Milestones and Honors

Long-time DHANES, NHANES Director Retires

Mr. Clifford Johnson, Director of the Division of Health Examination Statistics (DHANES) and its flagship program, the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), retired from NCHS on November 30, 2012.

Mr. Johnson had been with the NHANES program for more than 40 years. Starting as a research analyst, he rose through the ranks to become branch chief, and, later, special assistant to the director of the division.  Mr. Johnson was appointed Deputy Director in 1996 and Division Director in 2001.

As the Director of DHANES, Mr. Johnson managed the planning and implementation of the ongoing NHANES program, and oversaw the overall analytic research activities for the survey. He has been a member of many national and international committees and workshops on nutrition and health, and has served as an expert consultant to New Zealand, Korea, the European Union, South Africa and Canada on the content and conduct of examination surveys

Mr. Johnson has authored or co-authored over 125 articles, and given more than 300 oral presentations.  He has received many NCHS and CDC awards, including the Owen Thornberry Memorial Award (2007) for “a career exemplified by dedicated leadership that has inspired staff to achieve beyond what they thought possible in program and personal career goals.”

In a 2010 video commemorating NHANES’s 50th anniversary, Mr. Johnson reflected on his legacy and the next fifty years:

“[I wish that NHANES] keeps going, that there’s another 50 years and that 50 years from now, what I would say about those brilliant people who, in 1957 and [1958], planned this survey in such a way that we’re still using almost all the same techniques and procedures, we just became more sophisticated–that 50 years from now people will be saying, “We’re still doing the same thing that Cliff and his staff did at this point in time, but just using new technologies and new information.’”

Mr. Johnson holds a B.S. degree in mathematics and statistics from Colorado State University (1969) and an M.S.P.H. in biostatistics from the University of North Carolina (1970).

RDC Director Honored by American Public Health Association

Mr. Peter Meyer, Director of the Research Data Center, was awarded the Statistics Section Award for Government by the American Public Health Association (APHA), on October 30, 2012, at the APHA annual meeting in San Francisco.

Mr. Meyer was honored for his “exceptional leadership, as Director of the National Center for Health Statistics Research Data Center, in making important and informative public health data accessible to researchers and policymakers while protecting the confidentiality of the data; and for sharing his expertise in study design, data analysis, data dissemination, and confidentiality with data users and data producers, both nationally and internationally.”

Mr. Meyer, M.A., M.P.H., also serves as Assistant Director of NCHS’s Office of Research and Methodology. With a background in public health and economics, Mr. Meyer has contributed to projects addressing survey methodology, geospatial statistics, statistical literacy and education, and development of socio-economic measures for surveys, among many others.

Marjorie Greenberg Honored by Public Health Data Standards Consortium, World Health Organization

Ms. Marjorie S. Greenberg, Chief of Classifications and Public Health Data Standards Staff, was honored on November 8, 2012, by the Public Health Data Standards Consortium. She was recognized for her “outstanding service and valuable contribution” to the organization. The Public Health Data Standards Consortium is a non-profit membership-based organization of federal, state, and local health agencies; professional associations; academia; public and private sector organizations; international members; and individuals. Ms. Greenberg was instrumental in establishing the Consortium 14 years ago to assure that public health is represented in health data standardization activities.

Ms. Greenberg also received an award from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Brazilian Ministry of Health on October 18, 2012, during the annual meeting of the WHO Family of International Classifications (WHO-FIC) Network held in Brasilia, Brazil. The award recognized Ms. Greenberg’s contributions to WHO’s work in Classifications, Terminologies and Standards. Ms. Greenberg has been Head of the WHO Collaborating Center for the Family of International Classifications (FIC) for North America since 1996, and has chaired the WHO-FIC Education Committee since its inception in 1999.

Ms. Greenberg received her bachelor’s degree from Wellesley College and a master’s degree from Harvard University.