USF names Deanne Miranda Cornette the 2018 Florida Outstanding Woman in Public Health
On April 4, Deanne Miranda Cornette, MHA, GPC, joined a group of professionals as the 2018 Florida Outstanding Woman in Public Health in a ceremony at the USF College of Public Health.
Deanne Miranda Cornette, MHA, GPC (Photo courtesy of ACTS).
Initiated by USF in 1988, nominations are solicited from public health practitioners across the state. The COPH bestows the award each year to a woman whose career accomplishments and leadership contribute significantly to the field of public health in Florida.
“This year’s awardee stood out among an incredible group of public health leaders,” Dean Donna Petersen said. “Her nominators called her a change agent, a developer of systems, an unsung hero, and someone who behind the scenes has amassed and made accessible resources for a variety of communities at risk.”
An alumna of the University of South Florida, Miranda Cornette currently serves as counsel for strategic development at the Agency for Community Treatment Services, Inc. (ACTS), a Tampa-based nonprofit agency providing individualized behavioral health services in substance abuse and mental health.
Over her 20-year career, she has provided, managed and developed best practice programs with the aim of improving whole person health and well-being. She continues to promote coordination and integration of health care, behavioral health care and social support services with a patient-centered approach.
“We can’t even begin to address the behavioral health care needs of individuals if we don’t address the whole person. That’s critical to the mission of public health,” Miranda Cornette said. “It’s up to us to recognize the social determinants within population health that can increase our outcomes, lower our costs and reduce the risk of social inequalities in our community. I made that challenge mine and will continue to look to the needs of the community and meet those needs in a way that makes a difference.”
Dean Donna Petersen and Deanne Miranda Cornette (Photo by Torie Doll).
At ACTS, Miranda Cornette targets funding sources and has built a lucrative and diverse revenue stream that provides needed and innovative services to vulnerable populations. Some of her most successful projects created services for veterans, women, children, youth, families and those who are high-risk, high-need utilizers of costly community-based services. She also serves as program chair for the National Contract Management Association Suncoast Chapter.
Miranda Cornette has additionally submitted successful grants that netted more than $80 million for her nonprofit clients. She developed and led oversight of a housing and urban development continuum of care process for Hillsborough, Manatee and Sarasota counties. That 10-year initiative helped more than 50 homeless service providers receive more than $10 million in emergency, transitional and permanent supportive housing grants per year. These were the first programs in the counties offering evidence-based “housing first” services. Most recently, she worked with partner agencies to develop Hillsborough’s centralized receiving facility, one the first funded and a model facility in Florida.
Deanne Miranda Cornette during the National Public Health Week Awards Ceremony (Photo by Torie Doll).
“I have been a resident of Tampa for 27 years and a professional in the behavioral health care industry for nearly 40 years. In that time, I have not worked with any other individual who has been such a constant, valuable contributor to the development of expanded and improved public services,” Gracepoint CEO Joe Rutherford said.
Story by Caitlin Keough, USF College of Public Health