Jamie Bourque will lead the office in establishing a State-wide, data driven approach to prevention and response work
AUGUSTA-- Maine's Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Commissioner Sara Gagné-Holmes today announced that Jamie Bourque has been appointed to lead the new Office of Injury and Violence Prevention within The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Maine CDC). The Office of Injury and Violence Prevention (OVP) was created by legislation passed in the 131st Legislature and signed into law by Governor Mills in April 2024. Bourque steps into the role of Director effective today.
The Office of Injury and Violence Prevention will coordinate and promote efforts to reduce violence, including establishing a central hub that consolidates separate data sources about violence-related injuries and deaths, which currently exist in police reports, medical examiner files, and emergency department files. The OVP will strengthen work across the State to assess risk and bolster public health efforts including through the creation, coordination, and collaboration of injury and violence prevention work through adult and youth suicide awareness campaigns, connecting individuals to resources, fostering community connectedness, and sharing risk reduction best practices.
With over two decades of local and state experience in the field of public health in Maine, Bourque brings with her deep understanding of applied public health. She joined the Maine CDC in 2006 focusing on infectious disease prevention and has held positions as an educator, epidemiologist, and Maine CDC program manager. For the last five years, Bourque led the Maine CDC's Division of Disease Prevention, where she successfully led the agency's work focused on prevention and response to chronic diseases, including injury and suicide prevention, as well as developing culturally competent services, and growing the Maine CDC's public health workforce.
"Jamie is an experienced leader whose focus on injury and violence prevention work, awareness, and messaging, as well as her public health background, policy experience, and Maine roots will serve her well as the first director of the new Office of Injury and Violence Prevention" said Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner Sara Gagné-Holmes. "With this new office, injury and violence prevention work will now have its own focus within the Maine CDC, helping us better track the data and advance data driven violence prevention work across Maine."
"I'm honored that Commissioner Gagné-Holmes has entrusted me to lead the Office of Injury and Violence Prevention for DHHS," said OVP Director Jamie Bourque. "The establishment of this office and the work we will undertake will provide Maine with the ability to share data-driven prevention programming to keep Maine people and families healthier and safer."
Bourque begins the work of establishing the OVP and her team, working with the Governor and Commissioner's office to set the priorities and planning of the new OVP, and initiating partner engagement. The Office of Injury and Violence Prevention will include a focus on education and awareness of mental health and substance use disorder resources available in Maine, suicide prevention services, safe storage best practices, and laws related to injury and violence prevention.