MS Michael R. Fraser, PHD

Michael Fraser serves as the chief executive officer of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO). ASTHO is the national nonprofit organization representing the public health agencies of the United States, the U.S. territories, and Washington, D.C., as well as the more than 100,000 public health professionals these agencies employ. ASTHO members, the chief health officials and governmental public health leaders of these jurisdictions, are dedicated to formulating and influencing sound public health policy and to ensuring excellence in state‐based public health practice.

Under Fraser’s leadership and in partnership with the ASTHO Board of Directors, ASTHO has received multiple awards, including the 2022 Fries Prize for Improving Health on behalf of all state and territorial health agencies for its work responding to COVID-19, as well as several Power of “A” Awards from the American Society of Association Executives for the ASTHO team’s outstanding contributions to public health. Since Fraser’s arrival, ASTHO has grown in influence and organizational capacity, including by increasing the size and diversity of the ASTHO team and growing the organization’s budget with significant new investments from both federal agencies and national and global philanthropies.

Fraser is a dynamic leader and brings experience leading both public health associations and medical societies. He has been featured in interviews with The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Politico, The Hill, Governing, CNN, Bloomberg, MSNBC, and other national and regional media outlets. Fraser is the author of over 40 peer-reviewed scientific publications and commentaries, and has contributed to several book projects, including as the co-author of Vaccinating America: The Inside Story Behind the Race to Vaccinate America, Save Lives, and End a Pandemic, as well as co-editor and author of A Public Health Guide to Ending the Opioid Crisis and A Communications Playbook for Public Officials: How to Effectively Manage the Message, the Media, and Yourself with Robert Johnson. He is currently an editor and author of Building Strategic Skills for Better Health: A Primer for Public Health Professionals. Fraser is an affiliated faculty in the Department of Global and Community Health and the Department of Health Administration and Policy at the George Mason University College of Public Health in Fairfax, Virginia.

Prior to joining ASTHO, Fraser served as the executive vice president and chief executive officer of the Pennsylvania Medical Society in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Fraser has been a distinguished leader in public health for 20 years. He served as chief executive officer of the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs (AMCHP) from 2007 to 2013, where his leadership was recognized nationally with the Maternal and Child Health Bureau’s Director’s Award in 2014. In addition, the American Public Health Association’s MCH Section awarded AMCHP the Outstanding Leadership and Advocacy Award. Prior to joining AMCHP, Fraser was the deputy executive director of the National Association of County and City Health Officials from 2002 to 2007 and served in several capacities at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, including positions at the Health Resources and Services Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In spring 2015, he was admitted as a fellow at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, one of just a handful on non-physician fellows in the nation’s oldest professional society.

Fraser received his doctorate and Master’s degrees in Sociology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and a Master of Science in Management with a concentration on Management, Strategy, and Leadership from the Eli Broad School of Management at Michigan State University. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Oberlin College in 1991.