2013 National Planning Excellence Awards: Planning Advocate

Michael Osur, Deputy Director, Riverside County Department of Public Health

Riverside, California

Michael Osur, Deputy Director of the Riverside County Department of Public Health. Image provided courtesy of the RCDOPH.

Under Michael Osur's leadership, the Riverside County Department of Public Health set a strategic goal of addressing the built environment and quality of life issues by focusing on the connection between community design and public health as it relates to physical activity, healthy eating, and injury prevention.

Through Osur's leadership, his accomplishments include: forming a partnership with the planning department; creating the Healthy Riverside County Initiative; forming the Riverside County Health Coalition; and hiring the first AICP-certified planner to work in the county health department.

California Healthline (2011), "Riverside Hopes New Policies Will Help Curb Sprawl, Obesity."