LaMar Hasbrouck, MD, MPH, was appointed as the 17th director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, effective April 23, 2012, by Gov. Pat Quinn.

Prior to his appointment, Dr. Hasbrouck, a board certified medical internist, served from 2009 to 2012 as the director of the Ulster County (New York) Department of Public Health, and from 2011 to 2012 as director and commissioner of the Ulster County Department of Mental Health. He was the only county official in the state of New York to simultaneously lead both the health and mental health departments.

Dr. Hasbrouck, a native of San Diego, California, has an impressive record of public health service around the globe, beginning in 1998 with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as a member of the Epidemic Intelligence Service, commonly referred to as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for diseases. During his 11 years with CDC, Dr. Hasbrouck worked in Bangladesh, Brazil, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Switzerland, Uganda, Vietnam and Zimbabwe. He was actively engaged in two of the largest global health initiatives in history – polio eradication, where he served as a consultant for the World Health Organization to Bangladesh and the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, serving for two years in a diplomatic appointment as the director and chief of party for the CDC in Guyana, South America. Before joining CDC, Dr. Hasbrouck was an assistant professor and attending physician at the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta.

A graduate of the University of California-Berkeley, where he also received a Masters in Public Health; and the Charles Drew/UCLA Medical Education Program, Dr. Hasbrouck completed his medical residency in internal medicine at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. He has published numerous scientific articles, reports and book chapters, including co-authorship of the 2001 U.S. Surgeon General’s Report on Youth Violence. He also is the recipient of several distinguished honors, including the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary’s Primary Health Care Policy Fellowship, the HHS Secretary’s Award for Distinguished Service, and the Meritorious Honor Award from the U.S. Department of State.

Dr. Hasbrouck resides in Chicago with his wife, Zuleika, and three daughters.