On Feb. 11, 2002, three leading national health organizations announced they had committed $15 million to establish the Tobacco Technical Assistance Consortium (TTAC) in the Rollins School of Public Health.

Funded by the American Cancer Society, the American Legacy Foundation and The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the consortium helped states and communities develop and run effective programs to prevent and reduce tobacco use in the ongoing battle against smoking-related disease and death.

Dearell Niemeyer, executive director of TTAC, said the new consortium is designed to train persons who are responsible for tobacco control programs at the state and local level. The majority of TTAC’s funding was used to provide hands-on services to assist communities in reaching their goals for reducing the harm that tobacco use causes to their citizens.