Michael C. Caldwell, MD, MPH, Dutchess County Commissioner of Health

County Executive William R. Steinhaus appointed Dr. Michael C. Caldwell Commissioner of the Dutchess County Department of Health on August 8, 1994. He was reappointed in 2000 and again in 2006. He oversees the health of nearly 300,000 people over an 800 square mile area with 150 employees and a budget over $35 million. One of the youngest physicians ever to be appointed Health Commissioner in the United States, he served as the youngest President of his national professional association, the National Association of County & City Health Officials (NACCHO) as well as the youngest President of the New York State Association of County Health Officials (NYSACHO). He received his Baccalaureate Degree in Art History from Columbia University in 1986 and his Medical Degree from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in 1990. Dr. Caldwell then completed an Internal Medicine Residency at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in 1993. He received his Masters of Public Health Degree from Harvard in 1994 and was Board Certified in Internal Medicine in 1995.

His numerous awards and honors include being the only active local health official in the country to have been invited by President Obama to the White House Rose Garden signing ceremony of the historic Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act on June 22, 2009. Dr. Caldwell was appointed by Governor David Paterson to New York State’s Tobacco Use Prevention & Control Advisory Board in 2008. In 2006 he received the Jackson E. Spears Community Service Award from the New York Medical College and he is a recipient of the New York State County Health Officials “Public Health Professional of the Year” Award which was bestowed on him by his colleagues across New York. He has been honored by many local organizations including the March of Dimes. He is a Past-President of the local chapter of the American Heart Association and is a past board member of the local chapter of the American Cancer Society. Dr. Caldwell has provided input to several state and federal governmental committees, most notably to the United States HOUSE Homeland Security Subcommittee on Pandemic Flu Preparedness in 2007; the US SENATE Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions in 2006, and the US SENATE Committee on Governmental Affairs in December 2001 about the need for rebuilding the local public health infrastructure to enhance our nation’s capacity to prepare for and respond to public health emergencies including pandemic flu and bioterrorism. Dr. Caldwell holds academic appointments at the Harvard and New York Medical College Schools of Public Health and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. He was elected a Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine in 1995.