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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.