Patrick Libbey is the executive director of the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), the national voice of local public health serving nearly 3,000 local public health agencies nationwide. Under his leadership, NACCHO works to support efforts that protect and improve the health of all people and communities by promoting national policy, developing resources and programs, seeking health equity, and supporting effective local public health practice and systems. Most notably, he is recognized for his work in the development of performance standards for public health practice. Prior to joining NACCHO in September 2002, he was the director of the Thurston County Public Health and Social Services Department in Olympia, Washington. The department includes divisions of personal health and environmental health, as well as assessment, planning, and epidemiology; and social services, including mental health, substance abuse, and developmental disabilities. For more than 20 years, Mr. Libbey was responsible for a mixed urban, suburban, and rural population of 210,000, supervised 115 employees, and managed a budget in excess of $30 million. He currently serves on the National Association of Counties Homeland Security Task Force. In 1993, he received NACCHO's Award for Excellence in Environmental Health and was a co-recipient of the First Annual Jim Parker Memorial Award for Washington State's systematic incorporation of core functions in its public health system. In 2002, he again was a co-recipient of the Jim Parker Memorial Award for work in developing Washington State's public health performance measurements.