Dorothy Holland Mann, a native of Annandale, Virginia, was the first woman and first African American to head Region X of the United States Public Health Service (which includes Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Alaska) when she was appointed to the position in 1979 by Dr. Julius Richmond, the Assistant Secretary of Health, Department of Health and Human Services. She held that post until 1993. During her tenure, Region X led the nation on a number of public health initiatives, including research on Chlamydia diagnosis and treatment, improvement of national Pap Smear guidelines and research on Southeast Asian women immigrants health care needs and migrant health services. She established the first Office on Women’s Health in a federal regional office in the United States. She was also the lead federal official in the Region for the Surgeon General’s C. Everett Koop’s interpersonal violence prevention initiative.
Dr. Mann, who received a PhD. in 1993 from the Union Institute in Cincinnati, co-chaired Seattle Mayor Norm Rice’s Violence Prevention Project, publishing two documents, Building Blocks for Peace: Violence Prevention For You and Your Community (1995) and Building Blocks for Peace: A Demonstration in Community Partnership. (1995). While on the faculty at the University of Washington Institute for Public Policy and Management (now the Evans School of Public Affairs) she conducted the first study for the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) on the incidence and prevalence of violence in the workplace. The study results were used by the Department to determine the need to offer assistance to employers in development of violence prevention policies and procedures.
Dr. Mann has contributed to the community through her service as a four term Chair of the Board of Trustees of Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound (1987 to 1998). In addition she served on the Board of Directors of the Kaiser Permanente Hospital and Health Plan from 1997 to 2003. She has served as an independent member of the Board of Directors of Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle since 2006. Dr Mann is also an adjunct professor in the University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine.
Dr. Mann currently consults by referral with women in professional transition and on nonprofit governance structures, roles and responsibilities.
In addition to her work in her expert area of health services administration and policy, Dr. Mann is a community and arts activist. She was a founding member of the Washington Women’s Foundation, a member and past Chair of the Seattle Arts Commission, and member and past chair of the Seattle Art Museum’s Development Authority Council. On the national level she is a member of the Board of Directors of the HSC Foundation, an organization dedicated to providing services to children and families with special needs. Dr. Mann has served on the boards of eight other local, state, and national non-profit organizations.
At the end of 2009 she published her memoir, Guide My Feet. In January 2012 she received the 2012 Distinguished Service Award from the University of Washington Health Sciences Center and the University of Washington Medical Center in tribute to Martin Luther King Jr.
Dorothy Holland Mann served on the BlackPast.org Board from 2011 to 2012.