The Florida Department of Health (DOH) appointed Betsy Wood, MPH, BSN, RN, as the new division director of community health promotion.

The division's program includes the bureaus of Women, Infants and Children (WIC), Child Care Food, Tobacco Free Florida, Family and Community Health and Chronic Disease Prevention.

"The Department of Health promotes and protects health across the lifespan," said Dennis Cookro, MD, interim deputy secretary for health and deputy state health officer for Children's Medical Services. "I look forward to Ms. Wood's continued leadership and expertise in this role which will help all Floridians to make healthy choices."

Wood has been the chronic disease director and the chief of the Bureau of Chronic Disease Prevention within DOH since 2008 and worked in public health for more than 28 years in a variety of programs. She has served as an adjunct instructor with the FSU College of Nursing and has been co-chair of DOH's Institutional Review Board. 

Prior to her work with DOH, she was instrumental in creating the Community Care for the Elderly Program in Leon County, now known as Elder Care Services.  Her clinical experience includes labor and delivery and neonatal intensive care.