The following is a release from King County Public Health:

Patty Hayes, the Interim Director of Public Health – Seattle & King County, today received statewide recognition for extraordinary leadership and dedication to the health and well-being of women, children and families in Washington.

Within Reach, a statewide nonprofit organization that connects at-risk families with critical resources, selected Hayes as the recipient of the 2015 Cynthia F. Shurtleff Award. The award honors innovation and dedication in the public health field.

“Families throughout King County are healthier thanks to the leadership and dedication that Patty Hayes and our dedicated public health employees have demonstrated at the state and local level,” said Executive Dow Constantine. “I’m glad that Patty is receiving the recognition she deserves, and am grateful to have her on my team.”

Hayes began working at Public Health in 2012 as Division Director of Community Health Services. Executive Constantine appointed her as the Interim Director in August 2014.

“I’m so honored to receive this award, which I gratefully accept on behalf of the many children and families Within Reach has served over the past three decades,” said Patty Hayes, Interim Director of Public Health – Seattle & King County.

Executive Constantine last year appointed Hayes as the co-leader of Best Starts for Kids, his initiative to put every child in King County on a path toward lifelong success by investing in strategies that prevent negative outcomes in the community, including mental illness, domestic violence, chronic illness, homelessness and incarceration.

Public Health – Seattle & King County Public Health works to protect and improve the health and well-being of all people in King County and to eliminate health disparities. As one of the largest metropolitan health departments in the United States, Public Health serves nearly 2 million residents and visitors through core prevention programs, environmental health programs, community-oriented personal health care services, emergency medical services, correctional facility health services, Public Health preparedness programs, and community-based public health assessment and practices.

Shurtleff, a volunteer lobbyist at the time, mentored Hayes during the early part of her career at Washington State Department of Health. Shurtleff was working on the formation of Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies, which ultimately became WithinReach.