David Butler-Jones is a Canadian physician and public servant who served as the 1st

chief public health officer of Canada The chief public health officer of Canada (CPHO; french: administratrice en chef de la santé publique; ACSP) is the lead health professional and primary spokesperson on public health related matters for the Government of Canada. The chief public ...

from the position's formation on October 23, 2004 to June 2013. The chief public health officer was the head of the

Public Health Agency of Canada The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC; french: Agence de la santé publique du Canada, ASPC) is an agency of the Government of Canada that is responsible for public health, emergency preparedness and response, and infectious and chronic diseas ...

(PHAC) until the 2014 omnibus budget bill, in which the

28th Canadian Ministry The Twenty-Eighth Canadian Ministry was the Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, that governed Canada from the beginning of the 39th Parliament to the end of the 41st Parliament. Its original members were sworn into the Queen's ...

Stephen Harper Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. Harper is the first and only prime minister to come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ...

decided to reorganize the management structure of PHAC and institute a parallel Presidential structure to govern the organization that then could be staffed by non-medical and non-scientific personnel.

Biography

As the chief public health officer, Butler-Jones was both the lead health professional in the government and the deputy minister for PHAC. Over the course of his career, he worked in many parts of Canada in both public health and clinical medicine. Previously, he taught at both the undergraduate and graduate levels and was involved as a researcher in public health issues. He was a professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the

University of Manitoba The University of Manitoba (U of M, UManitoba, or UM) is a Canadian public research university in the province of Manitoba.University of Saskatchewan A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

's College of Medicine. From 1995 to 2002, Butler-Jones was chief medical health officer and executive director of the Population Health and Primary Health Services Branches for the Province of

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...

. In professional organizations, he served as president of the Canadian Public Health Association; vice president of the American Public Health Association; chair of the Canadian Roundtable on Health and Climate Change; international regent on the board of the

American College of Preventive Medicine Founded in 1954 and chartered as a non-profit organization in 1956, the American College of Preventive Medicine (ACPM) is an American physicians' organization focused on practice, research, publication, and teaching of evidence-based preventive me ...

; member of the Governing Council for the Canadian Population Health Initiative; chair of the National Coalition on Enhancing Preventive Practices of Health Professionals; and co-chair of the Canadian Coalition for Public Health in the 21st Century. In recognition of his work in the field of public health,

York University York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,0 ...

's Faculty of Health and

Carleton University Carleton University is an English-language public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1942 as Carleton College, the institution originally operated as a private, non-denominational evening college to serve returning World ...

have awarded him an honorary doctor of laws degree. The

University of Waterloo The University of Waterloo (UWaterloo, UW, or Waterloo) is a public research university with a main campus in Waterloo, Ontario Waterloo is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is one of three cities in the Regional Municipality ...

conferred a doctor of science degree on him in 2017. He is a recipient of The Canadian Public Health Association R D Defries Award, its highest honour. He has also been recognized by the College of Family Physicians and Scotiabank Family Medicine Lectureship and received the Medal of Service from The Canadian Medical Association for "his outstanding and exceptional contribution to health care in Canada" as well as the President's Award of the Public Health Physicians of Canada. After a stroke in 2012, Butler-Jones stepped down as chief public health officer in June 2013 to focus on rehabilitation. He was succeeded by Gregory Taylor. Following his recovery, Butler-Jones has worked in a variety of roles, speaking, teaching and serving on boards, as well as advising on public health and health system issues, especially as they relate to indigenous health.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Butler-Jones, David Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Canadian public health doctors Members of the United Church of Canada