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County health commissioner Matthew A. Stefanak will retire in May
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A “Star Trek: The Next Generation” buff , Matthew A. Stefanak III, retiring as health commissioner of the Mahoning County District Board of Health, shows off his Star Trek replica phaser. In announcing his retirement to the staff , he said: “The captain has decided to relinquish command of the star ship.”
AUSTINTOWN
Matthew A. Stef- anak III has been a champion for public health in Mahoning County since 1988 and now has been named a 2011 Champion of Public Health in Ohio.
The award will be presented Oct. 14 by Ohio State University’s College of Public Health. Stefanak’s recognition, in the category of Public Health Practitioner, comes shortly after he announced his retirement as health commissioner effective May 1, 2012.
Dr. C. William Keck, Akron Health Department commissioner, is heading the search committee looking for Stefanak’s replacement.
Leonard A. Perry, president of the Mahoning County District Board of Health, said the board hopes to hire a candidate by the end of the year so the person can spend a few months with Stefanak before he leaves.
“We’ll hire the person as deputy health commissioner and if he or she cuts the mustard, they will be named commissioner,” Perry said.
Stefanak became the county’s first full-time health commissioner July 5, 1988, at age 31.
Perry, retired director of environmental health at Youngstown State University who has been on the health board for 30 years, said he was instrumental in hiring Stefanak.
“Matt was young and energetic and full of enthusiasm; and at that time not many people had a master’s degree in public health,” Perry recalled. “He was the motivating factor in the direction public health has taken in Mahoning County. He has grown with us and has become a personal friend. He took the reins and led us in the right direction.”
The Champions of Public Health Award is testimony to the great job he has done, but his greatest testimonial will come later this year when the county health board hopefully becomes the first in Ohio, and one of the few in the nation, to achieve accreditation from the National Public Health Accreditation Board, Perry said.
“We are very, very close,” he said.
The importance of accreditation is funding may be tied to receiving that designation in the future, Perry said.
Accreditation raises the bar for health departments and ensures they are doing the right things correctly, Stefanak said.
James Adams, president of the Association of Ohio Health Commissioners and commissioner of the Canton City Health Department, considers Stefanak a mentor.
“He operates his health district in a very thoughtful and purposeful way and developed professionalism in the staff and challenged them to become public- health leaders in the community in their own right,” Adams said. “He will be sorely missed professionally and personally.”
Neil Altman, retired Youngstown City Health Department commissioner, and a recipient of a 2010 Champions the Public Health Award in the category of Public Health Practitioner, said Stefanak is “more than deserving” of the award.
“He has made the county’s health district into a premier health district in the state and is known nationwide for the programs he has developed here,” Altman said.
Stefanak, 54, said he is leaving here before he expected to and is following his family to Baltimore.
His wife, Dr. Cynthia Bearer, recently accepted the positions of professor of neonatology and chief of the Division of Neonatology at the University of Maryland’s Medical Center.
Also, Stefanak said, he wants to see his son, Matthew Paul, a high school sophomore, through high school.
“I want to be there with him. I’m not going to miss that,” he said.
Stefanak, who has been president of the Association of Ohio Health Commissioners and the Ohio Public Health Association, started his career in public health as a Peace Corps volunteer assigned to the UNICEF program in Zaire, Africa, in the early 1980s. He helped set up a measles immunization campaign for children.
He said he is ending his career here with child lead- poisoning nearly eliminated in Mahoning County. It’s a testimony to people working together, he added.
His immediate future plans includes working on a book chapter on public- health finance. He also said he is interested in being part of a consulting group being formed to help health organizations go through accreditation.
“These last 20 to 23 years have gone by in the blink of an eye. They were the best years of my professional life,” Stefanak said.
While Baltimore and family are calling now, the area likely has not seen the last of Stefanak.
When he really retires, he plans to come back to the family farm in Shenango Township, Pa., where he grew up, and ride his tractor.
Comments
Oh my word I thought Mr. Stefanek was holding a new fangled flu vaccine.
Thank goodness it's just some silly Star Trek toy.
But, it wouldn't surprise me if it was a story about some new device or way to inoculate the masses.
His involvement locally in the massive push to vaccinate so many people with useless and dangerous flu vaccines is what I will remember Mr. Stefanek for.
Good ridden. Have a nice life.
If only there were an innoculation for idiocy! Why don't you move to sub-Saharan Africa and see what diseases your children contract.
Same stuff,Peace Corp then feed at the public trough for another 25 years. I bet the guy wouls not have lasted 25 days in the private sector. Now he can collect his pension and health care beniefits for another 25 years. What a gig.
Walter,
You really have such a simplistic view on vaccines. I've went round with you on this before. If the public health people told you that you needed to get multiple vaccines each and every year for various diseases that you may or may not consider a threat to your own health-would you simply comply? Would you ever question, even dare say "No". Is it ever "too much of a good thing"? You seem to think this issue of vaccinations is just a simplistic issue. Do whatever they tell you. You probably haven't even looked at the CDC recommended list of vaccines. I bet you're not up to date on your vaccines according to what public health/pharma wants you to have. You should check it out and let me know how compliant you are
concerned,
I checked the schedule and I am due for a tetanus booster which I will get on my next check-up. I have had the flu vaccine in the past but I probably want get it this year. The virus mutates quickly and it may not protect me.
But, the issue is having children vaccinated against childhood diseases. There is a growing body of pseudo-science that wants to link vaccines with everything from autism to chapped lips. The studies have little merit and they scare parents into not having their children directly protected. Instead, they get protected by herd immunity. But, I guess you would rather have a child contract polio or smallpox.
Walter,
Whew...I was getting worried it was taking you so long to respond. So, you have had a varicella, zoster, pneumonia, Hep A, Hep B, Meningitis, and MMR recently? Or as with the flu shot have you decided to "opt out" for personal reasons? Everyone over 6 months of age is recommended to have an annual flu vaccine and that includes you too Walter. No one should be making these independent pseudo-scientifically decisions!
I suspect you are just one of those people who harp on and on about how kids today should get all recommended vaccinations without a clue as to what exactly the recommendations are, what is in the vaccines, what research has been done to verify safety and effectiveness, or taking into account individual situations or parental choice.
As I said before this is a extremely complex issue. There is plenty of scientific evidence that implicates vaccines in multiple chronic diseases including autism that children now suffer from at unprecedented rates.
Go get your Flu shot Walter Big Brother says so- Being the nice person I am I will let you in on something you may not know. If you react to that vaccine or any vaccine and become ill or disabled. You are on your own! Your government has indemnified the vaccine manufacturers and they have zero financial liability. Imagine being forced to take something like a vaccine and no recourse if you are harmed. You can't work too bad! You have medical bills out the wazoo now...tough crap! vaccines cause harm- it's a known fact. Everyday people are harmed and killed by vaccines. But supposedly the great good is served. when someone suffers a reaction it is written off as a coincidence.
Anyways, now get out there and roll up your sleeve Walt! Do you feel lucky?
Most of the vaccines you note are not recommended for me since I am not in the risk group but my wife, who is a nurse, has had them. And, there is no causal link between autism and vaccines. They tried to blame it on thimerosal, even though there was no connection, and the manufacturer's removed it years ago. But, the rate of autism is reportedly going up. Maybe it's the flouride in the water.
I don't feel lucky, I feel safe! But, as I said, don't innoculate your children and go visit sub-Saharan Africa. Do YOU feel lucky? :^(
There is sufficient research that raises concerns and draws associations between vaccines and autism and a bunch of other chronic diseases.
But, it would be a waste of time to cite any of it to you. It's out there and people who want to find the research can and will and will be sufficiently concerned about what we know already and what we don't know.
And for your information thimerosal is still in vaccines (mostly the flu vax)and it is mercury and mercury is a neurotoxin and there is plenty of research that shows children who got thimerosal in their vaccines have an elevated occurrence of autism and other medical and developmental problems.
I think you are a major hypocrite to tell me or anyone else to get my kids fully vaccinated with each and every vaccine recommended when you don't even follow that for yourself. And I bet the wifey doesn't have all her shots either.... healthcare workers a generally the worst offenders of..... do as I say not as I do.
Thimerosal contains ethyl mercury not methyl mercury, which is where the concern lies. Thimerosal has been eliminated from the vaccines for children under 6, with the exception of the flu vaccine. This was done because of a concern that infants could not metabolize thimerosal except that subsequent studies have proved that infants readily excrete it quite well. Now, what about dental fillings that contain mercury in an amalgam?
Yes, my wife does have all her shots as she is an ER nurse and wants protected. And, yes, my children have had all their vaccinations including my son who is currently pursuing his PhD in biological medical research. Well, then, maybe I have researched this topic a little bit, huh?
Wrong. Thimerosal has not been eliminated for children under 6 if it is still in the flu vaccine dummy! That's double speak.
If buying into and believing pharma commissioned and paid for research makes you feel good about what you think you know...so be it Wallt.