John J. Lanza, MD, PhD, MPH, BSEE, MS, FAAP, FHPS is currently a full-time practicing, board-certified Pediatrician for Community Health Northwest Fl which is the Federally Qualified Health Center in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties in Florida.
Most recently, Dr. Lanza retired as the Director and Health Officer of the Florida Department of Health in Escambia County where he served in that role from May 1996 until August 2020. Previously, Dr. Lanza worked as a pediatric emergency department physician in Lakeland, FL and was in private pediatric practice in Longwood, Fl.
Dr. Lanza received his Bachelor of Science in Bio-Medical Electrical Engineering from the University of Florida in 1975. He then received a Master of Science in Health Physics (1976) and a Doctor of Philosophy (1979) degree in Radiological & Nuclear Engineering/Medical Radiation Physics, also from the University of Florida. Dr. Lanza worked as a radiation physicist/nuclear engineer for the U.S. Navy’s Nuclear Weapons Radiological Controls Program in the Washington D.C. area for three years. Subsequently, Dr. Lanza attended and graduated from the UTESA School of Medicine and then completed a three-year pediatric residency at Sacred Heart Children’s Hospital, Pensacola, FL in 1988.
Dr. Lanza is a board-certified pediatrician, a fellow of the America Academy of Pediatrics, a past president of the Escambia County Medical Society (2004), a longtime member of the Florida Medical Association (FMA), where he was the chair of the FMA’s Council on Public Health for eight years. He is a founding board member of the Florida Institute for Health Innovation. In addition, he is a former board member and a Fellow of the national Health Physics Society (HPS) where he founded the HPS Homeland Security Section. He was also the 2017-19 Secretary of the Florida Chapter of the Health Physics Society.
In 2002, Dr. Lanza completed a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree from the University Of South Florida College Of Public Health. Currently, he is on the faculty of the MPH program at the University of West Florida’s (UWF) Department of Public Health in the College of Health as well as holding faculty positions at UWF’s Department of Movement Sciences and Health and the Center for Environmental Diagnostics and Bio-remediation. He is also a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Clinical Sciences at the Florida State University College of Medicine (FSUCOM).
Dr. Lanza has numerous publications in the fields of health physics, environmental health, and public health preparedness. Most recently, he co-authored the National Council on Radiation Protection & Measurements Report 165, “Responding to a Radiological or Nuclear Terrorism Incident: A Guide for Decision Makers.” As a practicing public health pediatrician, he is interested in promoting a culture emphasizing healthy lifestyles so that our children and adolescents will develop into productive and physically and behaviorally fit adults. He previously authored an article in a special edition of the Florida Medical Association Journal “Healthiest Weight: A Life Course Approach” on overweight and obesity in adolescents and another article on “Radiological Incidents and the Florida Physician” .
For fun, Dr. Lanza enjoys cruises, Disney World and home renovation!
