Partnership for Prevention announced that Corinne G. Husten, MD, MPH, has been named as Partnership’s Vice President of Policy Development. Dr. Husten will work closely with President John Clymer and Partnership’s Board of Directors to set the organization’s policy priorities and strategies and to conceive and carry out a broad array of health policy initiatives. 

Dr. Husten is one of the nation’s leading tobacco control experts and advocates. She has served as chief epidemiologist and acting director of the Office on Smoking and Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Among her many accomplishments, Dr. Husten has:

• Contributed to all major U.S. tobacco control guidelines, including both community and clinical practice guidelines and “Best Practices for Tobacco Prevention and Control.”

• Led clearance and release of the 2006 Surgeon General’s Report on secondhand smoke, which accelerated the passage of strong local and state smokefree legislation, as well as voluntary policies among major corporations such as the Marriott hotel chain and Lockheed Martin.

• Worked with Partnership for Prevention to develop the National Coverage Determination request that led to Medicare covering smoking cessation counseling.

• Recommended language that was adopted by the Federal Trade Commission for the first-ever cigar warning labels.

• Helped plan the CDC and DHHS tobacco-free campus initiatives.

• Counseled the State Department on protocols for the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which formed the basis for the U.S. negotiating position. This international treaty has been the impetus for strengthening tobacco control efforts in many countries around the world.

• Led the analysis of the health effects of selected additives and oversaw the development of a new smokeless tobacco reporting requirement under the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act.

• Led the implementation of the $14 million National Network of Quitlines Initiative.

• Served as the scientific lead for developing the Healthy People 2010 tobacco control objectives, and led the 2010 mid-course revisions (including the development of a new objective measuring average levels of toxins and carcinogens in tobacco products).

• Implemented a smokefree meeting policy in the Office on Smoking and Health, the first Federal agency to have such a policy. Similar policies were later implemented by NIH and CDC.

• Developed three HEDIS measures on tobacco; the original “advice” measure was the first behavioral performance measure in HEDIS.

Dr. Husten’s scientific, policy and team leadership are recognized well beyond CDC and tobacco control. She has published more than 100 articles and given over 150 presentations. 

Prior to joining CDC in 1993, Dr. Husten was a Cancer Prevention Fellow at the National Cancer Institute. She was also in private practice as a family physician for eight years.

Dr. Husten was first Board-certified in family practice and subsequently in preventive medicine.