April 12 Declared Harold Cox Day.

April 12 is now Harold Cox Day in the City of Boston.

Cox, associate dean for public health practice, director of the Activist Lab, and associate professor of community health sciences, was honored by Mayor Marty Walsh with the declaration of a holiday recognizing his contributions to public health in Greater Boston.

The declaration comes as Cox concludes his tenure as a board member of the Boston Public Health Commission.

“Harold Cox’s advocacy has kept Boston at the leading edge of emerging local policy approaches to addressing a broad range of public health issues,” the proclamation says, “including health equity, disease surveillance, medical marijuana, nail salons, trans fats, and drinking water wells; often creating precedent that catalyzed policy change in other jurisdictions, as well as the state and the federal government.”

Cox has been a member of Boston’s Board of Health since 2007. He is an appointee to the Massachusetts Public Health Council, a member of the Special Commission on Local and Regional Public Health for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and a member of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Cross Jurisdictional Sharing Advisory Committee.

He is the past chief public health officer for the City of Cambridge, past president of the Massachusetts Public Health Association, past president of the Multicultural AIDS Coalition, and past chair of the Boston AIDS Planning Council.

The mayor’s proclamation also cites his strong support of tobacco control regulations that have made “Boston a national leader in preventing youth tobacco use and exposure,” and his service at SPH.

“Dean Harold Cox has long been a leader in public health practice,” says Dean Sandro Galea. “His commitment to creating healthy populations is unparalleled. We are honored to have Dean Cox leading our Activist Lab and celebrate Harold Cox day with him!”

Happy Harold Cox Day.

—Michelle Samuels