The Nevada County Public Health Department is currently working toward becoming accredited via the Public Health Accreditation Board's national accreditation process. According to the Public Health Accreditation Board, the mission of the voluntary national accreditation program is to improve and protect the health of the public by advancing and ultimately transforming the quality and performance of the nation’s state, Tribal, local, and territorial public health departments. This process focuses on the following:

• Promotes high performance and continuous quality improvement;
• Recognizes high performers that meet nationally accepted standards of quality and improvement;
• Illustrates health department accountability to the public and policymakers;
• Increases the visibility and public awareness of governmental public health, leading to greater public trust and increased health department credibility, and ultimately a stronger constituency for public health funding and infrastructure; and
• Clarifies the public’s expectations of health departments.

Led by the Public Health Leadership Team, our department as a whole is working together on the accreditation process. The Leadership Team includes the following members:

• Jill Blake, Department Director
• Kim Blix, Emergency Preparedness Coordinator
• Cathy Cross, Administrative Analyst
• Dr. Ken Cutler, Health Officer
• Suzanne Doyle, Administrative Services Officer
• Liz Matson, Program Manager
• Holly Whittaker, Epidemiologist
• Cynthia Wilson, Director of Nursing