Dr. Anthony Iton was named the senior vice president for health communities at The California Endowment in August 2009. Iton oversees the endowment's 10-year, Building Healthy Communities California Living 2.0 initiative. Prior to joining the endowment, Iton served as director of and health officer for the Alameda County Department of Public Health. He had a state-mandated responsibility to protect the county's health and had authority over all medical care and public health for the county. Previously, Iton was director of health and social services for the city of Stamford, Conn. Iton received his medical degree at Johns Hopkins Medical School and subsequently trained in internal medicine and preventive medicine at New York Hospital, Yale and UC Berkeley. He is board-certified in both specialties. Iton also holds a law degree and a master's in public health from UC Berkeley, and is a member of the California Bar. Iton has worked as an HIV disability rights attorney, a health care policy analyst, and a physician and advocate for homeless in San Francisco. His experience practicing both medicine and law independently has enabled him to blend both disciplines in the day-to-day practice of public health and in responding to recent public health emergencies, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and anthrax. In Connecticut, he developed the local protocol for prophylaxing postal employees after exposure to anthrax spores at a postal distribution center and taught a course on the local public health response to bioterrorism at the University of Connecticut. Iton's primary interest is the health of disadvantaged populations and the contributions of race, class, wealth, education, geography and employment to health status.