Mr. Cliff Douglas, director of the University of Michigan Tobacco Research Network and a faculty member at the U-M School of Public Health, has been named American Cancer Society (ACS) vice president for tobacco control and director of the newly-established ACS Center for Tobacco Control. The center’s mission is to strengthen tobacco control efforts and accelerate the decline in tobacco use and tobacco-related deaths in the United States and globally.

[Photo: Mr. Cliff Douglas]

Mr. Douglas will continue to teach tobacco policy at the University of Michigan School of Public Health and direct the U-M Tobacco Research Network, a collaborative that includes faculty, researchers, and staff from across the university who share a commitment to tobacco and nicotine research and service.

“The University of Michigan has a longstanding record of achievement in tobacco control research and policy,” said Dr. Martin Philbert, dean of the U-M School of Public Health. “In creating this dual position, we are better positioned to cement relationships between academic and not-for-profit public health to more fully address and combat the global tobacco epidemic.”

For the past five years, Mr. Douglas has served as the consulting tobacco control policy advisor for the U.S. Assistant Secretary for Health, Dr. Howard Koh, and more recently in the same capacity for the Office of the U.S. Surgeon General. Mr. Douglas co-chaired and co-authored the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ first national tobacco control strategic action plan, Ending the Tobacco Epidemic: A Tobacco Control Strategic Action Plan for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, released by U.S. Secretary of Health Kathleen Sebelius in 2011. He also co-authored HHS’s follow-up report, Ending the Tobacco Epidemic: Progress Toward a Healthier Nation, in 2012.

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