Healthier Generation Names Laurie Stradley as New Chief Program Officer

(NEW YORK, N.Y.) May 13, 2019 – The Alliance for a Healthier Generation (Healthier Generation), one of the nation’s preeminent children’s health organizations, today named public health visionary and community leader Laurie Stradley to serve as its chief program officer. Founded in 2005 by the American Heart Association and the Clinton Foundation, Healthier Generation’s work with schools, communities and businesses has empowered more than 28 million children nationwide to develop lifelong healthy habits. Stradley joins the organization at a key point in its evolution, as it seeks to lead the way in meeting children’s comprehensive health needs—inclusive of quality nutrition, regular physical activity, and strong social-emotional development.  

Stradley joins Healthier Generation with a lengthy career in public health and early intervention health care, serving on numerous local, state, and national coalitions driving the future of health. She is an effective policy and advocacy change-maker, playing a key role in the passage of several pieces of North Carolina health legislation that banned smoking in bars and restaurants and increased access to healthy foods via corner stores. 

Healthier Generation Chief Executive Officer Kathy Higgins praised Stradley’s appointment, citing her innovative approach to health and ability to activate communities around meaningful change. “Laurie’s strong public health credentials combined with her compassion and personal energy around our cause make her the ideal candidate to fortify our programs and lead our rapidly evolving portfolio of evidenced-based services and programmatic solutions. We look forward to the immediate impact her leadership will have on supporting our network of schools and youth-serving organizations as they transform their environments to promote health and development,” said Higgins. 

“We are at a pivotal moment as leaders in children’s health,” said Stradley. “I am thrilled to be joining an organization that is at the forefront of advancing a holistic approach to kids’ health, consistent with the latest science on the mind-body connection. As chief program officer, I am eager to continue moving the needle on health equity to give more children, in more communities, the healthy futures they deserve.” 

Most recently, Stradley served as the director of wellness at Mission Health System in Asheville, NC, where she worked to improve employee health and well-being as well as population health strategies for the regional health care system. In 2010, Stradley became a founding staff member at the North Carolina Center for Health and Wellness at UNC Asheville, serving as the director of state and community collaboration. Here, she became more involved in healthy eating and food access, working with the National Farm to School Network to improve the connection between children, schools, farms, and farmers. At the core of her work in this field is a deep commitment to supporting schools and communities in improving children’s health—complemented by a strong appreciation for policy to improve health outcomes through legislative change. 

“Thousands of educators, community leaders and parents rely on Healthier Generation’s expertise and evidence-based programming to guide them in creating healthier environments where all children can thrive,” said Dr. Leah Devlin, a professor at the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health and member of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Board of Trustees, which has been a strong supporter of Healthier Generation’s programmatic work since the organization’s inception. “With Laurie at the helm of these efforts, I’m confident that Healthier Generation’s programs will only grow—to the great benefit of the individuals and communities it serves.” 

In addition to being a published researcher, Stradley has been recognized locally and nationally for her dedication to public health, serving as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation “Ladder to Leadership” fellow and receiving the Mission Health Leadership Award for her role in elevating the health system’s workforce health and well-being programs. Stradley holds a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology from the College of William & Mary as well as a master’s degree in exercise physiology and a doctorate of public health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she was inducted into the Delta Omega Public Health Honor Society.  

As chief program officer, Stradley will lead Healthier Generation’s nationwide suite of programs, which seek to drive sustainable, healthy changes in all the places children live, learn and play. In addition to overseeing Healthier Generation’s existing breadth of work with schools and out-of-school time providers, Stradley will play a key role in driving the organization’s rapidly expanding efforts to address social-emotional health, boost family engagement in kids’ health and wellness, and work across sectors to facilitate and support critical community health goals. 

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About the Alliance for a Healthier Generation 

The Alliance for a Healthier Generation believes every child deserves a healthy future. For over a decade, Healthier Generation has empowered kids to develop lifelong healthy habits by ensuring the environments that surround them provide and promote good health. Driven by our passion that all young people deserve a chance to live healthier lives, our work, in total, has reached up to 28 million kids across the country. To learn more and help make a difference, visit HealthierGeneration.org and join us on Facebook and Twitter.