Shawn D. Crabtree
Executive Director
Phone (606) 678-4761
Shawn Crabtree is the Director of the 10-county Lake Cumberland District Health Department (LCDHD) where he is responsible for the executive oversight and management of the public health district, which employs approximately 160 full-time professional and support staff. The LCDHD service array includes preventive health care (e.g., Well Child Clinics), early intervention and treatment clinics (e.g., STD and TB), environmental services (e.g., restaurant, swimming pool, and hotel inspection), health education services (e.g., drug prevention and postponing sexual involvement education within the local schools), as well as many other vital services (e.g., home visitation to first-time high-risk parents [HANDS Program], The Ryan White support program for HIV positive individuals, and Jail Education and other support programs for those having committed drug-related offenses). The LCDHD runs on an approximate $15 million dollar annual budget and reports to ten Local Boards of Health, a governing District Board of Health, and, indirectly, to the Kentucky Department for Public Health.
Mr. Crabtree has previously been a Quality Improvement Executive, Site Supervisor for Pulaski and McCreary Counties, and Youth Services Coordinator for Wayne County, among other positions within the Community Mental Health system. He has also taught undergraduate social work classes at the University of Kentucky, Somerset Community College. He holds a master’s degree in Public Administration from Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, as well as a master’s degree in Clinical Social Work from the University of Louisville, Kent School of Social Work, having achieved a perfect 4.0 GPA in both programs. He graduated summa cum laude from Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green with majors in both Social Work and Psychology and is a member of the honor society Phi Kappa Phi.
In early 2007 he completed a term as the President of the Kentucky Public Health Association, the culmination of being elected to a four-year term in which his role evolved from Vice-President to President-elect to President and finally into that of Immediate Past-president. Mr. Crabtree has also Chaired several Kentucky Public Health Association Committees, including Student Chapters, Legislative, and the (Annual Conference) Program Committees.
Mr. Crabtree has served on and/or Chaired several Kentucky Health Department Association Committees, including Executive, Regulation Review, HANDS, Pharmacy, Legislative, Marketing, and Budget Committees.
Mr. Crabtree presently serves on the Colon Cancer Advisory Committee, a statewide committee established by statute. From 2019-2020, he served as Vice-chair of said committee. He has also served as a Governor appointee on the K-CHIP Advisory Committee.
Mr. Crabtree graduated from the Kentucky Public Health Leadership Institute (KPHLI) in 2003. In 2004, he became a KPLHI Mentor and still serves in that capacity today — being the longest-serving KPHLI Mentor, having mentored, as of 2020, eleven different classes and 54 scholars.
Mr. Crabtree enjoys developing leaders. He has not only been a mentor at KPHLI, but has also provided the Leadership Education and Assistance Program (LEAP) for over 65 LCDHD employees, has served as a Field Instructor/Preceptor for dozens of university students, and has been a guest speaker to numerous leadership related events such as career days, chambers of commerce meetings and various other community programs/projects.
Utilizing several sources for inspiration, Mr. Crabtree wrote the Leadership Education Action Program (LEAP) curriculum, which he teaches all new LCDHD supervisors. The LEAP program consists of three sessions focused on: 1) preventing problems by developing leadership vision and creating meaningful relationships with employees, co-workers, and supervisor, 2) ruling out various causes of performance issues; and using coaching and feedback instead of disciplinary action, and 3) how to discipline effectively when all other options have been exhausted.