Korea RPCV Thomas Bacon has had a long career of public service and involvement in public health issues
Hospital group honors Bacon
Thomas Bacon, DrPH, program director of the N.C. Area Health Education Centers (AHEC) program, has received the 2004 Meritorious Service Award from the N.C. Hospital Association (NCHA).
Bacon was honored with the award, which recognizes outstanding service to the health-care field, on July 15 at the NCHA Summer Meeting in Asheville.
Bacon has had a long career of public service and involvement in public health issues. He and his wife, Ellen Bacon, served in the U.S. Peace Corps from 1968 to 1970, and went to Seoul, South Korea, where he taught English and worked with the Planned Parenthood Federation and she worked with schools serving mentally handicapped children. On his return to the U.S., Bacon completed a master's degree in demography as a Ford Foundation Fellow at the University of Chicago.
Bacon's career with AHEC began in 1976 while he was completing his doctorate in health policy and administration at UNC. Upon completion of his degree, he was hired as an associate director for AHEC. From 1982 to 1986, Bacon served as executive director of the Mountain AHEC in Asheville, where he and his staff created nationally recognized programs for improving access to primary health care in the western part of the state. In 1996, he returned to Chapel Hill to assume the position of executive associate dean of the UNC School of Medicine and AHEC program director.
Bacon serves on numerous boards and statewide task forces, including the Health Care Advisory Board of the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust and the Board of the N.C. Institute of Medicine. He chairs the Board of the N.C. Healthy Start Foundation, and is past chair of the N. C. Joint Conference Committee on Medical Care.
-- Compiled by Herald-Sun science and health writer Jim Shamp, jshamp@heraldsun.com; 419-6633
