NACCHO Announces Dr. Michael Kilkenny as the 2024-2025 Board President
Washington, DC, July 25, 2024 — The National Association of County and City Health Officials
(NACCHO), the voice of the over 3,300 local health departments across the country, announced Michael
Kilkenny, MD, MS, CEO and Health Officer for Cabell-Huntington Health Department, as President of its
Board of Directors for the 2024-2025 term. Dr. Kilkenny assumed the role on July 1, 2024. Following his
term as President, he will become NACCHO Board Immediate Past President on July 1, 2025.

“Representing and amplifying the voice of over 3,300 local health departments on a national stage is a
great opportunity,” said Dr. Kilkenny. “Bringing home a national perspective and sharing cutting edge
public health strategies with our communities is the benefit we get from membership in NACCHO. I’m
honored to have been selected to lead the board of this great organization.”

Dr. Kilkenny is a board-certified family practice physician trained in an innovative residency program,
which included preparation to be a local health officer with a master’s degree in community health. He
has practiced medicine in settings as varied as remote rural private practice to academic medicine and
has had the opportunity to serve as medical director in a large Federally Qualified Health Center system
prior to fulfilling his aspiration to serve as a local health officer.

As a health officer, Dr. Kilkenny has had opportunities to direct transformative activities to modernize
the local health department, and his agency has achieved accreditation by the Public Health
Accreditation Board. In addition, he has led the health department in working collaboratively with
multiple partners improving public health statistics in their community regarding opioid harms, tobacco
use, and COVID-19 pandemic response. Under his leadership, Dr. Kilkenny’s health department has
partnered with academic centers to publish studies that describe injection drug use in rural Appalachia.
They have also worked with field staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to control a
major U.S. HIV outbreak among injection drug users, publishing process and outcome studies to help
inform strategic planning regionally and nationally. Dr. Kilkenny serves on the West Virginia Governor’s
Council on Substance Abuse, Prevention, and Treatment, and he has been an active member of the
Board of Directors of NACCHO since 2018.

“We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Kilkenny as our new Board President, said Lori Tremmel Freeman,
NACCHO CEO. “Since 2018, Dr. Kilkenny has been a dedicated board member, consistently
demonstrating a strong commitment to the public health field. I am confident that his vast experience
and visionary approach will support great progress for our board and organization. We look forward to
Dr. Kilkenny’s leadership in furthering our mission to improve public health by strengthening and
advocating for local health departments across the country.”

NACCHO’s Board is led by four executive officers, including:

• Michael Kilkenny, MD, MS, President; Cabell-Huntington Health Department, WV
• Damōn Chaplin, MBA, President-Elect; City of Minneapolis Department of Public Health, MN
• Patrick McGough, DNP, MSHR, RN, CHA, Vice President; Oklahoma City-County Health
Department, OK
• Pramōd Dwivedī, DrPH, MS, Immediate Past President; Linn County Public Health Department,
IA

NACCHO is governed by a 22-member board comprising local and tribal health officials who are elected
by their peers, as well as one ex-officio member representing partner organizations. As the governing
body, NACCHO’s Board of Directors establishes the association’s strategic direction and initiatives, sets
the annual legislative agenda, approves official policy statements, ensures that annual goals are met,
and provides financial oversight. The Board is NACCHO’s public face and represents members in matters
of policy, public health practice, and collaboration with health partners in the public and private sectors.
###

About Cabell-Huntington Health Department
The Cabell-Huntington Health Department has served the nearly 100,000 people of Cabell County and
the City of Huntington, WV since 1955. With a staff of 36 full-time, dedicated public health workers, the
Cabell-Huntington Health Department works diligently to achieve our vision of “Healthy people living
and working in a healthy community.” For more information, visit www.cabellhealth.org.

About NACCHO
The National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) represents the over 3,300 local
governmental health departments across the country. These city, county, metropolitan, district, and
tribal departments work every day to protect and promote health and well-being for all people in their
communities. For more information about NACCHO, please visit www.naccho.org.