The Blake Cady Award for Leadership in Tobacco Control is Tobacco Free Mass’ highest honor. It is given annually to an individual who has contributed greatly to the tobacco control movement in Massachusetts. Our honorees have dedication, passion, and a willingness to find a way to make the impossible possible–qualities that enabled Dr. Blake Cady to revolutionize tobacco control in Massachusetts.
Dr. Blake Cady was the driving force behind 1992’s Question One, the initiative petition that allowed voters to pass a 25-cent tobacco tax and start the Commonwealth’s tobacco control program. Through persuasion, tenacity, and a genuine passion about the issue, he marshaled major health organizations and an army of volunteers to come together to get the issue on the ballot and ensure its passage. That group stayed together and evolved into Tobacco Free Mass.
Past Blake Cady Award Winners:
2019 — Carly Caminiti
2018 — Reverend Dr. Bill Loesch (posthumous)
2017 — Ray Considine
2016 — Alan Woodward
2015 — Steven Shestakofsky
2014 — DJ Wilson and Cheryl Sbarra
2013 — Inauguration of the award; Dr. Blake Cady
*** We will announce the 2020 Blake Cady Award winner at our 2020 Policy Forum on September 30! Nominations will be accepted through September 11, 2020.