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Office of the Commissioner

Office of the Commissioner

Who We Are

​​The Kentucky Department for Public Health (DPH) develops, monitors and operates public health programs and activities designed to improve the lives of residents and visitors through injury, sickness and disease prevention, promotion of healthy lifestyles and health protection efforts. 

DPH supervises and assists local boards of health and 61 local health departments serving all 120 Kentucky counties. The department relies on local health departments to carry out core public health activities required by statute or regulation and to provide preventive services to specific populations mandated by budget appropriations. 

DPH has identified the following seven core public health services that are required at the local level, either through local health departments or by another provider:  

  • Enforcement of public health regulations
  • Surveillance of public health
  • Communicable disease control
  • Public health education
  • Public health policy development
  • Reduction of risk to families and children
  • Disaster preparedness 

Programs &
Services

Steven J. Stack, MD, MBA

Commissioner for Public Health
Commonwealth of Kentucky​

Com. Stack portraitSteven J. Stack was appointed commissioner for public h​​ealth for the Commonwealth of Kentucky in February 2020 and was elected secretary-treasurer of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials in Fall 2020 and president-elect in 2022.

Dr. Stack is a board-certified emergency physician with more than 20 years of emergency medicine clinical practice and emergency department management experience.

Throughout his career Dr. Stack has served in numerous medical professional association leadership roles. In 2006, he was the first board-certified emergency physician ever elected to the American Medical Association Board of Trustees and in 2015 he served as AMA president.

Born and raised in Cleveland, Dr. Stack graduated magna cum laude in classical studies from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester*, Mass​. He completed his medical education and emergency medicine residency at the Ohio State University and his MBA at the University of Tennessee Haslam College of Business.

* Pronounced WUH–stir

Contact Information

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