Jennie Hefelfinger, MS, Community Health Strategist

Jennie A. Hefelfinger is the Managing Partner for Hefelfinger Consulting, LLC; a consulting company specializing in public health, community health initiatives and health promotion planning and consultation, and has been a public health advocate for over 25 years.

In her role as Project Director for the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors (NACDD), Jennie provides leadership and direction for Action Communities for Health Innovation and Environmental Change (ACHIEVE). ACHIEVE works to promote policy, systems and environmental change strategies locally to improve the health of the community though coalition building and policy improvement focusing on physical activity, tobacco, nutrition, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and obesity. Jennie is the NACDD liaison to the National Partnership for Safe Routes to Schools and WE Can! Project.

Jennie previously led the state of Florida’s chronic disease prevention and health promotion efforts at the Department of Health.   She was responsible for numerous federal and state grants focusing on reducing the state’s burden of chronic diseases and promoting healthy lifestyles including; Physical Activity Promotion, Diabetes Prevention and Control, Tobacco Prevention and Control, Heart Disease and Stroke, Cancer Prevention and Control, Arthritis Prevention and Education, Coordinated School Health, Epilepsy Services, and Healthy Communities Programs. Jennie was the executive director for Governor Crist’s Council on Physical Fitness and Governor Bush’s Task Force on the Obesity Epidemic, and was also the Department of Health’s main public health architect for the original Florida Tobacco Prevention Program funded by the state’s tobacco settlement.  She was responsible for the Step Up! Florida Program, the YEAH! (Youth Empowered Ambassadors for Health) Project and the PARKs (Physical Activity Really Kounts) Program; all geared toward improving opportunities for physical activity. During her years in public health she received three Davis Productivity Awards for increasing performance and productivity in state government, the ACE (Achieving Customer Satisfaction) Team Award for outstanding contribution for implementing quality management practices, the Department of Health Secretary’s Recognition Award for assistance in the development of the Florida Tobacco Pilot Program, a Leadership Award for promoting health education and health promotion presented by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Association of State and Territorial Directors of Health Promotion and Public Health Education, and the Florida Public Health Association’s Joseph Y. Porter, M.D. Award for Outstanding Contributions to Health Education.

Jennie has a MS and BS degree from Florida State University and has been a member of national and state professional organizations and associations and multi-agency coalitions. Jennie has held executive leadership positions in most of her volunteer efforts; including president of the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors.  She is a recent graduate of Leadership Tallahassee (Class 27) and is a member of the Capital Region YMCA Parkway Advisory Board.  Jennie enjoys spending time with her husband and three children, being a soccer mom, traveling anywhere that requires a passport or a two hour flight, and on holidays plays an entertaining game of neighborhood kickball.