Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) has given the Ralph W. Hingson Research in Practice National President’s Award to a team of scientists, among them Crawford High alumnus ('61) and SDSU Emeritus Professor of Public Health, Dr. David Sleet from the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Sleet retired from SDSU in 1997 after 26 years at SDSU to become the Associate Director for Science at the CDC Injury Center. His is credited as one of the founders of the Graduate School of Public Health at SDSU. The award recognizes outstanding research contributing to the goals of MADD to reduce the impact and incidence of drunk driving. The work honored was part of the systematic reviews conducted for the CDC Guide to Community Preventive Services, published in 2005 for which Sleet was a Senior Advisor. The team's work included published studies on the effectiveness of alcohol checkpoints and other strategies to reduce alcohol impaired driving. Their research on the effectiveness of reducing the legal Blood Alcohol Limit to 0.08 g/dL led to Federal legislation designating 0.08 as the new national standard. Sleet received the SDSU Monty Award (Distinguished Alumni of the Year) from the College of Sciences in 2000, an honor that led to a Congressional Citation of Special Recognition from the U.S. House of Representatives for career contributions in public health.
Glynn Birch, National President of MADD presented the award to David Sleet, Ph.D., Ruth Shults, PhD, MPH, and Randy Elder, PhD, at MADD’s annual conference in Anaheim, California on September 9, 2006.
David lives in Berkeley Lake, Georgia but frequently returns to San Diego and La Jolla to visit friends and family.