Jonathan Fielding

Jonathan Evan Fielding M.D., M.P.H., M.A., M.B.A. (born 1942) is the former director and health officer of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. He is a Distinguished Professor at UCLA in the Fielding School of Public Health and the Geffen School of Medicine. He is the founder and co-director of the School of Public Health's Center for Health Advancement, which has expertise in forecasting and modeling future health and analyzing the health and financial impact of evidence-based policies and programs in non-health sectors such as education, transportation, and natural resources. As director of one of the largest health departments in the United States, Fielding oversaw public health activities, including those for environmental health, disease control, health education, health assessment, and chronic diseases. During his more than 16-year tenure, Fielding led efforts to develop plans to deal with emergencies related to bioterrorism, pandemic flu, and other emerging diseases and conditions. He also called attention to the underlying determinants of health, including the physical and social environments in which people live. He was responsible for implementing the Los Angeles County restaurant “A B C” grading system which has been widely emulated throughout the U.S. Fielding also served as commissioner and vice-chair of the First 5 Los Angeles Los Angeles Commission, whose mission is to improve health and development of children 5 years of age and under, granting over $100 million annually to improve health and development of children 5 years of age and under. Fielding has been a founding member of a number of national task forces that assess best evidence and make recommendations to improve the health of the public. These include the U.S. Clinical Preventive Services Task Force and the U.S. Community Preventive Services Task Force, which he has chaired for over a decade. Fielding has published on a wide range of public health as well as preventive medic