Press Releases

Each year, about 1 in every 33 babies born in the United States is affected by a birth defect, a leading cause of death in the first year of life according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). To address this problem, the CDC Foundation today announced a new preconception health app that will help women of reproductive age explore how to protect their health and the health of babies they may give birth to in the future.

The CDC Foundation today announced the creation of an Innovation and Strategy Department that will focus on developing innovative approaches to connect the foundation to new partners, new types of relationships and support, and new programs to help extend the life-saving work of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 

The CDC Foundation announced a new Tom Frieden Future Leaders Fund that aims to strengthen and enhance programs focused on developing future public health leaders.

The Cardiff Violence Prevention Model provides a way for communities to gain more complete information as to where violence occurs and how to prevent it by forming partnerships between hospitals and law enforcement and others interested in violence prevention. Grady Memorial Hospital and DeKalb County Police Department have created a local Cardiff Model partnership through a CDC Foundation grant funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

For the tenth consecutive year, the CDC Foundation has achieved a 4-star rating by Charity Navigator. Four stars is the highest rating awarded by Charity Navigator, the nation’s largest and most-utilized evaluator of charities. 

The CDC Foundation releases Business Pulse: Tobacco Use to help businesses improve employee health—and overall business health—by reducing tobacco use and secondhand smoke exposure.

To support efforts to stem the Zika outbreak, the CDC Foundation announced a $1 million donation from the Pfizer Foundation in funding for the comprehensive Zika response. Additionally, in-kind donations of up to 170,000 doses of injectable reversible contraceptive product from Pfizer have been provided for the Zika Contraception Access Network (Z-CAN) in Puerto Rico. In addition to donations of products and funding from multiple partners, this donation will provide essential support against this growing health threat for women who choose to delay or avoid pregnancy.

The CDC Foundation has named Monique Saunders Patrick as chief operating officer. In this role Patrick will report to the president and CEO and have responsibility for the Foundation’s finance, human resources, legal and information technology functions and will serve on the Foundation’s executive team.

For his efforts to save countless lives worldwide by uncovering the root causes of cardiovascular disease and cancer and bringing data to bear on public policies, Sir Richard Peto received the 2016 CDC Foundation Hero Award. The award presentation followed Peto’s keynote at the “Halving Global Cardiovascular Disease Mortality Rates” symposium at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

As Zika virus continues its rapid spread throughout Puerto Rico and with mosquito season underway, the CDC Foundation announced today that the Zika Contraception Access Network (Z-CAN) is now operational. The Network is providing women in Puerto Rico with a full range of contraceptive options free of charge on the same day of their healthcare service.