From the Director

Judith A. Monroe, MD, FAAFP
Deputy Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Director, Office for State, Tribal, Local and Territorial Support

Welcome to the Office for State, Tribal, Local and Territorial Support (OSTLTS).

With the arrival of Thomas Frieden, MD, MPH, in June 2009, as the 16th Director of CDC, a new organizational structure began to take shape to reflect his vision of CDC’s priorities and future direction. One priority was to establish OSTLTS with the primary mission of improving the capacity and performance of the public health system at all levels. Our office will work both within CDC and in the field to identify gaps, opportunities for collaboration, and the strategies needed to support growth and enhancement of our public health work.

Our mission is rooted in solid values of service and stewardship, both internally and externally, and focused on providing support to improve public health on all levels. We are building our framework and functional foundation to identify, validate, disseminate, and adopt the highest standards, the most effective and lifesaving policies, and the best evidence-based practices; and we are committed to putting our mission into motion. A number of initiatives are already in process, including

• Enhancement of performance management capacity of public health departments
• Increased support to improve workforce development and training programs
• Support for a consultation on policy and legal options that affect  CDC health priorities, e.g., sodium reduction, food safety, motor vehicle injury, and HIV
• Support for higher public health standards and improved public health systems for this nation’s public health departments
• Development and implementation of a prevention status system for monitoring relevant state-level health outcomes and other indicators

Our constituents, our partners, and those we work to protect from disease, disability, and death are at the heart of our work. Together we will continue to develop our expertise, design tools and programs that work, and ensure communication and information sharing is ongoing and two-way.

I hope you will take time to learn more about who we are and what we do by exploring our OSTLTS web site.

Thank you for your commitment to public health and your interest in OSTLTS!

Sincerely,

Judith A. Monroe, MD, FAAFP