
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 3, 1993                   TAG: 9311030113
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: CAROLYN CLICK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

ROANOKE HEALTH DEPARTMENT DIRECTOR TO TAKE RICHMOND JOB

Dr. Donald R. Stern, director of the Roanoke Health Department, is leaving Dec. 1 to take a position with the Virginia Department of Health in Richmond.

Stern, who has headed the city's department since January 1990, will direct the Office of Family Health Services, where he will have management responsibility for dental health, maternal health and child health.

Before becoming the Roanoke department's director, he was regional health director for Southwest Virginia.

As part of his new job, Stern said he will oversee federal grant programs that provide services to children.

Stern also will manage the Women, Infants and Children nutrition program.

Stern, who has worked in public-health positions throughout Southwest Virginia, said he will leave the department with mixed feelings.

"It's a super group of people who are really experts in their jobs."

Stern, 40, counts among his accomplishments "bringing to the city's attention some major health issues." He said the department has worked to curb the city's escalating teen pregnancy rate and has gone inside city schools to improve access to basic health care and preventive services.

When he goes to Richmond Jan. 1, Stern said one of his top priorities will be to duplicate Roanoke's successful Comprehensive Health Investment Project, or CHIP program, in communities across the state.

CHIP is a public-private partnership that provides basic health-care services to low-income children, including children of the working poor, who would not otherwise receive such services.

CHIP, which serves about 1,000 children in the cities of Roanoke and Salem, and in Roanoke, Craig and Botetourt counties, has been recognized nationally. The program already has been duplicated in several other Virginia communities.

"The CHIP program is on the cutting edge of health-care reform," said Stern. "It's the new paradigm of health-care reform."

Stern received his medical degree from the University of New Mexico and holds a master's degree in public health from the University of North Carolina.

by CNB