B A L D E R S O N     L E A D E R S H I P     H O N O R S

In the Spring of 2001, the National Public Health Leadership Development Network, as well as many others in the field of public health lost one of their very dear friends.  Tom Balderson died unexpectedly of a heart attack at the age of 52 on a Saturday afternoon in April of 2001.  Tom was working in his garden, something he loved to do to relax.

Tom was the Acting Branch Chief of the State and Community Services Branch in the Division of Public Health Systems Development and Research within the Public Health Practice Program Office of CDC.  Tom was probably best known by most of us as our mentor and partner in the development of state, regional, and national leadership institutes and the National Public Health Leadership Development Network.  Tom was there from the beginning, when public health leadership development was just a glimmer of an idea and he nurtured this idea in the well-known and respected movement it is today.  Without Tom’s passion and belief in leadership development, there would be no state and regional leadership institutes today.

Tom began his career at CDC as a Public Health Advisor in 1974.  He worked in several states on assignment to state health departments including North Carolina, New York, Texas, Mississippi, Virginia, and Arkansas.  Tom moved to the CDC headquarters in Atlanta in 1985 and worked in the Public Health Practice Program Office primarily in the area of workforce and leadership development.

Tom was a wonderful person and a truly devoted family man.  He touched all of our lives.  Leadership and its advocates had no greater champion than Tom, who was a good friend to us.  His very presence made everything we did or tried to do take a higher road.  He was a gently motivating and always positive of the outcome, no matter how hard the struggle.  He never criticized; he always reinforced.  He will truly be missed—one of our lights has gone out.

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