Arkansas health official Namvar Zohoori named to HHS advisory committee

Dr. Namvar Zohoori, chief science officer for the Arkansas Department of Health, (ADH) has been appointed to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary’s Advisory Committee on National Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Objects for 2030. On Tuesday (July 10), ADH announced the appointment.

The federal advisory committee includes nonfederal, independent subject matter experts who make recommendations to the HHS secretary for the development and implementation of national health promotion and disease prevention objectives for 2030, an initiative also known as Healthy People 2030.

“It’s an honor for me to be asked to be on this committee,” said Zohoori, who will bring state experience to the committee. “We’ve done a lot over the past decade in Arkansas by using the Healthy People objectives in our work here in the state, and the new 2030 objectives will provide important goals for us to work toward in the next decade.”

Zohoori joined the ADH in 2004. Along with his position as chief science officer, he’s an adjunct professor of epidemiology at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences College of Public Health. He previously worked in public health, nutrition, epidemiology, aging and chronic diseases in Russia, China, the Philippines, Jamaica and the United States.

On the advisory committee, Zohoori will help to develop recommendations for implementing Healthy People 2030 and work toward improvements in the health and well-being of Americans by the end of the decade. The Healthy People initiative started in 1979, and it identifies goals and objectives for disease prevention and health promotion and provides health-related data on the U.S. population.