The Obama Foundation Leaders USA program has tapped Dr. Frederick L. Echols, a former St. Louis Health Director, as one of its 2023 “Inaugural Cohort” members.
Echols will participate in a six-month leadership development program in which “new leaders will accelerate positive and lasting change in their communities with a focus on strengthening institutions across sectors toward a more inclusive, participatory democracy,” according to an Obama Foundation release.
Echols, who said he has deep admiration for President Obama’s “lasting legacy” and his foundational work, is proud to have been selected as a foundation leader.
“Being part of the Obama Foundation’s inaugural USA Leaders cohort is an immense privilege, and I am determined to serve as a positive role model for young people globally, especially those from marginalized communities,” Echols said.
“My focus is on encouraging and inspiring emerging leaders who embody the values of a just democracy and work towards realizing their full potential.”
According to the Obama Foundation website, the leadership program “focuses on emerging leaders (24-45 years old) who aim to drive systems-level change across sectors and issues and have at least three years of demonstrated impact.”
Echols will join other cohorts representing 37 states and five tribal nations. The program includes “values-driven leadership curriculum;”action labs focused on “strengthening democratic institutions and culture in the U.S.;” courses on “fostering constructive dialogue in a polarized environment;” and “one-on-one support to help tackle some of the most pressing issues of our time.”
Participants “will be inspired, empowered and connected with emerging leaders and powerful experts across the country, including President Obama.”
Echols served as chief of communicable diseases for the Illinois Department of Public Health and as a physician in the U.S. Navy before he joined the St. Louis County Department of Health Communicable Disease director.
In 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the St. Louis region and much of America, Echols’ name became known in most area homes.
In March 2020, the health department announced that a female patient in her 30s was the city’s first death related to COVID-19.
It was a chaotic time. Echols, who was appointed by former Mayor Lyda Krewson, was the first medical doctor to serve as director of the city’s department of health since 2007. The advisory Joint Boards of Health and Hospitals lauded Echols’ work.
“We’ve watched Dr. Echols since his announcement as director and over the past year, particularly in terms of his oversight of the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve seen nothing but professionalism, competence and commitment to the health of St. Louisans,” said Dr. Will Ross, then chair of the Joint Boards of Health and Hospitals.
Lawyers suing the city over its COVID-related mandates argued that Echols was no longer a licensed physician and lacked qualifications to hold the position.
Echols’ title was then changed to “acting” health director. In September 2021, Mayor Tishaura O. Jones appointed Dr. Mati Hlatshwayo Davis as the city’s new health director.
In 2022, Echols was named CEO of Cure Violence Global, an anti-crime program. He says the experience as the city’s health director prepared him for the new role.
“The challenge was that programs, including Cure Violence, treated violence as a stand-alone issue. What I was able to do in the city during COVID was to highlight the fact that all the health issues are connected,” Echols explained.
“We had to look at the root causes and what we saw, particularly in St. Louis, was poverty, disenfranchisement and the lack of access to resources.”
The goal at Cure Violence, Echols said, was to “gather the right partners, provide the right training and replicate that model across the United States and even in other parts of the world so people can have a fair chance of achieving their optimal health level and maintaining that over the course of their life span.”
He left Cure Violence Global earlier this year to found Population Healthand Social Justice Consulting, LLC, and he serves as CEO. The nonprofit, Echols said, was created “to provide strategic direction and leadership to advance and facilitate system-level change necessary to improve health outcomes.”
Echols said his work with Cure Violence attracted the attention of the Obama Foundation Leaders program. He was named a cohort and is the lone representative from Missouri.
