Leah M. Devlin

Leah M. Devlin, DDS, MPH, was elected to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Board of Trustees in April 2014, effective July 2014.

Leah retired in 2023 from her position as a professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health. She joined the school in 2009.

Prior to joining the Gillings School, Leah served from 2001 to 2009 as the state health director in the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. Before that, she served as the director of the Wake County Health Department in Raleigh, N.C., for 10 years. Additionally, Leah has served as a consultant to RTI International, one of the world’s leading research institutes, located in Research Triangle Park, N.C; the Milbank Memorial Fund; and the Aspen Institute.

At the national level, Leah served for 11 years on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Foundation Board, the last three as Chair of the Board. She previously served on the Public Health Accreditation Board and is a past president of the Association of State and Territorial Health Directors. Within North Carolina, Leah currently serves on the Campbell University Board of Trustees, the Gillings School of Global Public Health Advisory Board, the North Carolina Delta Dental Board, and the YMCA of the Triangle Board of Trustees. Her honors include recognition from numerous professional associations for her contributions to public health, and in 2008 she received the University of North Carolina’s distinguished alumni award.

Leah earned her bachelor’s, dental, and master’s degree in public health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she also was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa.