KNOXVILLE - The Knox County Health Department (KCHD) has a new director of community assessment and health promotion. Michael Holtz, APR, has been hired to replace Dr. Kathleen Brown, who recently accepted a position with the University of Tennessee’s Department of Public Health. Holtz comes to KCHD after 12 years with the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) and the American Cancer Society.

“Michael’s vast experience and leadership in health communication will serve our organization well, especially as we work to promote a broad understanding of health that involves not merely the absence of disease, but rather complete physical and social well-being,” said KCHD Deputy Director Mark Miller.

Programs in KCHD’s community assessment and health promotion division include adolescent pregnancy prevention, HIV/AIDS awareness, teen health promotion, violence and unintentional injury prevention, TENNderCARE, and the epidemiology program.

Holtz provided counsel and campaign strategy for state government relations teams and volunteers in a 14-state region during his most recent service as associate director for media advocacy for ACS CAN’s Southern Region. His work included smoke-free workplace laws, preservation of funding for cancer screening programs, reducing youth access to indoor tanning devices and tobacco products, increasing access to affordable health care for the working poor, and others. He has served on peer review research panels in the subject areas of colorectal cancer and cancer prevention for the Department of Defense Congressionally Directed Military Research Program and the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas.

Holtz earned his Master of Science in Communications from the University of Tennessee in 1998 and his Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communication from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee in 1992. He lives in Knoxville with his wife, Sarah, and their rescue dog, Marley.

Published September 22, 2014