Biography: Stephanie B.C. Bailey, M.D., MSHSA

 
Stephanie Bailey, M.D., M.S.H.S.A., is a native of Denton, Maryland.  She received her B.A. in Psychology from Clark University, Worchester, Massachusetts; her M.D. from Meharry Medical College, Nashville, Tennessee; and performed her residency in Internal Medicine at Grady Memorial/Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia and Meharry Medical College, Nashville, TN.  She later obtained a Masters of Science in Health Services Administration from the College of St. Francis.  During medical school training, she was a National Health Service Corp. recipient and later fulfilled that obligation in rural Dickson County.  Dr. Bailey began her career at the Metro Nashville Public Health Department in 1981 as Medical Advisor for the East Nashville Clinic.  From this position, she advanced to Medical Director/Director of Health Services Administration in 1988; Acting Director of Health in January 1995; and in May 1995 was appointed Director of Health.  Under her management, the department’s budget has increased from $27 million to its current level of over $43 million.  There are 585 employees.  She is known for integrity, being a change agent/systems thinker, initiative, fairness, enthusiasm, flexibility, loyalty, motivational, asking the hard questions, an ability to productively and cooperatively contribute to team efforts, inclusiveness, leadership abilities, management skills, and vision. 

Helping the city of Nashville become one of the best-managed cities in the world, has become one of Dr. Bailey's passions.  To that end, she led the Managing for Results Initiative in Nashville - spearheading this management transformation for Metro Government.  She established the first Youth Advisory Board in Metro Government history recognizing early that youth input is valuable to the prosperity of a community.

She sits on the Board of Directors for the Nashville Academy of Medicine, United Way, The Oasis Center, and Character Counts.  She is an active member of all of the appropriate organizations of her profession and career e.g., APHA, TPHA, AMA, NAM, R.F. Boyd Medical Society, Southern Health, and TMA.  She is a Past President of the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO).  As NACCHO Board member she chaired the workgroup that developed the PACE-EH (Protocol for Assessing Community Excellence in Environmental Health) tool.  Dr. Bailey has been appointed to three National Committees , four year terms each, by the Secretary of Health and Human Services: the Advisory Council for the Elimination of Tuberculosis (ACET), the Advisory Board to the Director of CDC, and the National Rural Health Committee. In 1999 she was appointed by the Governor of Tennessee to sit on the Environmental Justice Board.  In May 1999, Dr. Bailey was selected to serve as co-chair for the CDC National Task Force for Public Health Workforce Development and has served as Senior Consultant to the Public Health Practice and Program Office, CDC, for local Public Health practice. She was a member of the Nation’s Congress – an initiative to bring public health and medicine together in 1996; and the AMA led Health Sector Assembly from 1999 to 2002.  She holds an adjunct faculty position at the University of North Carolina, School of Public Health, Chapel Hill and Meharry Medical College.  She is co-principal investigator for an NIH Export Grant to establish a Center for Health Desparities at Meharry Medical College.  She represented the Public Health perspective on Public Health and Business Sub-Committee of the National Business Group.  She is Chair-Elect of the National Public Health Leadership Society.  She sits on the Governor’s Committee for the Hospital Preparedness and  the State Child Fatality Committee.  She is a Rotarian.

Her professional honors include being the recipient of the 1989 Middle Tennessee Outstanding Leaders and Achievers Award, the 1996 National Urban League Whitney M. Young Jr. Medical Award, 1998 inductee into the YWCA Academy of Women of Achievement, 1998 Recipient Citizenship Award from Northwest Civitan and ATHENA nominee in 2002. She is also a graduate of Leadership Nashville, and a year 6 graduate of the National Public Health Leadership Institute. Dr. Bailey is a published author and has spoken nationally, regionally, and locally on many subjects, including testimony before a Senate Subcommittee. She is featured in the book Journey to Leadership: Profiles of Women Leaders in Public Health by Carol Woltring and Carole Barlas. On September 29, 1999, The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials honored Dr. Bailey with the “Excellence in Public Health Award” for local Leadership. On November 6, 2004 she received the Milton and Ruth Roemer Award for Creative Local Public Health Work from the American Public Health Association.  She was named “Person of the Year 2004” by the Urban Journal Newspaper.  On March 15, 2005 she was awarded the Dr. Nathan B. Davis Award for Outstanding Government Service in the Category, Career Public Servant at the Local level, by the American Medical Association.  The Sister for Sister Foundation, Inc. awarded Dr. Bailey the first ever Davis-Galloway Empowerment Award on March 19, 2005.

Dr. Bailey is married and has three children—two daughters and one son, and a host of hobbies.