Sue Holtby
Former Program Director, Public Health Institute
Sue Holtby worked in public health for more than 35 years, retiring from the Public Health Institute (PHI) in 2017 after 28 years.
In 1999–2000, Holtby oversaw a planning grant to inform content for the first California Health Interview Survey (CHIS), working with Rick Brown, Ninez Ponce, and other Center staff, and with the California Department of Public Health.
From its inception, CHIS has been a collaborative effort of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, the California Department of Public Health, and PHI. Holtby worked on CHIS for more than 18 years, helping develop questionnaires, overseeing translation and English simplification reviews, analyzing data, and writing up findings.
Prior to joining PHI, Holtby worked at RAND and at the UCLA School of Public Health. Her areas of focus were survey research in California, perinatal health, and family planning access in Africa and India. She worked on the California Pregnancy-Associated Mortality Review, an ongoing clinical review of every death in California that occurs during pregnancy or within one year after pregnancy.
Holtby's international work was conducted through grants and contracts from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and focused on local Packard-funded NGO efforts in Ethiopia, Nigeria, and India. These projects sought to decrease female child marriage, provide safe and effective contraception, reduce harmful practices such as female circumcision, and expand access to education for girls and cottage industries for women.=