Year Honored: 2022
Karyl Thomas Rattay, MD, MS, was appointed in 2009 as the Director of the Delaware Division of Public Health (DPH). As Delaware’s State Health Officer, Dr. Rattay leads over 900 employees who promote health, reduce health inequities, protect Delawareans from disease, environmental hazards and public health emergencies, and provide clinical services. She oversees a budget over $200 million and upholds DPH’s vision: Healthy People in Healthy Communities.
During her tenure at DPH Dr. Rattay and her team have:
· Succeeded in becoming one of the first 16 states in the nation to achieve and maintain full accreditation from the national Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB).
· Launched the State’s first Health Improvement Plan and multi-year agency strategic plans.
· Significantly reduced infant mortality rates by nearly 30% from 2015 -2019 through close collaboration with many maternal and child health partners, and a 25% reduction in unintended pregnancies through the Delaware Contraceptives Access Now (Delaware CAN) initiative.
· Saw a 14% reduction in cancer mortality rates through a comprehensive statewide prevention, screening, and treatment initiative.
· Worked with the legislature to pass a bill increasing the age to buy tobacco products to 21 and adding e-cigarettes to Delaware’s Clean Indoor Air Act.
· In conjunction with the University of Delaware and Delaware Community Foundation, spearheaded the creation of the Healthy Communities Delaware (HCD) initiative – a placed-based partnership with communities to address their most important social determinants of health.
· Played the state’s leading role in responding to multiple health threats, including COVID-19, H1N1, Superstorm Sandy, Ebola, Zika virus, Tuberculosis outbreaks and others. · Launched the My Healthy Community data portal in 2019, bringing Delaware public health data down to the ZIP code level, including community characteristics, the environment, chronic disease, and mental health and substance use, air quality, asthma incidence data, public and private drinking water results, and drug overdose and death data. In 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic began, the Division of Public Health used My Healthy Community to report COVID-19 data, again down to the ZIP code level in many cases. It was one of the most robust COVID-19 data sites in the country.
· Assumed a leadership role in addressing the state’s opioid crisis.
· Implemented the controversial Medical Marijuana Program in 2012 and the Office of Animal Welfare in 2013.
Dr. Rattay is board-certified in Pediatrics. She completed her Pediatric Residency at Georgetown University and a Preventive Medicine and Public Health Residency at the University of Maryland. She earned a Medical Doctorate from the Medical University of Ohio and a Master of Science in Epidemiology from the University of Maryland.
Dr. Rattay previously served as a Senior Advisor at the US Department of Health and Human Services where she had a leadership role in the President’s HealthierUS Initiative and advised the Surgeon General. At Nemours Health & Prevention Services, she assisted in starting up a new Division and led a statewide childhood obesity initiative. She has widely published articles on a variety of public health topics.
Dr Rattay was awarded the prestigious Arthur T. McCormack Award by the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) for her leadership and contributions as a state health official and the rarely awarded Order of the First State from Governor John Carney. She also received; the Vision of Peace award from the Delaware Coalition Against Domestic Violence; the Health Professional of the Year award from the National Alliance on Mental Illness; the President’s Award 3 times from former Medical Society of Delaware Presidents; the Medal of Honor Award from Attack Addiction and was honored by Governor Carney as the Longest Serving State Health Official in the Nation. She has been named as one of “Delaware’s Most Influential” individuals for 2020 and 2021. Dr. Rattay chairs the Healthy Babies Subcommittee for ASTHO and is a Board member of ASTHO and the Public Health Foundation. Dr. Rattay is the Chair of Delaware’s Addiction Action Committee, Co-Chair of the Overdose System of Care Committee and the Behavioral Health Consortium and a current member and former President of the Delaware Board of Medical Licensure and Discipline. She was recently inducted as a Member of the Delta Omega Honorary Society in Public Health, Beta Tau Chapter, 2022
- Collections: 2022, National Women Physician's Day