The 5th Annual National DIS Recognition Day is October 7, 2016. Created by the National Coalition of STD Directors (NCSD) and celebrated annually on the first Friday of October, National DIS Recognition Day aims to praise, congratulate, and honor disease intervention specialists (DIS) – the “warriors” of the sexually-transmitted disease (STD) world. To reward this workforce’s commitment to the field of public health, NACCHO and NCSD sponsored a competitive scholarship opportunity for DIS interested in attending the NCSD 2016 Annual Meeting in Phoenix, AZ from December 6-9. Today, we’re pleased to announce the 2016 scholarship recipients:

NACCHO

• Laurie Tucker – Chattanooga Hamilton County Health Department (Tennessee)
• Liz Baca – Clackamas County Public Health (Oregon)
• Michael Ross Pagan – County of San Diego Health and Human Services (California)

NCSD

• Walter Backus, II – Virginia Department of Health
• Torey Jones – Oklahoma State Department of Health
• Gina Mallett – Iowa State Department of Health

NACCHO and NCSD are proud to provide this opportunity to our scholarship recipients, and commend all DIS across the nation for their hard work and dedication to serving STD and HIV health department programs. “Having worked as both a DIS and DIS supervisor, participating in the selection process for this scholarship has been exceptionally rewarding for me,” said LaNisha Childs, Program Analyst at NACCHO. “Opportunities for professional development are essential to the growth and advancement of DIS. Attending trainings and national meetings like the NCSD Annual Meeting, will help DIS expand their skillsets and knowledge on disease controls principles and trends. Participation in sessions and workshops allows the DIS to see how the data that they work so hard to gather is being used to enact change and support scientific research.”

Local health departments are encouraged to recognize DIS in your jurisdiction. NCSD provides several ideas on ways to recognize DIS including:

• Offer a certificate of appreciation. Download this template or create your own and present each DIS with a certificate on October 7th. Bonus points if you bring in the director of your health department to do the presentation honors.
• Create a commemorative calendar. Download the template for the DIS Recognition Day printable photo calendar to create a year-long reminder of the importance of DIS and how much they are appreciated.
• Build a social media buzz. Tweet about DIS Recognition Day using #DISday2016. Click here for sample tweets or retweet messages from NCSD’s Twitter account, @NCSDdc.
• Prepare a press release. Use NCSD’s editable statement about DIS Recognition Day to create your own press release in less than 5 minutes!
• Update your email signature. Download and paste a simple message into your email signature on October 7th.

NCSD will be sharing pictures of DIS across the country throughout the day, so check out their Twitter and Facebook pages. Learn more about NACCHO’s efforts to support DIS in this letter from the CDC.