In the Community

April 2, 2010

First Lady Michelle Obama Announces Executive Leadership for the Partnership for a Healthier America

The Partnership for a Healthier America announced on Thursday that it had appointed a board of directors and executive leadership that includes former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Dr. Bill Frist and Newark (N.J.) Mayor Cory Booker serving as honorary co-chairs.

First Lady Michelle Obama made the announcement in a teleconference on Thursday. In her remarks, she acknowledged Kaiser Permanente as one of the founding partners in the partnership, which shares her commitment to curb childhood obesity in the United States in this generation.

“And I also want to end by thanking the extraordinary organizations that have come together to organize the fund, and fund this new foundation We would not be here were it not for these organizations,” Obama said, listing Kaiser Permanente and the other founding partners: the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Nemours, the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, the California Endowment, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and the Brookings Institute.

Also announced was the partnership’s chairman of the board, Dr. James Gavin, clinical professor at the Emory University School of Medicine.

Childhood obesity is the fastest-growing disease in the United States. The rate of childhood obesity in the United States has tripled in the last 15 years, and there are now more than 9 million obese or overweight children in the county. The partnership seeks to mobilize the private sector, thought leaders, media, and local communities to action against this epidemic, as does the First Lady’s Let’s Move! campaign.

As a health care provider, Kaiser Permanente understands the importance of clinical prevention efforts. We also understand the challenges our patients and their families face when they leave the exam room. We have long supported a comprehensive approach that includes evidence-based clinical prevention strategies, as well as efforts to create the conditions outside our doctors’ offices that make it easier for patients to eat better and increase their physical activity.

For more about the partnership, visit its Web site. For more about obesity prevention and Kaiser Permanente, go to: www.kp.org/childhoodobesity.