Downtown Health Plaza Director Elected President of North Carolina Public Health Association

October 20, 2006

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Michael L. Clements, director of the Downtown Health Plaza of Baptist Hospital, has been elected president of the North Carolina Public Health Association (NCPHA).

“As we attempt to address the problems of the health care and wellness of our population it is imperative that the public health and primary health systems join forces,” said Clements. “They both provide vital services which though sometimes different in their approach—prevention versus treatment—the same objective is the improvement of the health status and health quality of life of our community.”

“One of my goals during my tenure is to bring these systems together to help address the health care crisis which is occurring in North Carolina. Wellness is more than just the absence of disease.”

The Downtown Health Plaza is located at 1200 Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. It provides comprehensive primary and preventive health care services including obstetrics/gynecology, pediatrics and adult medicine.

Clements is a graduate of Shaw University and holds master’s degrees in public health and social work from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Formed in 1909, the North Carolina Public Health Association was established by county superintendents of health to promote healthy lifestyles and prevent illness. Its members include local county health department employees, state health agency workers, representatives of schools of public health and schools of allied science and others interested in protecting the public’s health.

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Media Contacts: Jim Steele, jsteele@wfubmc.edu, Shannon Koontz, skoontz@wfubmc.edu, or Karen Richardson, krchrdsn@wfubmc.edu, at (336) 716-4587.

Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center is an academic health system comprised of North Carolina Baptist Hospital and Wake Forest University Health Sciences, which operates the university’s School of Medicine. The system comprises 1,187 acute care, psychiatric, rehabilitation and long-term care beds and is consistently ranked as one of “America’s Best Hospitals” by U.S. News & World Report.

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