's specialty
clinical services resulting in both time-efficient, cost-saving
changes. As a result, her agency was one of North Carolina's first
public health departments to be accredited in 2006 following the
General Assembly requirement. In 2011, the Guilford County Department
of Public Health once again achieved re-accreditation status, bringing
high marks for quality and innovation.
Her innovation
is evidenced not only by quality service provision, but by creative
staff development as well. Mrs. Green created what she terms a
"Farm Team", which
is modeled after the concept, used by Major League Baseball teams.
Her "Farm Team" consists of hand-selected public health staff of
which she and others see leadership potential. This team routinely
participates in staff development activities and is given special
projects and programs to implement, designed to aid their leadership
development and place them in a position of opportunity for advancement.
Successful "Farm Team" members have achieved higher positions within
the Department of Public Health while others have moved on to accept
positions such as consultant and health director in other counties
and states.
Mrs. Green received
her Master’s degree in Public Health
from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her Master's
degree in Business Administration from Elon University. She is
active in many professional organizations such as the American
Public Health Association and the Society of Public Health Education.
Green also serves as a board member for these groups and agencies:
The NC Institute of Medicine, the Triad Adult and Pediatric Medicine,
NC Public Health Association, Greensboro YMCA and Malachi House
II.
