Jonathan E. Fielding Community Guide Champion Award

For 23 years, William (Bill) Calvert has served as a CPSTF Liaison representing the U.S. Navy. During this time, Mr. Calvert was instrumental in sharing CPSTF recommendations with Naval leadership and health educators throughout the Navy and Marine Corps. In 2007, Mr. Calvert chaired the Department of the Navy’s working group to draft and update its tobacco policy. He ensured everyone knew about The Community Guide and CPSTF recommendations related to tobacco use. Since then, the U.S. Navy has implemented and enhanced smoke-free policies, eliminated the discount of tobacco products in Navy and Marine Corps stores, and changed the culture around tobacco use.

Mr. Calvert collaborated with other military Liaisons on the development of CPSTF’s 2017 Annual Report to Congress: Providing the Science to Support Military Readiness and Resilience and recorded an audio clip about how the U.S. Navy has used CPSTF recommendations. As a CPSTF Liaison, he also participated on review teams, provided input on language used in findings, promoted findings through various channels, and mentored new Liaisons.

Chris Kochtitzky was a senior advisor with CDC’s Physical Activity and Health Program and a tireless advocate for The Community Guide and evidence-based decision making. Mr. Kochtitzky, a member of the systematic review team for combined built environment approaches to increase physical activity, also helped disseminate the CPSTF recommendation to varied audiences, including nontraditional public health partners. Additionally, he collaborated with others in his program to develop and promote implementation resources aimed at making the systematic review more accessible and easier for communities to implement.

Mr. Kochtitzky and his colleagues used evidence-based CPSTF recommendations to inform Active People, Healthy Nation – CDC’s national initiative to increase physical activity among all Americans.

Shortly after helping to launch the CDC’s Alcohol Program in 2001, Dr. Brewer began working with The Community Guide to systematically review available scientific evidence about population-based prevention strategies for excessive alcohol use (e.g., regulating alcohol outlet density). He worked in close collaboration with Community Guide staff to garner support from leadership at CDC and other HHS agencies, including NIH and SAMHSA, and helped recruit experts in alcohol and public health to serve on the alcohol coordination team. He also worked with leadership in what is now the Division of Population Health to leverage limited resources to support Community Guide staff, who performed comprehensive reviews of the scientific literature on alcohol interventions using strict Community Guide review criteria. Based on the scientific evidence compiled by the alcohol coordination team, the Community Preventive Services Task Force issued recommendations and findings for 10 population-based strategies to prevent excessive alcohol use.

Using evidence featured in The Community Guide, Dr. Brewer helped shape the prevention approaches outlined in the 2016 Surgeon General’s Report, Facing Addiction in America: The Surgeon General's Report on Alcohol, Drugs, and Health [PDF - 11.9 MB] .

Dr. Fielding chaired the Community Preventive Services Task Force for twenty years. He also chaired the Advisory Committee for the U.S. Healthy People 2020 objectives, and he is currently a Co-Chair for the Healthy People 2030 objectives. He was appointed by President Obama to the National Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion and Integrative and Public Health, and he is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine.

Dr. Fielding recognized early in his career as a pediatric physician that many childhood health problems were rooted in larger systemic issues affecting communities. His experience as a member of the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care, and later as a member of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, led him to become one of the founding members of the Community Preventive Services Task Force. His dedication to the CPSTF and The Community Guide over the past 23 years resulted in the CPSTF’s singular ability to provide economic findings to inform program, policy, and service decisions and to address social determinants of health and health equity issues. The Community Guide and all its partners are honored to have such a champion in Dr. Fielding, a renowned and highly regarded leader in public health.