MANCHESTER – The Maine Medical Association bestowed its highest award recognition recently upon the state’s public health director, Dr. Dora Anne Mills. The award, “The President’s Award for Distinguished Service,” was presented at the association’s 153rd annual meeting on Sept. 9.

Mills is a native of Farmington and a graduate of Bowdoin College, the University of Vermont College of Medicine, Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles internship and residency program, and the Harvard School of Public Health.

She practiced pediatrics in Tanzania, East Africa; Los Angeles and Farmington prior to assuming her position in 1996 as director of the Maine Bureau of Health and as Maine’s chief health officer.

She was the recipient of the Maine Public Health Association’s Presidents’ Award in 2005 for her leadership in public health.