Washington, DC (CLARKSVILLENOW) —The National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) announced the appointment of  Joey Smith, Public Health Director of  the Montgomery County Health Department, to its Board of Directors.

NACCHO is the voice of the nation’s nearly 3,000 local health departments.

As NACCHO’s Region 4 board representative, he will provide input from an eight-state region, which includes Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee local health departments.

“We are so pleased to welcome Joey Smith back to the NACCHO Board of Directors. He has always been a highly active and engaged public health official in his own jurisdiction in Tennessee and brings that same energy and commitment to the NACCHO leadership,” said Lori Tremmel Freeman, NACCHO Chief Executive.

About Joey Smith
 Smith has over 17 years of experience working for the Tennessee Department of Health, is a veteran of the United States Navy, and a graduate of Austin Peay State University. He has course work in Behavioral Economics and earned certificates in Risk Communication from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Leading Change from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business.

In 2014, Mr. Smith was named Public Health Worker of the Year by the Tennessee Public Health Association. In 2015, he was one of the 12 public health officials in the nation to be named to the Emerging Leaders in Public Health by the Kresge foundation.

“We have eight great states in Region 4 and I plan to reach out and connect with all of them during my term,”  Smith said. “I am passionate about improving the health and life expectancy of our communities. While many in our country are in the deadly grip of the Covid-19 pandemic, we should remember that local health departments must still provide the services we take for granted. Local health departments are often forced to shift resources from other pressing public health activities – such as immunization, HIV, STI and hepatitis programs, food safety, overdose prevention and response, and vector control – to adapt to the demands of emergencies like Covid-19. I am looking forward to connecting with all the states within my region and serve as a forceful advocate for their needs.”