Cabinet for Health and Family Services announces two appointments

Includes commissioner of the Department for Public Health

FRANKFORT, Ky. (June 30, 2016) — Health and Family Services Cabinet Secretary Vickie Yates Brown Glisson today announced the appointment of two top officials in the agency, effective Friday. Dr. Hiram Polk, a prominent Louisville surgeon, has been appointed commissioner of the Department for Public Health and Robert S. Silverthorn, Jr., an attorney and retired U.S. Army Major General, has been appointed Inspector General.

A renowned surgeon, Polk is a native of Jackson, Miss., a graduate of Harvard Medical School and served as the Ben A. Reid Professor and Chairman of Surgery at the University of Louisville from 1971 to 2005. He received his surgical training at Washington University in St. Louis and was a fellow at the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine in London as well as the Pasteur Institute in Paris, France.

While Chairman at Louisville, Polk trained more than 330 surgical residents, all of whom hold board certification in general surgery. Many of the surgical residents have become academic surgery chairmen at medical schools in the United States.

Polk also serves as a Steward of The Jockey Club and is a director of the Grayson Research Foundation and the Biomedical Research Foundation in Washington, D.C.

A native of Oklahoma City, Silverthorn is a graduate of Dickinson College in Carlisle, Penn. and the University of Louisville Brandeis Law School. In addition to his successful military career, which included service in Vietnam, he has been engaged in the private practice of law, representing clients in complex litigation, in both state and federal court, and served as the Chair of the Kentucky Bar Association Civil Litigation Committee.

He has served on the boards of a number of local and national nonprofit organizations, and has considerable experience in the leadership of large and diverse organizations. He resides in Louisville with his family.