FARMINGTON # A native Mainer who has been the director of several major public health initiatives for a large, rural area of Alaska is returning to her home state to become executive director of the Healthy Community Coalition, a program of the Franklin Community Health Network and Franklin Memorial Hospital.

For the past 10 years, Heather Davis, a graduate of Cony High School, has led programs on tobacco prevention, cardiovascular disease prevention, and HIV/AIDs case management. Her responsibilities have been with program development, management and evaluation; policy advocacy; collaboration and building community connections.

Davis received her master's degree from Boston University in public health with a concentration in health policy and management, and a bachelor's degree from the University of Southern Maine in social work.

The Healthy Community Coalition is one of Maine's first healthy community coalitions and has developed into a role model program throughout Maine and nationally.