{"id":18255,"date":"2022-05-09T08:00:35","date_gmt":"2022-05-09T13:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/?p=18255"},"modified":"2022-05-09T11:37:49","modified_gmt":"2022-05-09T16:37:49","slug":"doug-blanke-longtime-head-of-public-health-law-center-to-retire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/2022\/05\/09\/doug-blanke-longtime-head-of-public-health-law-center-to-retire\/","title":{"rendered":"Doug Blanke, longtime head of Public Health Law Center, to retire"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Doug Blanke<\/p><\/div>\n

After 22 years at the helm of the Public Health Law Center, Executive Director Doug Blanke has announced his retirement, effective June 30.\u00a0 Doug\u2019s achievements in public health policy, legislative advocacy, and consumer protection, span four decades on the local, state, national, and international stages.<\/p>\n

A former Minnesota Assistant Attorney General, Doug played a key role in the historic ligation against the tobacco industry in the 1990s, resulting in the seminal release of internal documents that exposed the tobacco industry\u2019s long history of deceptive marketing, advertising, and research. In 2000, Doug founded what is now the Public Health Law Center<\/a> at Mitchell Hamline School of Law. From a one-person law and policy think tank on commercial tobacco control issues, the Center grew under Doug\u2019s leadership to become a national organization of over 30 public health attorneys, policy analysts, and support staff that help community leaders strengthen public health laws and health equity.<\/p>\n

Today, the Public Health Law Center is the nation\u2019s leading source of legal technical assistance on commercial tobacco control, and assists Tribal, federal, state, and local health advocates and policymakers in dozens of health policy areas, ranging from supporting healthy food access, to the expansion of active transportation policies, to the incorporation of environmental justice in health policy. The Center\u2019s work to eliminate menthol in commercial tobacco products, in partnership with Black-led organizations over the past decade, played a part in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) decision in April 2021<\/a> to eliminate menthol in cigarettes, and exemplifies the Center\u2019s impact on national policy.<\/p>\n

“The national fight to get mentholated tobacco products off the U.S. market owes a huge debt of gratitude to Doug Blanke and the Public Health Law Center. It was the Center that convened national strategy sessions, ‘listening and valuing’ all of the voices at the table. Before ‘equity’ became a buzzword, they sought us out to partner, support, and champion this cause,\u201d said Carol McGruder, Co-Chair of the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council. \u201cWe thank Doug Blanke and the Center for their unwavering partnership with us to Save Black Lives!”<\/p>\n

\"Mitchell<\/a>

To read an article from our Spring 2022 issue of Mitchell Hamline Law magazine about PHLC’s efforts to ban menthol, click here<\/a>.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cFrom fighting Big Tobacco to tackling racism as public health crisis, Doug\u2019s legacy is in the evolution of public health law, in embedding racial and health equity into how and why we advocate for healthy communities,\u201d said Vayong Moua, Director, Health Equity Advocacy, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota Center for Prevention.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoug has made extraordinary contributions to public health and tobacco control over a long and illustrious career,\u201d said Mitch Zeller, Director of the FDA Center for Tobacco Products.\u00a0\u201cWhat has so impressed me over the decades I have known Doug is his strong commitment to using the tools of the law to advance public health and social justice.\u00a0He will be missed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doug\u2019s visionary leadership in public health policy extended to the international stage when he helped draft the global guidelines for smoking regulation, adopted as part of the world\u2019s first public health treaty, the World Health Organization\u2019s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. He also edited the World Health Organization\u2019s handbook on tobacco control legislation.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoug made giant contributions towards the elimination of the death and disease caused by tobacco that will continue to ripple around the U.S. and the world,\u201d said Tim McAfee, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\u2019s Office on Smoking and Health. \u201cWhat I loved about working with Doug was that he brought a solid sense of good will to inter-organizational work, communicating a sense that we were all in this together.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2004, the American Lung Association presented him with its C. Everett Koop \u201cUnsung Hero\u201d Award for his contributions to tobacco control. He is currently Chair of the Board of Trustees for Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), having served on its board since 2007.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoug Blanke has done more than anyone to advance tobacco control from behind the scenes. Countless policies around the country and around the world are more effective and more legally defensible because of his wise counsel,\u201d said Micah Berman, Associate Professor of Public Health and Law at The Ohio State University. \u201cFor me and many others in public health, he has been a role model, a mentor, a friend, and a beacon of moral clarity.\u201d<\/p>\n

A national search is currently being conducted to select the next Executive Director at the Public Health Law Center.<\/p>\n

This article first appeared on the Public Health Law Center’s website<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After 22 years at the helm of the Public Health Law Center, Executive Director Doug Blanke has announced his retirement, effective June 30.\u00a0 Doug\u2019s achievements in public health policy, legislative advocacy, and consumer protection, span four decades on the local, state, national, and international stages. A former Minnesota Assistant Attorney General, Doug played a key … <\/p>\n

Doug Blanke, longtime head of Public Health Law Center, to retire<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5668,"featured_media":18282,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[399,394,35,400,398,392,393,397,401],"class_list":{"0":"post-18255","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-features","8":"category-news","9":"tag-cigarettes","10":"tag-doug-blanke","11":"tag-faculty","12":"tag-fda","13":"tag-menthol","14":"tag-phlc","15":"tag-public-health-law-center","16":"tag-tobacco","17":"tag-who","18":"entry"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5668"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}