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Amber Hardy Thornton is Executive Vice President for Program Development for the American Legacy Foundation. She joined Legacy in March, 2000 as Director and then later assumed the role of Vice President for Technical Assistance and Training. Ms. Hardy Thornton is a seasoned public health administrator and educator, with over 25 years of experience working with various health professionals, researchers, clinicians, community-based organizations, and consumer groups.
Ms. Hardy Thornton provides oversight and direction for the Foundation’s multi-million dollar grants portfolio, prevention and cessation programs, priority population initiatives, technical assistance and training, and youth activism programs. In this capacity, Ms. Thornton is responsible for directing a diverse range of programmatic initiatives, including tobacco cessation interventions such as Great Start, and the programmatic aspects of Legacy’s new Become an EX National Campaign. These programs support Legacy’s mission by ensuring for comprehensive cessation and/prevention knowledge and skill capacity building amongst Foundation grantees, state and local health department partners and other external tobacco control community stakeholders. In 2006, she was appointed Board Chairperson of the North American Quitline Consortium.
Prior to joining Legacy, she served as Prospect Associates Ltd. Vice President of Public and Community Health Promotion and also as Director of the Coordinating Center for the National Cancer Institute’s American Stop Smoking Intervention Study (ASSIST) project. Over the course of her career she has provided technical assistance and training and managerial direction on a diverse range of public health and social justice issues including women’s health, cardiovascular risk factors, multicultural competency, reproductive health, tobacco prevention and advocacy, youth/young adult health promotion, and HIV/AIDS.
Earlier she served as Director of Education and Research for the American College Health Association, and worked early in her professional career for the American Heart Association, where she developed and managed a wide range of research administration, consumer health promotion, and professional education programs.
Ms. Hardy Thornton received her masters in public health degree in community health education from San Jose State University, and her undergraduate degree in human development at California State University, Hayward. She is a chartered certified health education specialist as designated by The National Commission for Health Education Credentialing, Inc | 