Dileep G. Bal

Dileep G. Bal
M.D., M.S., M.P.H.
District Health Officer for the Island of Kauai
In office
2005–2016
Director of the California Cancer Control Branch and Tobacco Control Section
In office
1981–2005
President of the American Cancer Society
In office
2001
Director of the Pima County Health Department
In office
1977–1981
Deputy director of the Pima County Health Department
In office
1976
Personal details
Bornc. 1945
Madras City, India
Education
Known forCalifornia Tobacco Control Program

Dileep G. Bal (born c. 1945) is an Indian-American physician, epidemiologist, and public health administrator. He is also a faculty member of the John A. Burns School of Medicine of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and previously of the University of California School of Medicine at Davis and the University of Arizona College of Medicine. As a public servant, health advocate and academic researcher, his areas of focus include tobacco control, cancer and obesity prevention, and remedying socio-economic disparities in health care.

Bal's career as a public servant spans 46 years[1] but he is best known for initiating and overseeing a two-decades-long anti-tobacco campaign beginning in 1989 while serving as director of California's Cancer Control Branch and Tobacco Control Section, subdivisions of the Department of Health Services.[2] Previously, he held the position of Pima County Health Director in Tucson, Arizona. He has also served as a president of the American Cancer Society's (ACS) local unit, a state division, and later served a term as president of the nationwide ACS organization in 2001.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference :5 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Glantz, Stanton A.; Balbach, Edith D. (May 10, 2000). Tobacco War: Inside the California Battles. University of California Press. pp. 5. ISBN 978-0-520-22286-1. [Bal] provided the vision and bureaucratic savvy that helped California develop the most aggressive tobacco control program in the nation.