Linda Crossett Board Chair

Linda began her 40 years of experience in public health in 1964 as a Registered Dental Hygienist in private practice, and later as a public health hygienist for the Dallas County and Dallas City Health Departments. She served as faculty at Baylor College of Dentistry and as Dental Health Educator for the Texas Department of Health. Later, as Director of the Texas Fluoridation Project, she oversaw activities and budget for a federal grant for community water fluoridation.

In 1989, at CDC’s Division of Oral Health, she was lead on oral cancer prevention and detection, formed a national oral cancer strategic planning workgroup, and oversaw writing of the National Strategic Plan for Oral and Pharyngeal Cancer Prevention.

In 1994, she joined CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health, specializing in issues related to tobacco-use prevention and control in the school setting. She worked with schools nationwide in implementing the CDC school health guidelines, convened expert panels of curriculum developers to identify science-based and effective programs for schools (Research to Classroom Programs), and co-authored the tobacco section of the School Health Index, a health self- assessment tool for schools. Linda worked extensively with the CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health (OSH), convening the first national expert panel on tobacco cessation for youth, and panels on tobacco prevention in colleges and universities. She developed partners both within and outside CDC in the areas of tobacco prevention, nutrition, physical activity, HIV-prevention, injury and violence prevention, food safety, and asthma.