Paul Kuehnert, DNP, RN, FAAN
Dr. Paul Kuehnert serves as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB), the national non-profit that sets standards and accredits local, state, tribal, territorial, and U.S. Army governmental public health departments. In this role, he leads the strategic direction of PHAB as it strives to advance and transform public health practice through performance improvement, strong infrastructure, and innovation.
Prior to joining PHAB in January 2020, Dr. Kuehnert was Associate Vice President for Program for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) in Princeton, NJ. Before joining RWJF in 2012, he spent five years as the County Health Officer and Executive Director for Health for Kane County, Illinois, a metro-Chicago County of 515,000 people. In that role, Paul provided executive leadership and oversight to four county departments: Health, Emergency Management, Community Reinvestment and Animal Control. Earlier, he served as Deputy State Health Officer and Deputy Director of the state of Maine’s Health Department; Associate Director of the AIDS Foundation of Chicago; and President and CEO of Community Response, Inc, a community-based AIDS service organization in Chicago.
Dr. Kuehnert was recognized as Distinguished Alumnus of the University of Illinois-Chicago, College of Nursing in 2018. He is a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing (2015.) He holds the Doctor of Nursing Practice and the Master of Science degrees, both from University of Illinois-Chicago, as well as the Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Webster University in St. Louis.
