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Biography:
Kenneth Schachter, MD, has been at The University of Arizona since 2001, after 21 years of service in the Commissioned Corps of the United States Public Health Service (USPHS). In his last position with the USPHS, as medical director in the Office of HealthCare Partnerships at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Schachter helped develop new public-private partnerships for prevention – working with private, nonprofit, national organizations representing both purchasers and providers of managed care services. He facilitated CDC's conduct of extramural research in the managed care environment; edited an Inventory of (CDC's) Managed Care-Related Projects that was distributed to government and private health services researchers across the nation; and participated in regional and national health care quality improvement efforts with other federal and nongovernmental agencies (e.g. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations).
Dr. Schachter is a board certified family physician with extensive health care practice, quality improvement, public health, management, and leadership experience. He provided hospital and ambulatory care for 10 years in the Indian Health Service and part-time ambulatory care for the rest of his public health service career. In several different management roles in the Indian Health Service, he supervised medical and nonmedical staff and interacted with tribal officials. As a manager and medical consultant with the Health Resources and Services Administration, he supervised medical and nonmedical staff, was responsible for budget and labor relations for an office staff initially numbering over 100, and participated in a number of on-site reviews of federally funded migrant and community health centers (including emergency reviews in response to operational crises) where he evaluated quality of care, quality improvement efforts, and overall center function. Altogether, Dr. Schachter served in a number of management and leadership roles during his career in the USPHS, including Zuni Indian Health Service (IHS) Hospital Clinical Director; Cherokee IHS Hospital Chief of Medical Staff; Phoenix IHS Hospital Chief of Staff and Chairman of the Credentials Committee; Salt River Clinic Medical Director; the Administration’s Southeast Field Office Chief of Clinical Management Branch and Executive Officer Health Resources and Services; and Office of HealthCare Partnerships Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Medical Director. He has attended numerous management training courses sponsored by the American College of Physician Executives and received an MBA from the University of Phoenix in 1987.
Since joining the UA, Dr. Schachter has been an investigator in research projects in both the College of Medicine and the College of Public Health. Current projects include:
(1) Project REACH 2010 – a partnership with Migrant Health Promotion to evaluate the provision of a comprehensive, sustainable, community oriented, chronic disease prevention and control intervention intended to reduce the impact of diabetes mellitus on individuals, families, and communities in Texas border communities. Features of the REACH 2010 intervention include the use of promotores (lay health educators); the provision of culturally-relevant diabetes health education in community-based settings; the development of promotora-led walking clubs, and the formation of strong community partnerships.
(2) The Southwest Center for Community Health Promotion (SWCCHP) Core Diabetes Project – A community-based diabetes prevention and control program testing a comprehensive and sustainable approach to community-oriented chronic disease prevention and control to reduce the devastating impact of diabetes mellitus on individuals, families, and communities.
(3) Southwest Public Health Leadership Institute – Dr. Schachter is currently Principal Investigator of this project. Its primary goal is to strengthen the public health system in Arizona and the Southwest by enhancing public health leadership, system capacity and collaboration among the major constituents of the Arizona public health system through leadership training and facilitating the development of collaborative partnerships.
Past projects include: (1) Trial of Activity for Adolescent Girls – a six-year, multicenter, multidisciplinary, National Institutes of Health funded, collaborative study testing the effectiveness of a coordinated school- and community-based intervention in preventing the usual decline in physical activity among adolescent, middle school girls; (2) The Border Health Strategic Initiative – a CDC-funded, Arizona College of Public Health partnership with two Arizona border communities to develop a comprehensive and sustainable approach to community-oriented chronic disease prevention and control in order to reduce the devastating impact of diabetes on individuals, families and communities; (3) Transferring Technical Capacity to the Community – a one-year contract to assist our Border Health Strategic Initiative community partners in developing the capacity to continue some of its components after the project funding ended; and (4) The Eastern Cochise Safety-Net Alliance – a nine-month evaluation contract to assist alliance medical practices in the development of a chronic disease management/continuous quality improvement program.
Currently, Dr. Schachter is co-teaching three courses in the College of Public Health’s MPH Program: Public Health Policy and Management (CPH 574), Public Health Leadership and Management (CPH 567), and a seminar on Collaborative Leadership.
Dr. Schachter served as a voting member of the University of Arizona Social and Behavioral Sciences Institutional Review Board for three years until the summer of 2005.
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