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Dr.
John Morrow
Pitt County Department of Public Health
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In the book,
Good To Great, the traits of the most successful leaders
are described as, “modest and willful, humble and fearless”.
This Health Director definitely possesses these traits. He is a leader
who expects a great deal from himself, is always willing to do whatever
needs to be done, and is quick to acknowledge/credit others for the
successes within the agency.’
This person’s
nomination states that several leadership qualities are evident in
his work. These include availability to the community, commitment
to collaboration, and his willingness to be a trailblazer.
In terms of availability
to the community, he has excellent attendance records for all boards
he serves on, often serving in a leadership role. This past year he
encouraged the Board of Health to televise their board meetings as
a way to increase public awareness for public health. He personally
takes all phone calls from the public and professional community,
serves as a spokesperson for public health issues within the county
and region, and maintains an open door policy with his staff.
Perhaps his most
impressive leadership quality is his commitment to collaboration.
Time after time he has demonstrated a philosophy of collaboration
that involves resource sharing and avoidance of duplication. As a
result, the Health Department is often one of the first groups called
upon to collaborate. The Health Department teamed up with others including
local dentists to secure funding to establish a mobile dental unit
for low income, uninsured children. When questions were raised as
to which group would carry out the services, he stepped up to take
on the task. Last year when state funds became available for two school
nurses in his County, without hesitation this health director agreed
that these funds should be contracted to our local hospital, who was
already providing school nurses to the school system, in order to
ensure that the nursing services were expanded and coordinated. For
the past two years, area doctors, the hospital, and School of Medicine
clinics found themselves without flu vaccine for the highest risk
patients. He immediately made arrangements to share the Health Department’s
supply of vaccine with these providers. Most recently, he has been
key in the collaborative effort to expand the services of a neighboring
Community Health. Through his participation and leadership, capital
funds have been raised to build this 15,000 square foot facility (to
open the latter part of 2006). The operational plans have been designed
to integrate services and resources to avoid duplication. He has worked
this past year with the Schools’ Board of Education to support
the adoption of a Tobacco Free Schools policy. During every address
he made to the Board urging them to adopt this policy, he offered
to share the Health Department’s resources for smoking cessation.
Another example of collaboration is the manner in which he managed
the issue of lead in tap water of city’s Utilities’ customers.
He and his staff met with the Utilities staff to develop a plan of
action for communicating critical public health information to the
public. Joint communications between the two organizations resulted
in widespread dissemination of the public health message to priority
populations regarding action steps to reduce lead exposure from tap
water. Over the past year he has supported County Emergency Management
by assisting the department in revitalizing the Local Emergency Planning
Committee. During our recent accreditation site visit, the site visitors
report read as follows: “The Health Department is to be commended
for its commitment to collaboration and coordination of services with
all community partners, demonstrating a generous and non-competitive
spirit and sharing of resources in the provision of seamless services
for the people of the County.”
Another leadership
quality is his willingness to be a trailblazer by seeking new opportunities
and accepting new challenges. He was instrumental in developing the
Community Care Program in the County, a model program for the state,
which has now expanded to 27 counties in eastern NC. He continues
to provide leadership to the network, representing the perspective
health departments and public health. The County is the host county
for one of seven Public Health Regional Surveillance Teams and one
of three Regional Response Laboratories. He has agreed for the Health
Department to pilot several initiatives. Most recent include serving
as: one of four counties to pilot the North Carolina Immunization
Registry, one of five counties to pilot the North Carolina Electronic
Disease Surveillance System, and one of five counties to pilot the
new Health Information System (HIS). With regard to the latter, he
chose to halt plans to work with another vendor for a practice management
system for the Health Department even though he had secured funding
to move forward. Following legislative action allowing health departments
to restrict smoking 50 feet of their facility, he immediately approached
the Board of Health to adopt such a policy. The Board adopted the
policy in October 2005 with an effective date of February 14, 2006.
He felt it was critical for the Health Department to serve as a role
model. He was among the first 20 health directors to volunteer for
accreditation. On August 3, 2006, the Health Department was accredited
– all 145 activities were deemed as met. His willingness to
accept new challenges can also be found in his encouragement and support
of staff in seeking grants. In March 2006, the Health Department was
one of four health departments in the Sate awarded funding to support
heart disease and stroke secondary prevention efforts. This program
will serve 22 counties in eastern North Carolina. Since 1997, the
Health Department has received grants totaling over 2.8 million dollars
to support infant mortality reduction initiatives. His direction and
support of the Infant Mortality Prevention Advisory Council has contributed
to more than 50% reduction in infant mortality in his County. In 2004
(most recent data), the County recorded the lowest infant mortality
rate in the county’s history (7.1/1000 live births). Most recently
their council was selected as a National March of Dimes Best Practice
Model for its interventions to reduce prematurity and infant deaths.
With his leadership, the agency has been awarded numerous grants to
support a wide variety of health promotion issues within the County.
Finally, his commitment
to developing a competent public health workforce is evident in his
work with East Carolina University. He played a key role in the development
of ECU’s newly created MPH Program. He served on the planning
committee, hosted planning meetings at the health department, served
as a linking pin for the academic program to the practice community,
and assisted in the search for faculty. He is an active teacher, preceptor,
and a role model for students in the program. As a physician, he is
part of an effort to train residents and fellow physicians at Pitt
County Memorial Hospital in public health. With his collaboration,
the MPH Program received a $280,000 grant to educate these physicians.
He is a co-investigator in this grant. As a faculty member of the
Department of Family Medicine, he actively teaches preventive medicine
and public health to medical students at the Brody School of Medicine
in the Medical Student Years 1, 2 and 3. The Brody School of Medicine
was recently designated as one of 11 medical schools nationally to
establish a Regional Medicine-Public Health Education Center. His
collaboration was essential to receiving this grant. He is a co-investigator
on this grant as well. He equally supports the field placement experience
for students in health education, nursing, social work, environmental
health, and nutrition.
At a state level,
he is a member of the NC Association of Local Health Directors and
serves as the Epidemiology Committee Chair, the NC Bioterrorism Grant
Steering Committee, the Selection Committee for the Sate Director
of Public Health Preparedness and Response, the NC Immunization Advisory
Council and the NC Medical Society Family and Public Health Committee.
He serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Public Health Management
and Practice. He serves on numerous Boards and committees in his community
and is active in a local Rotary Club. He is also noted for volunteering
his time beyond the traditional workday. He is active in the local
community in school fundraising efforts and the “Leaders for
Lunch” program. This initiative pairs leaders with youth at
risk for dropping out. As a participant in this program, he has volunteered
to mentor youth despite the fact that his four beautiful daughters
keep him quite busy with church and school functions, as well as other
activities.
For these numerous
contributions to public health at the local and state level, the 2006
Health Director is Dr. John Morrow, Pitt County Health Director!
