2012 OPHA Award Winners

Each year, the OPHA presents awards to fellow OPHA members, colleagues and community members that have contributed to public health in our communities. All of the nominees were exceptional in their commitment to improving the public’s health and have made a positive difference for Oregonians. 

Lifetime Achievement: Thomas Aschenbrener
This award is given to a person who has demonstrated a lifetime commitment to public health in Oregon.

Thomas recently retired as president of the Northwest Health Foundation (NWHF) in Portland, Oregon, which was organized under his leadership in 1997 and currently has combined assets of roughly $70 million. In this role, Thomas created a rich, unique, and lasting legacy of achievement for public health in Oregon, including: leading a comprehensive and seven year effort to address the nursing shortage in our state and to improve nursing skills; supporting and advancing the governmental public health sector especially in regards to their effective participation in a reformed health care environment, and; creating the Kaiser Permanente Community Fund (KPCF) in 2004, a $28 million NWHF-KPCF partnership fund that supports community-driven initiatives to address social determinants of health. Thomas served on the board of several organizations including Grantmakers in Health (GIH), Oregon Environmental Council and Grantmakers of Oregon and Southwest Washington (GOSW).  In 2005 he was appointed by Governor Ted Kulongoski to the Oregon Public Health Advisory Board. 

Download Thomas' acceptance remarks

Raquel Bournhonesque &  Craig Mosbaek

This award is given to a person who has made an outstanding contribution to advancing public health policy in Oregon.

This year Upstream Public Health, in conjunction with Pew and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, conducted a comprehensive Health Impact Assessment on how federal school nutrition standards for vending machines and student stores will impact student diets and school revenue. They also worked with the Transportation Health Equity Network to advocate for healthy and fair transportation policies. Most recently, Upstream held hundreds of meetings with community organizations, and gained endorsements from 80 organizations, including many of the region's social justice and health organizations to propose to the city council a plan for community wide fluoridation. 

rging Leader: Danielle Bailey

Emerging Leader: Danielle Bailey

Danielle Bailey & Elena Andresen

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This award is given to a person who has demonstrated leadership, innovation, and creativity in the beginning of his/her public health career.

Danielle has worked for the Oregon Office on Disability and Health for the last 5 years.  She is a well a known leader and expert within Oregon and nationally, on the topic of Emergency Preparedness for People with Disabilities.  With national and state partners she developed an emergency preparedness toolkit and training that has provided more than 800 Oregonians with disabilities, families, services providers, educators and first responders with the knowledge and tools to prepare for an emergency and ensure all preparations meet the needs of people with disabilities.  In addition, she is currently leading an effort with Oregon’s Office of Emergency Management to: 1) encourage all counties in Oregon to include p/w/d in their Emergency Preparedness (EP) planning, and 2) ensure EP data regarding people with disabilities is collected as part of the 2013 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Survey or BRFSS – this will be the first time Oregon has collected this very important data!!!  You can find Danielle and a her sample of her work on APHA’s website “Get Ready Report Podcasts”.  

Please visit the Lund Report to read OPHA's press release about this year's winners.