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Public Health Program Welcomes New Leader

Dr. John Garcia Joins Faculty at Waterloo

Dr. John Garcia, Cancer Care Ontario, has been appointed an Associate Professor in the Department of Health Studies and Gerontology and the Program Leader for the Master of Public Health (MPH) program at the University of Waterloo.

The Department of Health Studies and Gerontology developed Canada 's first trans-disciplinary program devoted to health promotion and disease prevention. The MPH program began in 2006 and uses distance education technology to serve the needs of 150 domestic and international students. It has quickly established itself as one of the country's largest and most innovative advanced training and applied research institutions for public health.

Dr. Garcia formally begins his new full time position on March 1, 2010. He will follow the exemplary model set by the first Program Leader, Dr. Christina Mills, after her secondment from the Public Health Agency of Canada is complete later this spring.

Dr. Garcia is internationally recognized for his work in chronic disease prevention and population health. He has been the Director of the Population Health Unit, in the Department of Prevention and Screening at Cancer Care Ontario. He has more than 25 years experience in various public health, tobacco control, and chronic disease prevention roles. He worked at local, provincial and national levels in Canada and the United States; in leadership, policy advisory and management roles; and for and with public, private, and voluntary sector public health organizations.

Dr. Garcia intends to expand his interests in capacity building, knowledge exchange, community organization, advocacy, and systems reform to advance public health primarily in the areas of tobacco control and chronic disease prevention.

Recently, as CCO's Director of Population Health, Dr. Garcia has been directing the Program Training and Consultation Centre of the Smoke-Free Ontario Strategy, Aboriginal Tobacco Program, Aboriginal Cancer and Prevention Team, Ministry of Health Promotion's Guidance Document Project, and is current Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee on Tobacco Control for the Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion.

Dr. Garcia established the primary prevention function at Cancer Care Ontario, about a decade ago, as first Director of the Prevention Unit in a Division of Preventive Oncology. He served as a Director in the Ontario Public Service on two occasions: being Director of Health Promotion with the Ministry of Health in the 1990s, and the first Director of Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion in the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care earlier in this decade. He was also Director of the Coordinating Center of a large multi-state, multi-sectoral, science-based tobacco control demonstration project for the US National Cancer Institute (i.e., American Stop Smoking Intervention Study for Cancer Prevention, a.k.a. ASSIST); and a founding member of both the Chronic Disease Prevention Alliance of Canada and Ontario Chronic Disease Prevention Alliance.

An important aspect of Dr. Garcia's new role will be to continue building excellence, capacity, and responsiveness for public health training, research and service. A cornerstone of this activity will be the ongoing development of partnerships between the University of Waterloo, fellow academic centres, and a wide array of policy makers, program providers, and other public health stakeholders.