Noble A-W Maseru, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Director and Health Officer
City of Detroit Department of Health and Wellness Promotion
Noble A-W Maseru, Ph.D., M.P.H., was the director and health officer for the City of Detroit. He joined Mayer Kwame Kilpatrick's administration in February 2003. Dr. Maseru has a career that spans 28 years in the areas of human services, academia and public health.
Dr. Maseru holds a bachelor of science degree from Wayne State University, a master of public health from the Emory University School of Medicine and a doctorate in health policy from Atlanta University. He earned a fellowship from the Accrediting Commission on Health Education for Health Services Administration in Washington, D.C., and served in the Site Visitor Training Program of the Council on Education for Public Health.
Dr. Maseru managed the day-to-day operations of the Department of Health and Wellness Promotion, leading more than 1,400 employees in 12 divisions. The department's annual budget is over $101 million. As director and health officer he led the Kilpatrick administration's efforts toward health promotion, disease prevention and eliminating inequities in health and development.
Before coming to the City of Detroit, Dr. Maseru most recently served as a consultant with USAID Africa Division, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, the faculty at Clark Atlanta University School or Social Work and as an academic and public health policy scientist with the Public Health Sciences Institute at Morehouse College. While at Morehouse, he led the effort to develop and implement public health programs at historically black colleges and universities establishing the Academy of African American Academics Public Health Programs. No stranger to Detroit, he served from 1998-2000 as the Vice President of the Division of Community Health with the Greater Detroit Area Health Council, southeast Michigan's leading coalition of business, labor, health care providers, consumers and government. At that position, he led efforts to identify community-based health needs and design appropriate intervention strategies.
Most recent board and faculty appointments were at Wayne State University, St. Georges University, Grenada West Indies, Detroit Receiving Hospital and the Detroit Brownfield Redevelopment.
In 1994, Dr. Maseru was the founding director of the master of public health program at Morehouse School of Medicine. It became the first accredited master of public health program at a historically black college or university.
From 1990-1994, Dr. Maseru served as the coordinator of school health services for Atlanta Public Schools. While there, he led efforts to provide preventive health services to more than 61,000 students, expanding the scope of services from one school-based clinic to 93 clinics within two years. Dr. Maseru secured Medicaid provider certification from the federal government in order to offer early periodic screening, diagnosis and treatment services in the schools, making Atlanta the first school system in Georgia to do so.
From 1986-1988, Dr. Maseru served as state director of primary health care in the Georgia Department of Human Resources. While serving in the cabinet-level position, he led his agency in the development and delivery of care initiatives to the homeless and indigent, expanded services to medically under-served regions and populations and served on the AIDS policy review team. Earlier, Dr. Maseru was assistant to the director, Family Health Section of the Georgia Department of Human Resources, Division of Public Health. During his tenure in that position, he simultaneously served as the director of the Women, Infants and Children Supplemental Food and Nutrition Program (WIC). The program was distinguished for the best administrative and service delivery performance in the Southeast by the U.S. Department of Agriculture
