National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (NCCDPHP)

Dana Shelton, MPH

Dana Shelton, MPH, is the Acting Director of CDC’s National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (NCCDPHP), a position she assumed July 2, 2018.

Ms. Shelton leads an executive team that sets the strategic direction for the center’s portfolio, which focuses on surveillance and epidemiology to move data into action, policy and environmental improvements to support health and healthy behaviors, health care system collaboration to strengthen effective delivery of clinical and other preventive services, and links between community and clinical services to improve self-management of chronic conditions and enhance quality of life. NCCDPHP has an annual budget of about $1 billion and more than 1,000 staff members dedicated to preventing chronic diseases and promoting health across the life span, in key settings, and with attention to the leading chronic disease risk factors.

Ms. Shelton has worked for CDC for more than 25 years, serving most recently as the Deputy Director for NCCDPHP. In this position, she supported the center’s coordinated, collaborative approach to investing its resources, working across divisions, and programs and with grantees and partners to offer a more comprehensive, seamless approach to advancing population health.‎ Before that, she served as the Associate Director for Policy for the Office on Smoking and Health (OSH) and the Acting Director of OSH. She joined CDC as an epidemiologist in 1991. Before coming to CDC, Ms. Shelton was a Research Associate with the Department of Community Medicine and Health Center, University of Connecticut Health Center. She received her MPH in epidemiology from the University of Connecticut School of Medicine.