Doren Fredrickson Commitment to Public Health Award

Doren Fredrickson, MD, PhD — A trusted public servant, an outstanding clinician, a great educator, and a well-trained and respected researcher who shared his gifts and compassion to improve the health of all people in Sedgwick County.  Dr. Fredrickson served as the Sedgwick County Health Officer from 2002 to 2008.

 

Dr. Fredrickson’s research interests related to U.S. Public Health Service Healthy People Objectives and the research and infrastructure priorities related to them. These objectives and priorities concern primary, secondary and tertiary prevention within broad areas of public health and population-based measurement of health services, health status and health outcomes. These areas allowed Dr. Fredrickson to use both epidemiology and pediatric skills for primary care research, health services research, and maternal and child public health research.  Dr. Fredrickson concentrated on projects related to vulnerable populations, including Spanish-speaking. Beginning in 1994, Dr. Fredrickson has added service delivery community collaborative projects and health services research to his list of previous traditional clinical and public health research projects. 

 

Each year, during National Public Health Week, the Sedgwick County Health Department (SCHD) honors Dr. Fredrickson’s extraordinary efforts in public health by awarding the Doren Fredrickson Commitment to Public Health Award. The first recipient of the award, Pat McDonald stated, “every day public health heroes emerge, making their communities healthier one at a time; one of the SCHD's public health heroes, Dr. Doren Fredrickson, passed away in 2008 after dedicating his life to the health of the Sedgwick County community. That life and legacy should be commemorated.”

 

Annual recipients of the Doren Fredrickson Award are chosen on their lifetime commitment to public health. Past award winners include:

 

Pat MacDonald 2010
Arneatha Martin 2011
S. Edwards Dismuke, MD, MSPH 2012
Douglas V. Horbelt, M.D. 2013
Judy A. Johnston 2014
Jack Brown 2015
Carolyn Gaughan 2016
Shirley Orr, MHS, APRN, NEA-BC 2017
Peggy Johnson 2018
Steve Coen 2019