SLHI is pleased to announce the selection of Fred Karnas, currently Senior Advisor to the Secretary at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), as its next President and CEO. Karnas’s selection is the culmination of a planned transition process for founding CEO Roger Hughes, who will retire at the end of 2011.

“I’m humbled to be invited to be part of SLHI’s rich tradition of quality research, policy interpretation and community work,” Karnas said. “I look forward to returning to Arizona and contributing to SLHI’s efforts to build healthy communities.”

Karnas, whose distinguished career spans local nonprofit leadership to numerous state and federal government positions, will begin work at SLHI on November 7. It will be a new era, and all of us at SLHI look forward to Fred’s leadership.