Spring/Summer 2006 - Climbing Towards Health Equity - Public Health

SPRING/SUMMER 2006

University of California, Berkeley

Public Health THE MAGAZINE FOR ALUMNI AND FRIENDS

Climbing

Toward Health Equality p. 7

Is American Culture to Blame for Poor Health?

p. 18

In Action: Students Reducing Disparities

From the Dean

A Monumental Challenge It is widely recognized that disparities in health and health care exist by ethnicity, race, and socioeconomic status.

In California, the infant mortality rate for African Americans is more than twice that of whites; Asian Americans/ Pacific Islanders have the highest rate of liver cancer among all the populations; and African Americans living in Los Angeles County have a 78 percent higher death rate from heart disease than that of the overall population (The California Endowment, Unequal Treatment, Unequal Health, 2003). Nationally, Hispanic Americans are almost twice as likely as non-Hispanic whites to die from diabetes (Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1999). Marked differences in treatment practices also exist by ethnicity and race. For example, minorities are more likely than non-minorities to have inadequate pain management. As summarized by Dr. Harvey Fineberg, president of the Institute of Medicine, “Racial and ethnic minorities in the United States face higher rates of illness, greater amounts of disability, higher mortality rates, and shorter life spans than the white majority.

These groups have poorer access to health care providers, are more likely to be uninsured or underinsured, and are more likely than whites to face cultural and linguistic barriers in attempting to access health care” (Remarks at symposium, “Equal Treatment—One Year Later,” March 19, 2003).

Addressing these inequalities is a complex challenge that will require deep understanding of the relationships among biology; culture; education; housing; poverty; neighborhoods; social networks; personal behaviors; lack of access to health insurance coverage, health professionals, and health care facilities; language barriers; and discrimination, among others. Relatively little is known about how these factors interact to “produce” health. This research agenda is being addressed by many of our faculty as highlighted in this issue of the magazine. The knowledge that they produce will inform public policy and assist in designing interventions that, over time, can narrow and eliminate the documented disparities.

Dean Stephen M. Shortell

On the educational front, the School’s interdisciplinary Dr.P.H. program marries academic excellence, professional leadership, and collaborative partnerships with communities to address health disparities. In the past two years the majority of students admitted to this highly competitive program have been from underserved communities (African American, Latino, and Native American). These students and recent graduates have made significant contributions addressing health disparities. In addition, the School’s Joint Medical Program (JMP) with UCSF will be launching a pilot program, Program in Medical Education for The Urban Underserved (PRIME-US) to attract medical students with a strong interest in caring for the urban underserved.

Finally, on the policy front we are working with public and private sector leaders throughout the state in organizing the California Health Strategy Summit to be held this coming mid-January in Los Angeles. The summit will convene public health and health care delivery system leaders to address both the chronic illness health issues and infectious disease preparedness challenges facing the state with particular focus on the challenges faced by vulnerable populations. It will result in a prioritized action plan for ongoing implementation.

A key feature of “The Berkeley Difference” is our commitment to social justice. I believe that one of the most lasting contributions our School can make over the coming decade is to advance our understanding of the root causes of health disparities, and ensure that this understanding is translated into informed, effective action to improve health for all. We hope you will join us in this effort.

Stephen M. Shortell, Ph.D., M.P.H. Dean, School of Public Health Blue Cross of California Distinguished Professor of Health Policy & Management Professor of Organization Behavior

University of California, Berkeley

Public Health Features Beyond the Known: Looking for the Root Causes of Health Disparities

2

by Kelly Mills

Why are there such disparities in the health status of different racial and ethnic groups in the United States? Researchers examine a complex array of factors, such as poverty and racism, to look for clues.

Is American Culture to Blame for Poor Health?

7

by Michael S. Broder

p. 2

Immigrants who come to the United States from poorer countries arrive with good health and then rapidly become less healthy the longer they live here. If we knew the reasons for this phenomenon, we might be able to improve health for all Americans.

Communities’ Attitudes Toward Cancer Screenings Shed Light on Cultural Differences

10

by Michael S. Broder

Understanding cultural differences in the ways people think about cancer-screening procedures can help health educators design culturally appropriate health interventions.

Working Together: Reducing Health Disparities through Community Participation

14

p. 7

by Michael S. Broder

When communities are empowered as full partners in health research and interventions, both the communities and the researchers benefit.

In Action: Students Reducing Disparities

18

by Kelly Mills

Meet three School of Public Health students who have gone into the field to improve the health of communities.

Departments Past, Present, Future

22

Faculty News

28

Partners in Public Health

32

Alumni News In Memoriam

44 51

Dean Stephen M. Shortell, Ph.D., M.P.H. Assistant Dean, External Relations and Development Patricia W. Hosel, M.P.A. Editor Michael S. Broder Associate Editor Kelly Mills Design Archer Design, Inc.

Contributors Michael S. Broder, Kelly Mills, Sarah Yang, and Rick Zurow Photography Gettyimages, cover, pp. 2, 6, &13; Peg Skorpinski, inside front cover, pp. 16, 18–22, 26, 28-30, 31 (Ozer & Solomon); 32–34, 36, 38, 40, 44, 49, 50 (Chien), back cover; istockphoto, p. 7 & 43; jupiterimages, pp. 10 & 15; Steve Josias, p. 23; Michael S. Broder, pp. 24–25; Jim Dennis Photography, p. 31 (Williams); courtesy of Saxon Donnelly/ UC Berkeley, p. 53.

Communications Advisory Board W. Thomas Boyce, Patricia A. Buffler, Margaret Cary, Ralph Catalano, Helen A. Halpin, Meredith Minkler, Linda Neuhauser, Lee Riley, Stephen M. Shortell, Robert Spear, and S. Leonard Syme.

UC Berkeley Public Health is published semiannually by the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health, for alumni and friends of the School.

p. 22

UC Berkeley School of Public Health Office of External Relations and Development 140 Earl Warren Hall #7360 Berkeley, CA 94720-7360 (510) 642-2299 © 2006, Regents of the University of California. Reproduction in whole or part requires written permission.

Public Health

1

Feature

Beyond the Known: Looking for the Root Causes of Health Disparities

By Kelly Mills

racism depression

stress

lack of adequate housing

smoking

poverty poor nutrition poor access to care

Poor people have higher rates of heart disease, diabetes, and a number of other chronic diseases than the wealthy. People from ethnic minority groups have worse health outcomes than whites. If asked why such disparities exist, one might hazard that lack of access to quality health care is the likeliest culprit. One might also point to behavioral risk factors, such as smoking and poor nutrition and suppose these unhealthy behaviors were practiced at higher rates in low-income groups.

2

University of California, Berkeley

Feature

Health care access, quality of care, and behaviors that increase disease risk do play a part in health disparities. But how do we account for the fact that African American women have higher rates of preterm births than whites even after adjusting for income? Or that Latina immigrants from Mexico have better health than whites at the same income —but that this health gain drops precipitously for these immigrants the longer they spend in the United States, and that their children and grandchildren will have health outcomes below that of whites? Or that low-income workers have greater rates of chronic heart disease than people in high-stress, highincome jobs, even after adjusting for risk behaviors such as smoking?

When we talk about higher rates of diseases in certain groups, we are simply looking at the tail end of a complex process of intertwining factors that affect and alter our bodies. Inequities in income, housing, social status, social support, and more result in inequities in health. But while we know that environments have a profound effect on our biological functions, researchers at the School are still attempting to identify and isolate the physical and social factors that spell out a shorter lifespan for some of us, and a longer lifespan for others.

Stress and the Social World

Two kindergarteners race for one ball and reach it at the same time. One child asserts his claim on the ball, and the other child briefly complains, then shuffles quietly away. Can we predict which child will have more health problems based on interactions like this?

In the past 20 years, research has increasingly examined the strong links between factors such as social status and support, the body’s ability to respond to stress, and health problems such as heart disease. In particular,

“People are often suprised that hierarchies exist in kindergarten classes, but they certainly do.” researchers have focused on the neuroendocrine system and a hormone called cortisol. When a person is confronted with a stressful situation, cortisol levels spike, and then return to normal as the stressor is removed. However, when a person is exposed to chronic stress, this hormone takes a toll on a number of systems in the body. Some investigators have tied long-term exposure to stress with a “hypoactive” stress response, when the body maintains an elevated level of cortisol, but ceases to spike when confronted with a stressful situation. Elevated but static cortisol levels effect the functioning of a range of physiological systems and have been connected to inhibited cognitive function, suppressed immune system, high blood pressure, blood sugar imbalances, and more.

W. Thomas Boyce, M.D., professor of community health and human development, is currently investigating if and how children’s positions in a kindergarten class hierarchy influence health outcomes. Investigators with the Peers and Wellness Study have spent three years observing 300 children in kindergarten classes. They observed the children learning, playing, and communicating, and documented the hierarchy of the classroom. The children were ranked on a spectrum of dominant to subordinate based on social interactions.

“People are often surprised,” says Boyce, “that hierarchies exist in kindergarten classes, but they certainly do.”

Once students were ranked, the researchers evaluated the children’s health in a number of areas, from respiratory

function to dental health. Boyce and his team found that children in subordinate positions showed higher rates of stress reactivity, and also seemed to have more instances of injuries, respiratory problems, poor dental health, and pre-syndromal psychopathology than dominant children. At least some of these differences are likely linked to the release of stress hormones such as cortisol.

Examining health outcomes in children provides valuable information for understanding health disparities in communities. “Research over the last twenty years has shown that experiences in childhood and health in childhood are predictors of health in adulthood,” says Boyce. “This means that whatever disparities we are creating with children have implications not just for children’s health, but for the health of adult society as well.”

Boyce is also studying the relationships between language, neurological development, and socioeconomic status. Previous studies have established that children from lower-status households are spoken to less often and with less complexity of vocabulary and grammar at home than children at higher economic levels. Boyce is piloting the Wellness in Kids Study to determine whether these language differences affect brain development. The researchers bring dinner to the home of a participating family, then set up and leave a video camera to unobtrusively record dinnertime conversations. They plan to identify children from the collected footage in order to study development of the prefrontal cortex. This area of the brain is crucial for what are known as executive functions, a complex combination of continued on page 4 Public Health

3

Feature

Beyond the Known..., continued cognitive activities such as the ability to plan and to focus on stimuli.

Race Matters Too

While many health disparity studies have focused on income levels, status and opportunity in our society are influenced by more than how much money one has.

specific areas of discrimination, this tool would capture racism as a pervasive and chronic social stressor. Nuru-Jeter hopes to correlate the focus group responses with pregnancy and birth outcomes.

African American women have the highest rate of preterm birth and low-birthweight babies of any ethnic group.

Amani Nuru-Jeter, Ph.D., M.P.H.,

ciplinary project based out of the Center on Social Disparities and Health at UC San Francisco. This research is part of a growing focus on the effects of racism, stress, and a range of health problems such as diabetes, hypertension, and chronic heart disease.

The Outcomes of Depression

assistant professor in the Divisions of Community Health & Human Development and Epidemiology, wants to better understand the impact of another key social stressor: racism. She has conducted extensive focus groups of African American women in the Bay Area in order to create a diagnostic tool to quantify the experience of racism throughout the lifecourse. Rather than focusing on

“We hope to better understand how exposure to social stressors such as racism impacts health and well-being.

How does racism operate in the lives of these women? Of women like me?

What are the likely avenues for intervention, whether through policies, programs, neighborhood investment, or some other strategy?� asks Nuru-Jeter.

Her focus group research is an interdis-

Research into health disparities has not been limited to the United States. Over 60 percent of impoverished mothers in rural Mexico have the symptoms of depression. This was what Lia Fernald, Ph.D., assistant professor of public health nutrition, found when she surveyed mothers in a sample region, many of whom had the blunted cortisol response typical of chronic stress. The high rates

H e a l t h C o n d i t i o n s b y R a c e / E t h n i c i t y i n C a l i f o r nia, 2003 20%

Overall 18%

White Latino Asian 14%

African American

13%

13%

American Indian / Alaska Native

10%

10% 10% 9%

9% 8% 7%

8%

8%

7%

7%

7% 6%

5%

6%

5%

4% 3% 2%

Heart Disease

Cancer

Asthma

Source: California Health Interview survey, UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, available at www.askchis.com.

4

University of California, Berkeley

Diabetes

Feature

of depression can be attributed, at least in part, to poverty. “Imagine the mom, living on less than two dollars a day, who has to support four kids. She has to figure out if it is more important that she buys shoes, or food, or a school uniform… Since the mothers are doing the day-to-day budgeting, they have a lot of worries and stress,” offers Fernald.

Fernald was also interested in how maternal depression would impact the children’s health and development in these homes. She studied the cortisol levels, heart rate, and blood pressure of both mothers and children. As it turns out, the children had corresponding rates of hypoactive stress response.

The studies were conducted as part of an intervention program in Mexico called Programa de Educación, Salud y Alimentación (PROGRESA). The program, which aims to improve the health of children, gives poor families a cash supplement they can spend any way they like, rather than subsidizing health care or nutritious foods. The only condition for families is that parents must take their children to a health clinic at least four times per year, and they must give children micronutrient supplements if deemed necessary. So far the program has been highly successful in improving children’s health and nutrition, and many other countries are attempting to launch similar programs.

“PROGRESA is based on the hypothesis that low socioeconomic status is connected to health,” says Fernald. “So if we increase income, that ought to improve health.” The good news is that she found children participating in the program returned to a more normal stress response, and that hypoactivity was decreased. This could be due to the effects of improved nutrition on the

Trailblazer As a young physician in the public health program at Berkeley, Sir Michael Marmot, Ph.D. ’75, M.P.H. ’72, admits he was surprised to hear Professor Leonard Syme tell his class that doctors have no special insight on the causes of ill health. Syme’s point— that social factors play as much of a role in the health of populations as biological factors, and therefore an understanding of society is necessary to epidemiology—was a vital lesson for Marmot. After receiving his graduate degrees from the School, he went on to conduct pioneering research into health disparities. Marmot remains at the forefront of the movement to understand the relationship between the social environment and disease.

As principal investigator of the Whitehall II study, an examination of the health of British civil servants, Marmot found that social status was correlated with cardiovascular disease. Those with the lowest social status had the highest rates of disease, while those with the highest status had the lowest rates of disease. This inverse gradient was linked to the amount of control and autonomy a person had at work, so that lower status workers with little control were more likely to develop cardiovascular disease than higher status workers who might have “stressful” jobs but more control. Marmot also studied the health of immigrants and found that duration of time in a new country could be tied to rates of diseases that shift to resemble those typical for natives of the new country. In his research he has produced evidence of biological mechanisms related to increased risk for disease and demonstrated the psychosocial pathways by which these mechanisms are activated.

Marmot is currently the chairman of the World Health Organization Commission on Social Determinants of Health and the director of the University College of London International Institute of Society and Health. In 2000 he was knighted for his services to epidemiology and in understanding health inequalities.

— Kelly Mills

continued on page 6

Public Health

5

Feature

Beyond the Known..., continued development of the neuroendocrine system, or a reduction in maternal depression, or both.

She also points out that since program participants have spending discretion, they are able to make physical improvements to their homes that positively impact health. For example, a dirt floor might be replaced with wood, increasing the cleanliness and hygiene of the home, and reducing exposure to worms and other pests that spread disease.

Hazardous Homes

Researchers with the Center for the Assessment of Mothers and Children in Salinas (CHAMACOS) were also interested in the connections between housing quality and health, and reported dire findings for farmworkers, other lowincome residents, and their families in California’s Salinas Valley. The investigators surveyed 644 homes in the

“People don’t want to build affordable housing for low-income families, but the farmworkers and many other rural workers don’t make enough money to afford housing.” predominantly agricultural area, and found that the majority of the homes had significant disrepair, including peeling paint, mold, and water damage. Many of the homes also had pest infestations, such as cockroaches and rodents. This also led in many cases to increased pesticide use in the home. Poor housing conditions have been linked to an increased risk for injuries and respiratory disease.

Researchers also found that overcrowding was a major issue, with a prevalence about 20 times higher than the national average. Overcrowding increases the spread of infectious diseases.

“Housing quality is a key issue for lowincome residents in rural California,” says Asa Bradman, Ph.D. ’97, associate director of CHAMACOS. Bradman and other investigators at CHAMACOS have been researching how a range of environmental factors, including toxin exposure, impact the health of primarily Hispanic low-income mothers and children. While there has been significant research in the health problems associated with urban housing, this study was one of the few to examine similar problems in a rural area.

“There are social and economic issues here," states Bradman. “People don’t want to build affordable housing for low-income families, but the farmworkers and many other rural workers don’t make enough money to afford housing.” While environmental conditions create acute health hazards for families, the children who live in these conditions can also develop long-term health problems due to toxin exposures. Researchers at CHAMACOS will continue to examine the effects of this impoverished agricultural environment on the development and health of children.

6

University of California, Berkeley

Feature

Is American Culture to Blame for Poor Health?

By Michael S. Broder

It is a great paradox that such a wealthy, developed nation as the United States performs so poorly when it comes to health. Research shows that some who immigrate to the United States from much poorer nations experience a decline in their health that worsens the longer they remain. Is American culture to blame? continued on page 8 Public Health

7

Feature

American Culture..., continued

Trailblazer In discussions with social epidemiologists about health inequities, one name is mentioned repeatedly: Nancy Krieger, Ph.D. ’89. Credited with shaking up public health through her incisive theoretical papers and solid research, Krieger has made the study of social class, race, and health her life’s work for the past 20 years. When much of the study of health had been focused on individuals and single diseases, Krieger exhorted people to examine how the broader social and economic forces play causal roles in health outcomes, and challenged them to join her in taking on the real determinants of health such as historical oppression and social status.

Krieger has been concerned with the measurement and monitoring of social inequalities in health. One of her most notable projects is the Public Health Disparities Geocoding Project, which links census data with health information for communities. The project has demonstrated that neighborhood economic status corresponds with the health of the community, and shows the ties between poverty and negative health outcomes. The project has also helped public health officials identify areas for intervention, and given them a way to measure the impact of economic and health policies.

She is perhaps best known for developing theoretical frameworks for understanding the social forces that determine health. “Epidemiology and the Web of Causation: Has Anyone Seen the Spider?,” an article which appeared in Social Science and Medicine in 1994, is cited reverently by people in the field as a groundbreaking approach to the understanding of societal forces and disease. In the paper she argues that any study of health must examine the historical and social contexts that interact intimately with our biological development and responses. Any attempt to understand the causes of disease that focuses narrowly on a web of risk factors, she asserts, will fail to locate the “spider,” the broader context that impacts health outcomes.

After receiving her Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in 1989, Krieger went on to become an investigator at the Kaiser Foundation Research Institute and joined the faculty at the Harvard School of Public Health in 1995. She currently holds the positions of professor of society, human development, and health, and associate director of the Harvard Center for Society and Health at the Harvard School of Public Health.

— Kelly Mills

8

University of California, Berkeley

“Mexican Americans come to the United States with health as good as whites and Asians— and much better than whites and Asians at equivalent socioeconomic status—and within a few years become much worse,” says adjunct professor of maternal and child health Julia Walsh, M.D., D.T.P.H. “The longer they are here, the more they approximate the health of African Americans, who have the poorest health. We seem to generate health disparities that did not exist previously.”

Rates of preterm births—one way of measuring a population’s health—have been rising steadily for 20 years. “All efforts at improving prenatal care and all efforts at improving childbirth, have not had much effect,” says Walsh. “We see every year a little bit of an increase in the rates of both preterm delivery and low birth weight.” At the same time, says Walsh, infant mortality rates in the United States are higher than in any other developed nation. “We rank down around twenty-eighth in our infant and child mortality. We’re down around Slovenia.

Places like Costa Rica rank higher than we do. And we are so much richer; why are we unable to improve these outcomes?”

The Impact of Acculturation Walsh and Marc B. Schenker, M.D., M.P.H., professor and chair of public health sciences at UC Davis School of Medicine, led a study of 1,200 Latinas at varying levels of acculturation who were receiving prenatal care at San Joaquin General Hospital clinics in Stockton, California. Acculturation is measured by a series of questions based primarily on a person’s language use—whether she primarily speaks Spanish, reads Spanish, writes in Spanish, watches Spanish television, socializes with friends in Spanish, or does all those things in English.

Walsh and Schenker hypothesized that poor birth outcomes in more acculturated Latinas might be due to poor nutrition; smoking; drinking and drug use; urogenital infections; psychosocial factors; occupational exposures; poor

Feature

access to care; and socioeconomic factors.

However, identifying any single factor as the main culprit proved challenging.

“What happens when they come here is that nutrition worsens,” says Walsh. “They change from a traditional diet of beans and greens and rice and corn to one that is fast food, highly processed, low in nutrients, low in some of the micronutrients, and very high in fat—but you’d have to be very vitamin deficient to affect birth outcomes. Then the rates in smoking among the women who first come to the United States from Mexico are practically nonexistent, and they go up about four times, but only to about 14 percent. Alcohol ingestion also increases, and the use of drugs, but again, very slightly. It would not account for this deterioration in birth weight.

“As for environmental exposures, it seems that pesticide exposure decreases the longer you are in the United States, because people tend to move from the farm into service occupations. Reproductive tract infection was the another factor we looked at, and we were also able to document that, unquestionably, rates of sexually transmitted diseases increase, and the age when young women have their first intercourse decreases the more acculturated they are.”

Walsh also looked at stress and social support.

“Pregnancy anxiety or pregnancy stress— worry about the child—increases, and social support declines. There are many more single mothers after they've been here for a while and become more acculturated.” Ultimately, says Walsh, with the sample size of 1,200, it was difficult to disaggregate which of the many strong behavioral changes associated with poor birth outcomes was the greatest contributor. She plans to increase the number of pregnant women in future studies.

Acculturation is measured by a series of questions based primarily on a person’s language use—whether she primarily speaks Spanish, reads Spanish, writes in Spanish, watches Spanish television, socializes with friends in Spanish, or does all those things in English. of acculturation. More recently she has been looking at the differences in obstetric complications experienced by women of different races and ethnicities. Working with Dorothy Thornton, Ph.D., Jeffrey Gould, M.D., M.P.H., and Nap Hosang, M.D., M.P.H., M.B.A., she compared maternal morbidities during labor and delivery among white, African American, Asian, and Latina women.

“We were interested in determining basically two things: first, which among the ethnic groups in California are more likely to experience obstetric complications, and second, which are the groups that are more likely to experience complications that are sensitive to the poor quality of obstetric care,” says Guendelman. The study used postpartum hemorrhage, major puerperal infections, and major lacerations as complications that indicated the quality of care received.

Quality of Care Plays a Role

Guendelman and colleagues found that approximately one in five deliveries resulted in an obstetric complication. African American women experienced a disproportionate number of complications, while Asian and Latina women experienced fewer total complications compared to white women.

The favorable overall outcome for Latina mothers is consistent with the better birth outcomes found in this population. However, all women of color showed a greater risk of puerperal infections —suggesting exposure to poor quality of obstetric care.

Sylvia Guendelman, Ph.D., M.S.W., has also examined birth outcomes among Mexican American women and the effects

“When it comes to complications that are directly linked to the quality of care, all

minority women are at greater risk of suffering these types of complications compared to white women,” says Guendelman.

Applying the Findings Walsh is optimistic that if answ ers can be found to explain the rapid deterioration in birth outcomes among Latino immigrant populations, this knowledge can be used to design interventions to improve birth outcomes in other racial and ethnic groups in the United States.

“We want to understand why rates of low birth weight in the United States are so terrible, particularly among African Americans,” she says. “If you look at long-term followup of Hispanic children, they go from being unacculturated and among the most healthy to being acculturated and very nearly among the most unhealthy—and this happens over a relatively short period of time. By the time they get to school, they have higher rates of asthma and obesity, poor school performance, much worse school readiness, and then they have illness and absenteeism during school, and they also tend to drop out of school more.

“If you can figure out what’s happening and what are the major behaviors associated with it, you can help identify interventions that might be worthwhile in turning around all of those who have very poor health.”

Public Health

9

Feature

Communities’ Attitudes Toward Cancer Screenings Shed Light on Cultural Differences

By Michael S. Broder

Exploring the extent to which communities utilize preventive health measures, such as screenings for different types of cancer, can show significant differences in attitudes and behaviors among different cultures.

Understanding these differences can help health educators design culturally appropriate interventions to encourage people to protect their health.

Distrust of the medical profession, lack of access to care, low perceptions of risk, linguistic issues, or embarrassment about specific procedures can be barriers to care in some populations. Several studies at the School have looked at prostatecancer awareness among African American men, while the Center for Family and Community Health has worked with the local Korean American community to increase use of breast- and cervical-cancer screenings among Korean American women.

10

University of California, Berkeley

Feature

African American Men at Risk

African American men have a higher risk of prostate cancer than any other racial or ethnic group. They are twice as likely as white men to develop prostate cancer, and they are less likely to be diagnosed in the early stages when it can be treated effectively. In addition, men of any race who have a family history of prostate cancer are twice as likely to develop it as those with no family history—so African American men who have a father or brother with prostate cancer are at extremely high risk.

Joan Bloom, Ph.D., professor of health

policy and management, has studied the immediate family members of both African American and white men with prostate cancer, looking at the differences in their awareness of their increased risk and their use of preventive screenings.

In a study conducted from 2002 through 2005, Bloom’s research group contacted men with prostate cancer through the Cancer Tumor Registry and asked them to refer a father, brother, or son to the study.

“If they didn’t have a close relative, or if the one they had already had prostate cancer, then we asked them to refer a friend.” Bloom stresses the importance of using culturally-appropriate language when conducting research: “We found that the African American men considered a friend to be more than an acquaintance; it’s someone who would die for them. So there was some difficulty in recruiting participants.” To fill out the sample, additional eligible participants were recruited from African American community groups.

Says Bloom, “Essentially, we found fairly classic disparities.” In telephone interviews, African American men were more likely than white men to report their risk of prostate cancer as low

African American men who have a father or brother with prostate cancer are at extremely high risk.

(62.9 percent of African American men compared to 37.2 percent of white men).

White men were more likely to have had digital rectal exams or prostate specific antigen (PSA) tests, both in the past year and within their lifetimes.

A higher percentage of the African American men reported barriers to screening, including the physical discomfort of a digital rectal exam and the cost of the PSA test. They were also more likely to agree with the statement that the PSA test caused unnecessary worry about prostate cancer.

In another study, Bloom interviewed African American men who have a family history of prostate cancer and African American with no family history to compare risk perception and worry about the disease. Those who perceived their risk of prostate cancer to be high were more likely to have had a recent PSA test.

A follow-up intervention, currently underway, is examining the effectiveness of a culturally-sensitive risk-notification and telephone-counseling program among 300 African American men in Northern California who have a relative or friend with prostate cancer.

“Ultimately the findings of this project are highly transferable for use in settings where men seek information and screening services,” says Bloom.

Working with the Korean American Community

Koreans constitute the fifth largest Asian subpopulation in the United States. Joel M. Moskowitz, Ph.D.,

Korean language information brochures encourage women to be screened for breast and cervical cancer.

director of the Center for Family and Community Health, has been conducting research within the Korean American community for 13 years, working with the Korean Community Advisory Board (KCAB), a group assembled by the center. KCAB’s members represent Korean businesses, health care providers, faith-based organizations, elders, young adults, and others.

The group advises the center on health priorities and needs in the Korean American community.

“One of the first things we found when we started working with this community is that there were hardly any data on Korean Americans,” says Moskowitz. continued on page 12 Public Health

11

Feature

Cancer Screenings...,

continued

“Most of the attention at that point had gone to the larger groups, such as Chinese Americans, but Korean Americans, who are fairly recent immigrants—almost all the adults are first generation Americans—had been very much understudied. It became apparent to us that the more we could uncover about community health problems, the more useful it would be to the Korean American community, and to other Asian American communities within California particularly, because California has the bulk of the Asian Americans in the country.”

Korean American Women Receive Fewer Screenings

The Korean Community Advisory Board identified breast- and cervicalcancer screening as its top priority. In 1994, 1997, and 2002, the Center for Family and Community Health and a community partner, Asian Health Services, conducted telephone surveys among Korean Americans in Alameda and Santa Clara Counties regarding breast- and cervical-cancer screening.

Comparing the results with surveys of all California women, they found that Korean women in Santa Clara County received less frequent breast- and cervical-cancer screening than other women. Preventive screenings included routine checkups, Pap tests, and breast self-examinations for all women, and clinical breast examinations and mammograms for women ages 50 and older.

From 1994 to 2002, mammography screening for older Korean women increased in Santa Clara Country, as well as routine checkups and clinical breast examinations. “Athough there’s been improvement, there’s still a big gap compared to the general population,” says Moskowitz.

12

University of California, Berkeley

When it comes to preventive screenings for women’s health, not only are there large disparities between Korean Americans and the general population, but also between Korean Americans and other Asian Americans.

Moskowitz suggests this could be related to Korean Americans’ lack of access to health insurance, which may be due to the large number of Korean Americans who own or work for small businesses. “It’s just too expensive for small businesses to maintain health insurance. And from our local surveys, the major barrier to health care has been high cost,” he says.

Doctor’s Ethnicity May Play a Role

Fear, embarrassment, or language barriers have also been suggested as factors that could discourage Korean American women from receiving preventive health screenings. Surprisingly, though, surveys found that women who received care from a Korean doctor were less likely to have had a recent Pap test, mammogram, or clinical breast examination than women who received care from a non-Korean doctor. “The assumption that you will always receive better care from an ethnic-specific provider or someone who speaks the same language as you is not necessarily accurate,” says Moskowitz.

He speculates that perhaps Korean American health care providers don’t view the screenings as a priority because rates of breast cancer in the community are fairly low. Also, Korean American doctors tend to spread themselves thin with multiple practices in different communities. The disparity could also be related to the fact that the doctors are mostly male, or it could be that their patients are more resistant. “Really, it could be a variety of factors,” says Moskowitz.

Overcoming the Barriers

Based on the data from the initial telephone survey, the center, in collaboration with Asian Health Services, designed and implemented culturallyappropriate programs to encourage breast- and cervical-cancer screenings among Korean Americans in Alameda County. Activities included educational workshops conducted in Korean churches and other community venues, training of bilingual Korean American women as health counselors, a media campaign that used financial incentives to encourage screening, and a poster campaign. Participants in the workshops were found to be more likely to get Pap tests but not to receive breast examinations. The center and its partners continue to look for ways to encourage preventive health screening among Korean Americans.

Feature

Working Together Reducing Health Disparities through Community Participation

By Michael S. Broder

Interventions and research can be more effective when the affected communities are empowered as active partners.

The School of Public Health’s alumni, students, and faculty collaborate with communitybased organizations in a number of ways as a strategy for reducing health disparities. In some community partnerships, the School helps community-based organizations increase their ability to effect change, while in others, the School works with them to address issues that the communities themselves identify as their top concerns. continued on page 14

Public Health

13

Feature

Working Together..., continued Community Participation in Research

Trailblazer George Kaplan, Ph.D., has been instrumental in raising public consciousness about the significance of health disparities on both a national and international level. Kaplan’s work bridges the social and biological approaches to health, and he was one of the first researchers to argue for an “upstream” approach, looking at the root causes of health disparities and addressing those causes. The Center for Social Epidemiology and Population Health at the University of Michigan has thrived under Kaplan’s direction and today is recognized for producing important research and hosting talented faculty and students concerned with using multidisciplinary methods of examining health.

Kaplan’s focus is on the many social, psychological, biological, and economic forces that affect health, and how examination of these forces can help determine measures for the prevention of diseases and their consequences. One key area of research has been his studies correlating the economic inequality of societies with a number of factors, including low birth weight, rates of smoking, and levels of violent crime. His work also highlights the need for linkages between economic policies and health policies, and demonstrates how epidemiologic research can be used to evaluate and guide policy.

Kaplan completed postdoctoral work at UC Berkeley and also taught at Berkeley’s School of Public Health before moving on to Michigan. In addition to serving as director of the Center for Social Epidemiology and Population Health, he also directs the Robert Wood Johnson Health and Society Scholars program at Michigan. He also continues to lead the California Department of Health Service’s landmark Alameda County Study, a longitudinal study of physical and mental health, now in its fortieth year. His honors include election to the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Social Insurance, and he is a recipient of the John P. McGovern Award from the University of Texas School of Public Health.

As president of the Society for Epidemiologic Research, he was the first public health scientist invited to speak at the Nobel Forum in Sweden.

— Kelly Mills

Using an approach called community-based participatory research (CBPR), researchers work with communities, not on them, to reduce health disparities. Professor Meredith Minkler, Dr.P.H., is a nationally recognized expert on the subject of CBPR and co-editor (with Nina Wallerstein, Dr.P.H. ’88) of Community-Based Participatory Research for Health. “I believe communitybased participatory research is a very promising tool for addressing health disparities, partly because in low-income communities and communities of color, there’s a great deal of distrust of outside researchers, and we have not had a good track record of developing interventions that have more than modest success in many of these neighborhoods,” says Minkler.

Part of the problem, she says, is that researchers go into low-income communities to study problems that they themselves think are important, or that funders think are important, which often don’t reflect the primary concerns of people in low-income neighborhoods. “With CBPR, you start with a problem that the community thinks is important, and you involve the community at every stage that is feasible in studying that problem. And you remain engaged in the action phase with the findings to help ensure that the community gets something back for their participation,” says Minkler. “It’s an approach that now has substantial support from foundations around the country and from a number of federal agencies including the CDC and about 10 divisions within NIH. They’re all beginning to see that this makes sense as an approach for dealing with health disparities.“ Minkler teaches a popular class on communitybased participatory research, and half of the roughly 40 students in her class this past year worked in a community partnership for at least 4 hours a week contributing to a CBPR effort.

Several students also are working on dissertations using or studying CBPR and working with faculty including Brenda Eskenazi, Ph.D., Helen Halpin, Ph.D., M.S.P.H., S. Katherine

14

University of California, Berkeley

Feature

Hammond, Ph.D., C.I.H., Joan Bloom, Ph.D., and Emily Ozer, Ph.D., in addition to Minkler. Recent graduate Victoria Breckwich Vasquez, Dr.P.H. ’05, for example, worked with the San Francisco Health Department (with health educator Susan Hennessey, M.P.H. ’89) and a community-based organization in the city’s Bayview-Hunter’s Point district to study intensively the partnership’s efforts to address an issue that the community identified as a priority: healthy food.

“Although the Bayview-Hunter’s Point neighborhood often is thought of in terms of problems such as the high rates of homicide and toxic emissions from its many the polluting facilities, the community-based organization, the health department, and an outside evaluator conducted a survey and found that food insecurity— lack of access to healthy foods—was a primary concern in the neighborhood,” says Minkler.

“The health department partnered with the community-based organization Literacy for Environmental Justice, and together they mounted a very successful effort to study the allocation of shelf space for healthy foods.”

The project demonstrated that in the 11 corner stores in Bayview-Hunter’s Point, under 5 percent of the space was allocated for fresh fruits and vegetables compared to much higher percentages for packaged foods, sodas, and other beverages. Working with merchants and with the city, they launched the Good Neighbors Program, through which the city provides lowincome loans, energy efficient appliances, and other incentives to stores that agree to change the way they do business by offering healthier food options and taking down tobacco and alcohol advertisements.

“One of the early results was an increase in the sales of fresh fruits and vegetables in the first store that tried this, from 5 to 15 percent in the first seven months, and a decrease in alcohol sales from 25 to 15 percent,” says Minkler.

Subsequently, five more stores agreed to become Good Neighbors. “It’s been exceedingly effective in enabling people to change their

In some communities, people have identified lack of access to healthy foods as a top concern.

eating habits and their purchasing habits, and ultimately we hope to see changes in health status.” Funders of the Good Neighbors project include The California Endowment and the California Tobacco Control Program.

“A major project that I’ve been working on with Vicky and a team of students and colleagues, and funded by the WK Kellogg Foundation, looks at the policy outcomes of community-based participatory research,” says Minkler. “We’ve looked at ten examples around the country where such partnerships appear to have made a difference in terms of affecting public policy that in turn may lead to health outcomes. What’s been interesting and amazing to me in these cases is that when we go to the sites, not only do we hear stories and get impact data from the local news media and local partners and community people, but the policymakers we have contacted have invariably told us that this partnership and the research it produced really enhanced their ability to carry legislation or make a regulatory change, which in turn may have an impact on health disparities.”

Increasing Community Capacity “Capacity-building” is a strategy for enhancing a community’s or an organization’s effectiveness

and self-sufficiency. “It improves a community’s ability to prioritize its health issues, identify potential programs and policy solutions, and build its own skills to implement programs and advocate for policy changes,” says Jeffrey Oxendine, M.B.A., M.P.H., associate dean for public health practice. “It empowers people in a way that gives them more control over their destiny, which helps them make better choices about their health habits.”

Building community capacity is one objective of the School’s Center for Multicultural Health, the mission of which is to improve the health status and well-being of diverse populations in the Bay Area and California. The center collaborates with local health organizations to increase their ability to design, implement, and evaluate health disparity interventions that have a significant impact.

Specific project areas include reducing health inequities, improving multicultural and linguistic competence, and increasing diversity of public health leaders and professionals.

“We want to leverage the strengths that the School of Public Health can bring to the table, to enhance our community partners’ efforts to address their priority health issues and initiatives,” says Oxendine.

continued on page 16 Public Health

15

Feature

Working Together..., continued

Julie Sinai (far left), senior aide the mayor of Berkeley, confers with associate dean Denise Herd, associate dean Jeffrey Oxendine, Dean Stephen Shortell, and others.

One community partner is the Solano Coalition for Better Health, a network of health care organizations, public health community clinics, and health payers in Solano County. “Part of what attracts us to this coalition is that it has all the key players at the table, it has a track record, and they’re focusing on reducing African American health disparities,” says Oxendine. He has been participating in the coalition’s strategic planning process, along with Kevin Williams, J.D., M.P.H., and Obiel Leyva, field supervisiors at the Center for Public Health Practice. In addition, an M.P.H. student, Olako Agburu, has been coordinating the strategic planning outreach efforts and community engagement efforts and organizing events to raise awareness about these issues (see “Coordinating Efforts of Disparate Organizations,” p. 20). “The planning is going on to set the strategy for interventions that will be effective, that will address not just the health care related issues, but the root cause issues of these disparities in Solano County,” says Oxendine.

In another partnership, the center participates in the Alameda-Contra Costa Coalition for Language Assistance in Health, which focuses on increasing language assistance services for the counties’ increasingly diverse populations.

“In Alameda County, there are 70 different languages spoken and a high concentration of people, particularly with Spanish and Cantonese 16

University of California, Berkeley

and Mandarin and Vietnamese,” says Oxendine.

“We have worked with the coalition for a year to conduct a needs assessment for language assistance in Alameda County and to convene a multi-sector group of stakeholders to develop recommendations. Phases Two and Three will implement these recommendations and strengthen the coalition’s role and impact.

The School is also actively involved in partnerships at the city level. Dean Stephen Shortell, Ph.D., M.P.H., and associate dean for student affairs Denise Herd, Ph.D., participated on the Berkeley Mayor’s Task Force on Health Services, helping develop its plan to address the health disparities and health issues in Berkeley.

“People of color in Berkeley have alarmingly disproportionately higher incidents of premature, death, low birth weight, stroke, hypertension, cancer, diabetes, and other chronic diseases,” says Herd. “The task force came up with four desired community outcomes and developed an action plan with specific goals and objectives for each one. Now the School is working with the Mayor’s Task Force as well as with the South and West Berkeley Health Forum to help contribute to advancing those plans.”

Herd also serves on the steering committee of the Chancellor’s Berkeley Diversity Research Initiative, a

group that aims to strengthen the campus’s research agenda on racial and ethnic diversity.

Building a Diverse Workforce Evidence shows that a health workforce that more closely represents the population can contribute to improved access and quality of care, but many racial and ethnic groups are underrepresented in key health professions.

Through a series of collaborative programs aimed at middle school, high school, and college students, the Center for Multicultural Health exposes

Health disparities or health inequities?

“Many of our community partners prefer using term ‘health inequities’ to ‘health disparities,’” says associate dean for public health practice Jeffrey Oxendine. “The research data show disparities, but a lot of the root causes of these health issues are related to inequities in economic opportunity and education and health care and environmental exposures. Many people feel strongly about naming what the issue really is.”

Feature

students from underrepresented backgrounds to career opportunities in public health and supports their professional goals with skill-building, mentoring, and encouragement.

In addition, the School of Public Health and the Public Health Institute (an independent nonprofit organization) are working jointly to develop strategies to increase diversity in the health professions in California, supported by a $1.5 million grant from The California Endowment. The project will build on national strategy recommendations of the Institute of Medicine and the Sullivan Commission and will evaluate the potential for those recommendations to be implemented in California.

“We’re going to be looking at what people are currently doing in this area to see what effective practices they’ve found, what barriers they’ve run into, and what would help advance their efforts,” says Oxendine, who co-directs the project along with Kevin Barnett, Dr.P.H. ’95, M.C.P., senior investigator at the Public Health Institute, and a member of the Institute of Medicine Committee on Health Professions and Workforce Diversity and the Sullivan Commission.

Other elements of the project include working with the UCSF Center for Health Professions on a quantitative analysis to assess the current state of racial and ethnic diversity in California’s health professions schools; assessing the benefits of a diverse student body to all participants in health professions training programs; and identification of exemplary practices in academic institutions and the health care workplace to promote diversity.

“The last part of the project will be to develop a web site that will highlight different pipeline programs and resources and career paths for students interested in pursuing the range of health profession opportunities, and have one site that brings together those resources for California on a statewide and local basis,” says Oxendine. “We’ll also convene statewide stakeholders to develop recommendations for funding and action plans to increase the diversity of California’s health professions.”

Trailblazer For the past 25 years, Melanie Tervalon, M.P. H. ’86, has made it her mission to diagnose the racism and classism epidemics in the medical professions and speak out boldly about the role of medical education in perpetuating this discrimination. However, while many have been tempted to throw up their hands and declare this a terminal condition, Tervalon has been undaunted in her efforts to effect real change in the field. She developed a full curriculum based around the model of “cultural humility,” which enables physicians and medical students reflect on their own culture and the cultural assumptions and bias they bring to interactions with patients. This curriculum has been instituted at Children’s Hospital in Oakland and the principles of the program have sparked reflection and evaluation by hospitals and medical schools around the country.

Many medical programs have attempted to address health disparities through “cultural competence,” or recognition that patients have a set of cultural values that may influence their responses to diagnosis and treatment. Tervalon, however, points out that the dynamic of trying to assess a patient’s cultural attitudes fails to address the problems of stereotyping and the power imbalances present in patient-physician interactions. She advocates for “cultural humility,” in which physicians embark on a lifelong process of self-reflection and self-critique. Also fundamental to this approach is that physicians, with their own set of cultural beliefs, must actively work to develop non-paternalistic and equally beneficial relationships with patients and communities. Tervalon emphasizes that any change with regard to culture, patients and health can only occur if medical institutions are engaged in a parallel process of cultural humility, along with the physicians.

Tervalon received her medical degree from UCSF in 1980 and her M.P.H. from the School in 1986. In 2003 she became the director of education at the Center for Excellence in Nutritional Genomics, a multidisciplinary research program focused on the relationships between nutrition, genomics, and health disparities. She is a pediatrician, educator, and consultant to programs around the country.

— Kelly Mills

Public Health

17

Feature

In Action: Students Reducing Disparities

By Kelly Mills

Student Eddy Jara (far left) and others work in a school garden.

What can we do about health inequality? Here are three students who have already taken this question out of the classroom and into the field, in an effort to address health disparities in our local communities.

Eddy Jara, M.P.H., smiles as he recalls a conversation with a Luther Burbank Middle School student in the school garden. “We were cooking in the garden, making spaghetti sauce with herbs harvested from the garden, and cooking garlic and olive oil on a hot plate. This student was talking to me about food, and since he was from one

18

University of California, Berkeley

part of Latin America, and I am from another part, we were comparing different types of tamales. We were connecting on a person-toperson level, rather than as a teacher and student where there is a line of authority. Just talking about food, and sharing your culture, your skills, and the artistic aspect of culinary arts—the cooking creates a bond. It is a gradual experience of building trust.”

Earning the trust of middle school students isn’t easy, but Jara and other researchers with the Strengthening School Gardens to Prevent

Obesity study hope that by collaborating with students, they can learn more about students’ food and activity choices, and create interventions that encourage positive choices. And despite the project’s name, school gardens are just one part of a strategy to promote nutrition and physical activity in San Francisco middle schools. The study is currently based at Luther Burbank Middle School, a school with large African American, Latino, and Asian and Pacific Islander populations, and will expand to include a second school this year.

Feature

Jara and the other researchers are looking at a number of creative ways to help students improve food choices and become more physically active. While they have worked to develop curriculum that connects garden-based learning with science and physical education classes, they also look for opportunities to integrate nutrition and physical activity promotion into existing curriculum. For example, Jara approached physical education teachers about incorporating nutrition, activity, and positive body-image information with the FitnessGram tests that physical education teachers are required to administer. The FitnessGram is a mandated evaluation of all students, which includes measuring height, weight, and ability on physical tests. “Middle school is a very sensitive time for many kids with regard to body image, and many kids being weighed don’t feel good about their body shape,” says Jara. The researchers provide information about nutritional and activity choices to help kids put body image in context and feel empowered to make positive changes.

Another goal of the project has been to find ways to involve parents in the process of nutrition education. This is particularly critical, since parental involvement in education at the middle-school level is markedly less than for elementary school-aged children.

For a project called “Photovoice,” the research team gave students cameras and asked them to document what they eat and where they eat. The researchers then asked students to sit down with their parents and develop a story about food and the meanings behind their food choices.

Jara found that one of the most successful strategies was to enable students to set their own nutritional and physical activity goals, and then encourage them to receive assistance from the researchers in meeting those goals. “I noticed the students were more engaged and enthusiastic when we offered

“I saw that if you could operate knowing the rules of of a cultural system, you could do many amazing, practical things. If you were not privy to those rules, you could be very well-intentioned but find that your work was unsuccessful.” to provide them ‘personal training’ services, similar to what you would get when you join a gym.” Because they were offered a service that they value, Jara believes, the students were more inclined to take the project seriously. He notes that he tries to be sensitive to what the project can offer to the school community. “This is a big issue in dealing with communities of color: They have historically had research and evaluation done to them, rather than participating in a collaborative process that is mutually beneficial.”

Jara was drawn to the project based on his experience with community nutrition projects in Southern California and in Ecuador. “I was working in Ecuador with health promoters two or three hours away from the city on childhood growth monitoring. It didn’t make sense to talk about nutrition without talking about gardening, because there were clear barriers to healthy food choices because of cost and geographic access. It is important not to separate gardening and local agriculture from nutrition education.” Jara is now in the second year of the School’s public health doctoral program, looking at issues of gardenbased learning, meaningful parent involvement, and nutrition and fitness promotion.

Gaining Handson Outreach Experience Before entering the master’s program at the School of Public Health,

Elisa Wong witnessed firsthand the challenges in providing culturally competent care while working for an advocacy organization that represented community clinics serving Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. “I saw that if you could operate knowing the rules of a cultural system, you could do many amazing, practical things. If you were not privy to those rules, you could be very wellintentioned but find that your work was unsuccessful.” Once she entered the program at Berkeley, she realized that students like herself needed hands-on experience working in multicultural health environments in order to address some of these challenges. Wong and a few other students founded Multicultural Health in Action, a group dedicated to providing students with practical field experience in health disparity issues.

For its first project, the group partnered with the Ethnic Health Institute in Oakland to work on improving prostate-cancer screening rates for African American men, who are known to have a higher risk of developing the cancer than men from other ethnic groups. The students analyzed data to determine who should be targeted with outreach, participated in a phone campaign to encourage men to come to screenings, and volunteered at the screenings.

“It was very direct contact with the community, rather than number-crunching,” says Wong.

Participating in the phone campaign gave Wong and the other students experience with

continued on page 20

Public Health

19

Feature

In Action...,

continued

some of the difficulties in community health outreach work. Beyond actually convincing men to attend the screening, there were other challenges the students had not anticipated. Sometimes the person who answered the phone—often a wife or girlfriend—expressed suspicion with the caller.

Others simply refused to pass the information on to the man at risk for prostate cancer, claiming that he did not need the screening.

Wong found it very helpful to identify who she was and why she was calling right up front. Ultimately, she said, the benefits outweighed the challenges. “When you would actually get the man on the phone, he would often express gratitude that you were offering this service and that you cared about his health, and that was very gratifying.”

Wong and the other cochairs of the Multicultural Health in Action group are now working on developing a course for first-year students that will focus on health disparities and gaining field experience in the area. Beyond giving students field opportunities, Wong hopes the course will create a safe and central space for students with a passion for multicultural health.

Wong’s experiences with the group have only furthered her belief that health disparities are a matter of social justice.

“There are so many issues that are unique to minority groups, and they are different for each group. And to subgroups within those groups, that it is very complicated and challenging. It is so important that we understand these issues. They often get left behind because the majority of people don’t care about this. And somebody needs to care.”

20

University of California, Berkeley

Coordinating Efforts of Disparate Organizations From hospitals to free clinics to advocacy groups, there are many organizations taking steps to reduce health disparities.

But how do these groups avoid duplicating efforts or find out what strategies have been successful for other organizations? This is where Olako Agburu comes in. “My role” says Agburu, “is to bring these groups together.” As a coordinator and a consultant for the Solano Coalition for Better Health, she helps ensure that disparate community organizations and institutions work collaboratively with each other on health projects.

Agburu finds her daily routine difficult to describe, in part because her activities with the coalition have run the gamut from recruiting focus group participants to coordinating organizations in a health fair. The coalition has targeted prostate cancer, cervical cancer, asthma, breast cancer, and hypertension as key areas to address. An important part of Agburu’s job has been to research the practices of other areas to determine how effective various interventions have been.

One of the biggest surprises she encountered has been the difficulty in getting feedback from the very groups the coalition aims to serve. She attributes this in part to past practices that have built a certain amount of mistrust between health organizations and community members.

“The coalition has gone into the community in the past for information, and the community didn’t see anything in return.

They are a bit apprehensive—which is understandable.” However, she believes the coalition has taken real steps towards build trust with communities by listening to concerns rather than dispensing advice.

The results have been positive, says Agburu, and she points to the recent Champions for Healthy African Americans Award ceremony as an example of the improved relationship between health care organizations and community members.

She and the other organizers expected about 150 attendees, and were surprised when 230 people showed up. “It was very positive to see the community involved and want to know what is going on.

People were engaged with each other about what they are doing and talking about possible collaborations.” The ceremony provided a rare moment for groups to build networks and partnerships. Just seeing people together in the room like that, says Agburu, was very gratifying.

While working with the coalition on local health issues has raised Agburu’s interest in equal quality of life for African Americans in the United States, she also sees these issues with the perspective of an international traveler. Her awareness of health justice issues began during trips to Nigeria, when she would prepare herself for visits to the country with shots for malaria and other diseases. She found herself questioning why she had health care resources that others didn’t. “I always wondered why I could afford the medicines, but my neighbor from Nigeria couldn’t get access to health care.” She plans to focus on international health, but believes she will continue to be involved with the coalition.

“I’ve built a family there,” she says.

Berkeley: Helping To Fulfill Dreams “After immigrating to the U.S. from China at the age of 16, going to Cal following high school was more than a dream. It was not easy, but it was well worth the struggle. As a result of graduating from Cal, I have enjoyed a fabulous career as a clinical laboratory scientist and a glorious life that I would have never known otherwise. I appreciate my education at Berkeley and I am proud to be an alumna. It is indeed time to return my gratitude.

“In order for our alma mater to remain the foremost public health leader in the world, maintain the highest academic excellence, and compete with other top private institutions, contributions from alumni are badly needed.

“The percentage of alumni giving is often a factor in the calculation of school rankings and a consideration by corporations and foundations when deciding whether to invest in the School. In addition, giving strengthens the School’s ability to recruit top students and faculty, who look at private support as a barometer of alumni satisfaction. And supporting the School helps ensure that the value of your degree from the School of Public Health remains strong.”

—Joan Lam, B.S. ‘62

Support the Annual Fund Your tax-deductible contribution to the School of Public Health ensures the viability of valuable School of Public Health programs, such as scholarships and recruitment efforts. Support the future of public health.

Give online at sph.berkeley.edu/giving/how.htm or mail your gift (payable to the “School of Public Health Fund”) to: University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health External Relations & Development 140 Earl Warren Hall #7360 Berkeley, CA 94720-7360

For additional information about making a gift to the School, call Pat Hosel, Assistant Dean, External Relations and Development, at (510) 642-9654.

Public Health

21

Past, Present, Future

Bringing the “Social” to Epidemiology: S. Leonard Syme, Ph.D. Len Syme has no trouble naming his greatest contribution to the field of public health. “That’s easy: training a large group of people who are now the leaders in the field.” He adds, “In my own view, my work is medium, but the work of my students is at another level.” He’s part right—his former students include luminaries such as Sir Michael Marmot, knighted for services to epidemiology; Lisa Berkman, chair of the Department of Society, Human Development, and Health at the Harvard School of Public Health; and George Kaplan, director of the Center for Social Epidemiology and Population Health at the University of Michigan.

The other part—his deprecation of his own work— says much about this pivotal figure in the field. Syme’s willingness to turn a critical eye to his own research and to accept new theories and ideas even when they run counter to his own may be part of how he has made such a profound impression on so many of his students.

Partner.” In it he ruefully critiques the failures of one of his own intervention projects to demonstrate the importance of truly engaging the community in any public health effort. With this modest approach he is able to slyly exhort researchers to drop the “expert” attitude and become willing to learn from the people they hope to aid.

In a 2005 article in the journal Epidemiologic Perspectives and Innovations, Syme offers a history of social epidemiology titled, “Historical Perspective: The Social Determinants of Disease—Some Roots of the Movement.” It is an engrossing account of the growth of the field, peppered with Syme’s characteristic dry humor. But just as interesting are the accompanying papers, written by former students, emphasizing again and again how much Syme informed their work. Marmot writes, “I have never come across anyone in the academic world who had quite the powerful influence on students that Syme did.” In conversation, his students say, he is truly collaborative, asking for opinions, then challenging them to defend those ideas and listening for the answers.

In 1965 when Syme began looking at how social factors such as migration affected the rate of coronary heart disease, there was not yet a body of research devoted to studying the influence of environment—social, physical, and cultural— on disease. In the last 10 years, however, social epidemiology has gained new prominence. Syme says that the limitations of a model that only considers individual risk factors are becoming plain.

“Take heart disease (the disease that I know best). We’ve spent fifty years studying risk factors for heart disease, and we now have a list of about thirty: smoking, obesity, lack of activity, diabetes, and so on. All those risk factors together explain less than half of the heart disease we see.

After fifty years of well-funded research by the most brilliant minds, we still can’t explain more than half of the most prevalent disease of our time? After a while you start to say, ‘Hmm, could it be that we are missing a risk factor or two?’ But that risk factor would have to be so powerful that it’s not likely we have missed it.

In 2004 Syme published a paper in the journal Preventing Chronic Disease tittled, “Social Determinants of Health: The Community as an Empowered 22

University of California, Berkeley

Therefore it may be that we’ve got the wrong model. I think there is recognition of the fact that the current methods of studying individuals and their behaviors are not explaining what we need to explain, and that gets people saying, ‘Let’s rethink this.’”

“The model now is that there are a set of psychosocial risk factors like social support, social class, hostility, depression, a number of things that tend to compromise the body’s susceptibility to getting sick but that don’t determine what you get sick with. What you get sick with is probably attributable to viruses, cholesterol—disease specific risk factors. When you begin to think about psychosocial risk factors you begin to think about social networks and social support: reaching out beyond the person and looking at the neighborhood, occupation, family, and other social factors. In order to explain disease susceptibility, we will have to rethink our research strategies.”

Past, Present, Future

Making the shift from an individualcentered approach to a group-centered approach is often challenging for epidemiology students, particularly for physicians. Syme explains how he convinces his students to consider the importance of the social environment to health: “The first lecture I give to physicians in the epidemiology program is about suicide. Here is a condition where the causes clearly must be in the personal life histories and tragedies of the individual. They can really relate to that. Then I point out the work of Émile Durkheim, who in 1898 said, ‘Why do certain groups have higher rates of suicide than others? And if the causes are found within the individual, why do the rates of suicide have a patterned regularity over time? There must be something about the world in which people live that generates a certain predisposition.’ You can just hear the clinicians saying, ‘I never thought of that,’ because they have been busy with differential diagnosis of illness in individuals, which is clearly also important, but to be able to look at it with another perspective is critical.”

When asked about the future of public health, Syme says wryly that while mapping the genome may be fascinating, the next frontier in understanding disease won’t simply come from identifying genetic predispositions to various illnesses, because many of these predispositions become significant only when factors in the physical and social environment act on them. It would be better to focus our attention on the youngest members of our society. “When you study children, it turns out they have most of the risk factors that we later study fifty years down the road: respiratory function, temperament, obesity, blood pressure—a number of things we look at in adulthood.” Epidemiologists tend to focus on older populations with lots of disease, and rarely study children since they don’t have enough

“We really need to pay attention to the things that people care about, and stop being such experts about our risk factors.” disease. But while studying children may present real challenges, Syme thinks this work will be crucial in our understanding and prevention of disease. “When you intervene with kids you can really make a difference.”

But what kind of interventions should we be using? According to Syme, we know what doesn’t work. “Almost all of our public health interventions have failed. The problem is that we have messages to give, and people have lives to lead, and usually the two don’t intermix.

We are interested in cholesterol and blood pressure, and people are interested in jobs, their house, their kids, income security, and so on. We really need to pay attention to the things that people care about, and stop being such experts about our risk factors.” He cites the Wellness Guides developed by the School’s Health Research for Action initiative as an example of an intervention that involves communities in real collaboration from start to finish.

Syme points to his study of hypertension in San Francisco bus drivers as an example of how easy it is to miss the forest for the trees. While investigating the unusually high rates of hypertension in this group, the research team found that bus drivers also complained of back pain and gastrointestinal and respiratory difficulties. The team designed interventions to address these issues, but none were effective. Then the researchers learned more about the bus drivers’ daily routine. Drivers had to adhere to a rigid schedule that was determined by a computer, and they were penalized for late arrivals. However, there was a shortage of buses, which meant drivers often were not given enough time to

Len Syme visits the Paris grave of renowned sociologist Émile Durkheim.

get from one stop to the next. They raced into fast food restaurants for meals to stay on schedule. Because they were so often late, they faced irate passengers and traffic problems daily, and often did not have time to return home between morning and evening shifts. The problem, says Syme, was that the researchers were focusing on the specific diseases rather than the fundamental problem: the job.

If Syme had his way, the field of public health would continue to move towards a view of health that includes looking at larger determinants of disease like poverty. “Until public health can back away from a focus on individual diseases and disease risk factors and look at social circumstances, we are not going to be able to advance, and we are not going to be able to intervene.” And though he would never admit to it, if anyone can nudge the field in that direction, it’s Len Syme.

— Kelly Mills

Public Health

23

Past, Present, Future

Back-to-Back Conferences Take on Challenges in Health Disparity Reduction On consecutive days in April, two complementary conferences took place at the Berkeley City Club. At the first, academics, practitioners, and community leaders presented research, tools, and strategies for reducing health disparities. At the second, panelists and participants looked within health organizations to discuss barriers related to privilege, bias, and oppression that hinder health disparity initiatives.

Panelists present promising tools and approaches More than 230 people attended the April 19 conference, “Poverty, Race, Place: Research and Community-Based Interventions to Reduce Health Disparities.” The meeting—the fourth in the UC Berkeley Center for Health Research’s “Science & Society” series—highlighted the latest place-, race-, and povertybased research, as well as strategies and interventions to reduce health inequities.

“This event occurred at the right moment in time. There’s been increasing interest in the nexus of race, place, and poverty,” said Meredith Minkler, Dr.P.H., professor of health and social behavior at the School of Public Health and a presenter at the conference.

The presentations were organized into sessions on social determinants of health disparities, research tools, and community interventions.

The event’s keynote speakers were Camara P. Jones, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., research director, social determinants of health, CDC; David Hayes-Bautista, Ph.D., director of UCLA’s Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture; and Angela Glover Blackwell, J.D., founder and CEO of PolicyLink. Featured

24

University of California, Berkeley

At the “Poverty, Race, Place...” conference, associate dean Denise Herd (left) moderates while Dr. Camara P. Jones of the CDC and UCLA Professor David Hayes-Bautista take questions.

speakers included Raymond J. Baxter, senior vice president, community benefit, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan; Reverend Cecil Williams, CEO and pastor of Glide Memorial United Methodist Church; and many others.

“Typically conferences on poverty and race have neglected the critical element of place.

Also, while they dissect in great detail the problem posed, they are often not nearly as helpful in talking about what can be done through research, policy, and practice to help address the problem,” said Minkler. “This conference, I think, was unique in having a full panel on new tools for studying health disparities and then having a panel where people presented promising approaches for dealing with the challenges posed by such disparities. It was not a traditional academic conference in that it spoke as much to what we can do about the problem as it did to what we know about the problem.”

Audiofiles and presentations from the meeting are available online at healthresearch.berkeley.edu/disparities/ agenda.html.

Participants strategize to overcome “-isms” within health organizations The second conference, “Privilege, Bias, and Oppression: Addressing Barriers to Eliminating Health Disparities Within Health Organizations,” also called the “‘-isms’ conference,” was held April 20. The event had its roots in a discussion that took place at a 2004 conference, in which a theme emerged about internal organizational barriers to addressing health disparities. Participants expressed a strong interest in gaining more information on the resources and models available for addressing powerful underlying “-isms” in organizations that sometimes limit their ability to move initiatives forward, including racism, classism, sexism, ageism, heterosexism, and able-bodyism. They also wanted the opportunity to talk with colleagues about challenges and promising practices in this area and to support one another in dealing with this issue.

A planning group, convened by the School’s Center for Public Health Practice, organized the event that became the “‘-isms’ conference,”

Past, Present, Future

A portion of an illustration that was created on the spot to preserve a visual record of the “Privilege, Bias, and Oppression...” conference.

which was attended by 130 representatives of health departments, hospitals, community clinics and organizations, as well as UC Berkeley. The program featured presentations

by Eva Paterson, J.D., president and founder, Equal Justice Society, and Roberto Almanzán, M.S., diversity and cultural competency consultant. Joan Schoenhals, Ph.D., and Jim Turner, Ph.D., of VISIONS, Inc., presented a conceptual model that can be used for addressing the “-isms” in organizations. The program also included a panel,

“Practical Examples from Organizations Working on the ‘-isms,’” which was followed by an action planning session in which the group determined next steps for themselves and their organizations. Some of these included an “-isms” film festival (already in the planning stages); training in how to use films for diversity work; development of peer consultation groups for people responsible for diversity work in their organizations; and multicultural book groups composed of people across organizations.

“This was a first step in a long-term process for the development of community-based plans and support networks,” said Ellie Schindelman, M.P.H. ’80, field director and lecturer for the School’s Center for Public Health Practice and Dr.P.H. Program and a member of the planning committee.

Cosponsors for both conferences included the UC Berkeley Center for Health Research, the School of Public Health’s Center for Public Health Practice, and the Pacific Public Health Training Center. In addition, the “Poverty, Race, Place…” conference was cosponsored by the Kaiser Permanente Institute for Health Policy and the UC Berkeley Office of the Chancellor. Additional cosponsors of the “-isms” conference were Alta Bates Summit Medical Center; City of Berkeley Public Health Division; Contra Costa Health Services; John Muir Health; the NCMHD Center of Excellence in Nutritional Genomics; Kaiser Permanente–Community Benefit Programs, Northern California and National Diversity; Children’s Hospital and Research Center, Oakland; and the Alameda County Public Health Department.

Registration at the “Poverty, Race, Place...” conference.

Public Health

25

Past, Present, Future

A Conversation with Leonard Schaeffer Leonard Schaeffer, former chairman and CEO of Wellpoint, Inc., was the School of Public Health’s 2005–2006 Regent’s Lecturer.

During a recent visit to campus, Schaeffer sat down with Dean Shortell and reflected on his leadership approach and how he brought Blue Cross of California back from the brink of bankruptcy.

Early in his career, Schaeffer worked in the public sector both at the state and federal level. At the state level he was director of the Bureau of the Budget for the State of Illinois, chairman of the Illinois Capital Development Board, and deputy director for management for the Illinois Department of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities. Subsequently, he served in the federal government as administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) and as assistant secretary for management and budget of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Schaeffer also served in leadership roles as president and CEO of Group Health, Inc. of Minnesota, EVP and COO of the Student Loan Marketing Association, and as vice president of Citibank.

26

University of California, Berkeley

Leonard Schaeffer (left) talks with Dean Stephen Shortell.

Dean Shortell: In 1986 you were recruited as president and CEO of Blue Cross of California.

At that time the organization was near bankruptcy and ranked the worst-performing of the 77 Blue Cross plans across the country.

What were some of the challenges you faced and lessons you learned from the turnaround of Blue Cross?

Leonard Schaeffer: Blue Cross of California was recruiting for a CEO, and I was contacted and came out here and was interviewed. They were looking for someone to do a long-range strategic plan. They’d never had one. They said the company was doing very well, and everything was fine, and I was literally told, “Put your feet up on the desk, don’t worry about the operations, and spend a year thinking great thoughts.” Who is going to say no to that?

I started on January 15, and at the end of the month, I said, “I’d like to see the financials.”

And they said, “Don’t worry, we’re going to make 40 million dollars this year—not a problem. The financials are not available until the end of the quarter.” The financials for January are not available until the end of the quarter.

Financials were brought to me on one page: one cost center, one profit center. Period. Didn’t break anything down. And I look at it, and the guy says, “Yeah, I guess we’re not going to make 40 million; more like 10 million.” So I spent a little time trying to figure out what was going on, and clearly the books and records for the company weren’t accurate, the prior reports were fraudulent. I fired the CFO and started a process to figure out what was going on, and as it turned out, instead of making $40 million, under my brilliant leadership, we lost $157 million that year, which was an all-time record, by the way. No one else had ever lost that much money. And most of it was from prior years.

So we were losing money left and right, and we had to turn the company around. I went from thinking great thoughts to running the company in a very hands-on way. We went from 6,000 employees to 3,000 employees in 12 months. That was not fun. Most of the people that I fired were innocent victims, a lot of single mothers, one-parent families. But the obligation in my mind was very straightforward.

There were two million people dependent on us to pay their health care costs. So we made a

Past, Present, Future

dramatic effort to reduce costs: We cut 3,000 people in 12 months, sold a lot of buildings (actually sold buildings to pay the payroll, one for one), and as we sold the buildings, we sold the furniture, we sold the computers, we sold everything that moved. In 1986 we were the worst performing Blue plan in America; in 1989 we were the best performing Blue plan, and we never turned back.

The problem is that the comparison is a false one: it doesn’t matter how you perform versus other Blue plans, it matters how you perform versus your competitors in California. We were doing very well compared to Blue Shield, and we were beginning to do well versus Kaiser. But back then it was all about for-profit HMOs. So we created an HMO ourselves, and got heavily involved in managed care—I had a lot of ideas about segmenting the population. My theory was, if you look at Americans, they don’t know much about health policy, but they know a lot about the rights and privileges of consumers.

What consumers do is make choices. They decide what is best for themselves and their families. HMOs are all about forcing you into a way of doing business. Our company was all about choice and options. It’s administratively very complex, but consumers like it.

So we created all these products. But you need money to build systems, and money to take risks, so we created this HMO, which we took public, called Wellpoint. We sold 20 percent of it to the public, and it gave us a couple of things. One, it gave us capital to do some things; two, it gave us acquisition capital—we could use stock to buy things, which is what all the HMOs were doing at that time; and three, it gave us stock options and other things to attract people to the company. And it was extremely successful. But there was a lot of confusion at the Blue Cross level, and a lot of confusion among our customers. The basic issue was, “Look, you’ve got this HMO, you are making money hand over fist, why don’t you cut my Blue Cross insurance premium?” The answer is because you go to jail if you do that. Blue Cross is a not-for-profit,

Wellpoint is a separate entity, and people couldn’t figure that out.

So we did what’s called a recapitalization, where Wellpoint bought Blue Cross, and in the process (and I’m very proud of this), we set up the sixth largest philanthropy in America. We created two foundations—The California Endowment and the California HealthCare Foundation. And we became a forprofit, then we became shareholder-owned— and therefore became subject to this rigor and oversight that the stock markets require.

We had done pretty well in California—we are a very big company, by Blue and other standards, but we had relatively small market share, so we had tremendous opportunity in California.

Well, Wall Street looks beyond that, and says, “Yeah, you’ve got plenty of opportunity, but you are subject to only one government, only one regulator, only one economy.” It made them nervous. So we began to diversify risk, so that we’d be in different economic regions of the United States, be subject to different regulators, and there would be different opportunities. We began buying other companies, and we did 17 transactions for a little over $4 billion, and went from being a California company to being the second largest health insurance company in the United States.

SS: So the major lesson in that is to take the bull by the horns, find out what are the problems, make the changes quickly and decisively, and get on with it.

LS: You need different management techniques at different times. If you look back on the history of our company, the first stage is the turnaround. You need top-down, autocratic, “Here’s what you are going to do.” “Why?” “Because I told you to do it.” Top-down, directed, tell people what to do. You don’t have to be right, you just have to keep moving.

The problem is you can come out of a tailspin that way, but you can’t really attract good people. You’ve got to be awfully smart to run a

company that big and tell everyone what to do.

Nobody is that smart. So the second thing is participative management, where you bring people in, and they add value, and they create value. Totally different management style. The autocratic boss is the boss from hell after a couple of years. Nobody wants to work for that guy. You change or you’re not successful. You can’t do something for 20 years and use the same techniques. So you change from that topdown style to what we call, for lack of a better word, participative.

Now, participative is not democratic. Hierarchal organizations don’t work if they are run democratically. But participative is different from autocratic. Everybody says they hate meetings. I think meetings are very good, if you’ve got smart people and they’re willing to fight for what they believe. I go in to a meeting, I know what I want, here’s what we are going to do. If you have enough smart people around the table, they’ll say “No, what about this, what about that, what about the other thing?” And you end up with a much better solution, but you don’t vote.

The next phase, after you get people who are pretty good and can run the railroad, you’ve got to begin to look outside the company, because all this internal stuff makes the company run well, but the real question isn’t whether it’s running well, but whether you’re creating something that is valuable to customers. A leader has got to shift from internal concerns to external concerns. You’ve got to give up day-to-day control, which is very scary if your success is built on being in control. I can have impact and control over the company, but I can’t control the external environment. Harry Truman said, “As president of the United States, I have no line of authority over anyone except the military, and anything I ask them to do, it’s probably too late.” He said he spent all day trying to convince people to do what he wanted them to do because it was in their own self-interest. And that’s what you have to do.

Public Health

27

Faculty News

Faculty News and Notes John Balmes, M.D., professor of environmental health sciences, received funding from the Centers for Disease Control to support the Berkeley Center for Environmental Health Tracking. The center will continue to work on building a national Environmental Public Health Tracking (EPHT) network, the ultimate goal of which is to help technical and non-technical audiences understand the relationships among environmental factors, exposures, and health outcomes, and to encourage them to act on this knowledge. Specific aims fall into three categories: asthma surveillance and the environment, assessment and characterization of environmental factors (hazards) and exposures, and environmental justice and health disparities. The Berkeley center will also establish an internship program for students to train them in EPHT and a consultative group among EPHT program partners and other critical stakeholders to build capacity through ongoing communication of relevant knowledge, project accomplishments, barriers, and lessons learned.

hope to determine whether the GSTM1null genotype renders children more susceptible and the GSTP1val105 variant less susceptible to the development of particulate matter-induced oxidative stress and chronic respiratory effects, and to continue development and field testing of innovative air pollution exposure assessment methods.

Balmes and Kirk R. Smith, Ph.D., M.P.H., the Brian and Jennifer Maxwell

Block also received funding from the University of Pittsburgh/National Institute on Aging for instrument design and data analysis for the “Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation III/Coordinating Center.” The multi-site study examines the natural history of menopause.

Endowed Chair in Maternal and Child Health, received funding from the NIH National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences for “Chronic Respiratory Effects of Early Life PM Exposure.” The five-year longitudinal study is a followup of a birth cohort enrolled in the NIH-funded “Guatemala Stove Intervention Study” and will examine the long-term effects of high exposure to biomass smoke during the critical period of lung development in childhood. The study is designed to determine whether exposure to higher levels of particulate matter during the first 18 months of life is associated with increased respiratory symptoms, bronchodilator responsiveness, sensitization to aeroallergens, and decreased rate of growth of lung function and somatic growth. Researchers also

28

University of California, Berkeley

Gladys Block, Ph.D., professor of epidemiology and public health nutrition, was awarded funding from the U.K. charity Children with Leukaemia for her research on “Effects of Maternal and Child Diet Folate Metabolism Gene Variants on Childhood Leukemia Risk.”

The research builds upon data from an ongoing epidemiologic study of childhood leukemia to examine whether folate metabolic gene and DNA repair variants, and the diet of the mother and child, act separately or in combination in affecting leukemia risk. The study will also explore the modifying effects of folate metabolic and DNA repair gene variation on the relationship between diet and disease.

Gertrude Buehring, Ph.D., associate professor of virology, was awarded a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services National Cancer Institute to further her research into the possible links between bovine leukemia virus and human breast cancer. This collaborative project with Kaiser Permanente San Rafael will explore the relationship between antibodies to the virus and the presence of the virus in white blood cells and breast tissue of breast cancer patients. Adjunct professor of epidemiology Michael Bates, Ph.D., is a collaborator on the project.

Patricia Buffler, Ph.D., M.P.H., dean emerita and the Kenneth Howard Kaiser & Marjorie Witherspoon Kaiser Endowed Chair in Cancer Epidemiology, received a Berkeley Research Futures Grant for the “Biologic and Environmental Risk Factors for Childhood Brain Tumors” project. The grant, sponsored by the Vice Chancellor for Research, is awarded to faculty to support the development of large, multidisciplinary research grant applications. The multicenter project based at UC Berkeley involves the UCSF School of Medicine, Stanford School of Medicine, USC School of Medicine, the California Department of Health Services, and the Northern California Cancer Center. The application to the multi-center project will be submitted to the NIH in October 2006.

Buffler also received funding from the U.K. charity Children with Leukaemia for her study, “Individual Genetic Susceptibility and Environmental Exposures in the Etiology of Childhood Leukemia.” The study will utilize data from the Northern California Childhood Leukemia Study to examine the role of child and maternal susceptibility factors conferred by functional metabolic and transport gene polymorphisms and haplotypes in modifying the effect of environmental exposures on the risk of childhood leukemia. Exposures include parental smoking, known carcinogens in traffic emissions, and pesticides.

The council of the International Epidemiology Association elected Buffler as its North America representative for the Congress of Epidemiology meeting held in Seattle June 21–24. The organization was founded in 1954 to provide a forum on developments in epidemiology of global significance.

Faculty News

Dean’s Office: Comings and Goings The California Department of Health Services (CDHS) provided continued funding for “The Perinatal Outcomes Project,” led by professor of public health Ralph Catalano, Ph.D., M.R.P. The ongoing project is a collaboration with the CDHS Maternal, Child, and Adolescent Health Branch and the Regional Perinatal Programs of California (RPPC). The goal of the project is to provide all the maternity hospitals in California with meaningful data that they can use for the purpose of continuous quality improvement. A web site has been developed to distribute confidential hospital reports, which include information about live birth demographics; fetal, neonatal, and postneonatal mortality rates; and cause of death for all perinatal deaths.

Additionally, aggregate regional and statewide reports are available on the website to help the RPPC target its regional quality improvement efforts.

Brenda Eskenazi, Ph.D., professor of epidemiology, received a CaliforniaMexico Health and Migration grant for research into how migration affects childhood overweight and obesity.

The study will compare five year-old children in a migrant community in California with a sample of five-yearold children residing in the communities from which the parents in California emigrated. Eskenazi, along with doctoral student Lisa Goldman, M.P.H. ’02, plans to test the hypothesis that migration affects risk factors for childhood overweight and obesity such as diet, physical activity, television watching, and environmental factors.

Eskenazi and Nina Holland, Ph.D., adjunct associate professor in genetics and toxicology, also received federal funding research to determine whether PON1 genotype and/or activity in populations exposed to pesticides is an early indicator

of environmentally induced disease. The study will inform future policy decisions regarding allowable pesticide exposure to pregnant women and children necessary for the implementation of the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996.

Paul Gertler, Ph.D., Li Ka Shing Distinguished Professor of Health Policy and Management, received support from the American Council on Education/ USAID for “UCB/INSP Collaborative Training in HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis,” a collaborative, multilevel training program focused on HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis (TB) prevention and care, formed by UC Berkeley and the Mexican National Institute of Public Health (INSP). UC Berkeley faculty and staff will work with INSP faculty and staff to develop and implement an HIV/AIDS/ TB track within INSP’s master’s degree programs in science, public health, and the joint Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE)/INSP master’s program in health economics. INSP will also expand its professional certification program; develop electives and short-courses to be taught by UC Berkeley, INSP, and collaborating faculty; provide research mentorship to INSP students at UC Berkeley, and assist with placing students in productive internship positions within the field. School of Public Health lecturer Sandra Dratler, Dr.P.H. ’99, and Kristiana Raube, Ph.D., both with the Haas School of Business’s Graduate Program in Health Services Management, are also principal investigators for the project.

S. Katharine Hammond, Ph.D., professor of environmental health sciences, was appointed to the WHO Study Group on Tobacco Product Regulation. The group

Continued on page 30

Acting deans Robert Spear (left) and Ralph Catalano

On July 1, 2006, Dean Stephen M. Shortell, Ph.D., M.P.H., begins a year-long sabbatical as a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences affiliated with Stanford University. Professor of public health Ralph Catalano, Ph.D., M.R.P., will serve as acting dean for the fall semester, followed in the spring semester by Robert Spear, Ph.D., chair of the Environmental Health Sciences Division.

Professor and associate dean for academic affairs W. Thomas Boyce, M.D., begins a leave from UC Berkeley to accept a position at the University of British Columbia in Canada. Professor of health policy and management Joan Bloom, Ph.D., will serve as acting dean of academic affairs.

Petris Symposium Addresses California Health Policy

Kimberly Belshé, M.A. (right), secretary of the California Health and Human Services agency, talks with Richard Scheffler, Ph.D. (left), director of the Nicholas C. Petris Center on Health Care Markets and Consumer Welfare, and Stephen Shortell, Ph.D., M.P.H., dean of the School, at the “2006 Petris Symposium: Toward a Health Policy Agenda for All Californians.” Belshé delivered the keynote address at the April 21 event.

Public Health

29

Faculty News

Faculty News and Notes, continued provides WHO with the recommendations for addressing the most effective and scientifically sound means to achieve a coordinated regulatory framework for tobacco products. In 2003, the member states unanimously adopted the world’s first public health treaty, the “WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control,” designed to reduce tobaccorelated deaths and disease around the world. She is currently on leave working at the Tobacco Free Initiative at the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland, where on May 26 she gave a briefing about the health effects of secondhand smoke to delegates at the World Health Assembly annual meeting. She also gave a talk at WHO headquarters on “World No Tobacco Day.” Hammond also received continued funding for “Sustaining Cessation in Smokers with Kids with Asthma” from the NIH. Previous research demonstrated that enhancing the perception of the risks of smoking to the smoker and the child doubled the odds of smoking abstinence two months later, but that this disappeared after six months. The current project, undertaken with colleagues at Brown University, aims to assess the “teachable moment” and examine the effectiveness of adding a relapse prevention component. The grant will allow researchers to evaluate environmental tobacco smoke exposure of the child to evaluate changes in the exposures, and to develop materials to convey this information to the smoking parents.

Nina Holland, Ph.D., associate adjunct professor in genetics and toxicology, was a co-lead author for a study on varying susceptibility to organophosphate pesticides among Latina women and children. The paper, which appeared in March in the journal Pharmacogenetics

30

University of California, Berkeley

and Genomics, reports that adults and especially newborns range widely in their sensitivity to certain organophosphate pesticides such as diazinon and chlorpyrifos, which are used primarily in agriculture. This variation (65- to 130-fold) exceeds pesticide safety factors for children, and raises questions about the effectiveness of current EPA standards for safe levels of exposure, particularly for children.

The pesticides are currently restricted for household use, but are allowed for some structural uses, such as treatment of home foundations. In addition, the approved use in agriculture presents possible exposure risks for the women and children in the area. The study, conducted through the Center for the Health Assessment of Mothers and Children of Salinas (CHAMACOS), included 130 Latina women and their newborns.

Holland was also awarded an NIH grant for research to investigate the health effects of PON1, an enzyme that detoxifies organophosphate pesticides in the body. The research includes developing a PON1 gene haplotype map for the Latino population, examining the ontogeny of PON1 enzyme activity in children, establishing whether PON1 genotype and activity are associated with pesticides in maternal and cord blood, and determining whether PON1 effects growth and neurodevelopment in children.

Charles, Prince of Wales, invited associate adjunct professor Richard Jackson, M.D., M.P.H. ’79, to speak in London on the built environment and health care facilities. Jackson and the prince both addressed a January

conference on public health and design organized by the Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment and the King’s Fund. The conference included senior representatives of the Royal College of Physicians, the National Health Service, and the Royal Institute of British Architects.

Sangwei Lu, Ph.D., assistant adjunct professor, received support for “Intestinal Colonization of Mice and Chickens by Salmonella Enteritidis.” The grant, awarded by the USDA Cooperative State Research Service, will support multidisciplinary research to gain a systematic understanding of how the pathogen Salmonella colonizes the intestines of hosts and is transmitted to other hosts.

The study aims to identify colonization factors, which can then be used to develop strategies to prevent the spread of Salmonella in food animals, and reduce transmission to humans.

Mark Nicas, Ph.D., C.I.H., associate adjunct professor of environmental health sciences, received funding from the California Department of Health Services for the project, “Protecting Workers from Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes: Evaluating the Feasibility of Implementing Occupational Coding on Patient Information Forms.” The project will identify occupations and chemical exposures that pose risks of developmental toxicity for a cohort of pregnant patients and evaluate the feasibility of using occupational codes on patient information forms to identify at-risk exposures on an ongoing basis. This information will help Hazard Evaluation System and Information Services provide early warnings to workers, employers, and health care providers on ways to prevent harmful exposures to reproductive and developmental toxicants.

Faculty News

Williams Honored as Outstanding African American Faculty Emily Ozer, Ph.D., assistant professor of community health and human development, was selected as a William T. Grant Scholar for her research project, “Adolescents as Resources in School-Based Prevention.” The grant is a national competition for scholars from any field who conduct research into child and adolescent development. The goal of the award is to support exceptional scholars early in their careers and provide them with resources, including five years of support for their research, and mentorship. Ozer was one of five recipients chosen through a highly competitive selection process.

state-of-the-art organizational theory and research, the emphasis is on application through features such as “In the Real World” and “Debate Times,” which present actual situations and challenge the reader to provide a solution or a philosophical position.

Arthur Reingold, M.D., head of the School’s Epidemiology Division, was chosen by the University of Michigan epidemiology faculty to deliver the 34th annual Thomas Francis, Jr., Memorial Lecture. Reingold’s lecture, presented in March, was titled, “From the Polio Vaccine Studies of Thomas Francis, Jr. to Studies of the Impact of Conjugate Pneumococcal Vaccine: The Need for Mega-Populations.”

Ira Tager, M.D., M.P.H., professor of epidemiology, received more than $3 million in funding from the Department of Health and Human Services to continue the longitudinal cohort study, the Fresno Asthmatic Children’s Environment Study.

The overall goal of the study is to determine if children with asthma who have adverse responses to short-term, daily increases in concentrations of ambient air pollutants and bioaerosols are more likely to have decreased lung function growth and increased long-term asthma morbidity.

Thomas Delmar Learning has published a fifth edition of Health Care Management: Organization Design and Behavior, by Dean Stephen M. Shortell, Ph.D., M.P.H., Blue Cross of California Distinguished Professor of Health Policy & Management, and Arnold K. Kaluzney, Ph.D., professor emeritus of health care administration at the University of North Carolina School of Public Health. The textbook brings a systematic understanding of organizational principles, practices, and insight to the management of health services organizations. While based on

Kimberly Solomon, M.P.H., M.B.A.,

recently joined the Health Policy & Management Division as the new M.P.H. program director and lecturer. Solomon’s research focuses on the health care workforce, market analysis, and strategic management and planning.

Kevin Williams, J.D., M.P.H., lecturer and field program supervisor at the Center for Public Health Practice, was named Outstanding African American Faculty of the Year at the “Berkeley Conference of African Americans” in March. Williams was nominated and selected for the award by students. He was presented with the honor at the conference gala, where he was applauded for being “a wonderful listener, adviser, and most importantly, role model.” Pictured above, Williams (right) receives congratulations from his father, Carl M. Williams, Sr. Below, Williams (center) with (left to right) Mr. and Mrs. Ben Smith; Williams’s mother, Niculia “Nikki” Williams; his wife, Mecca Williams; and his father.

Michael Tartar, Ph.D., professor of biostatistics, was elected chair of the Section on Risk Analysis for the American Statistical Association, a scientific and educational society with the mission of promoting excellence in the application of statistical science across the wealth of human endeavor.

The Section on Risk Analysis studies risk analysis and assessment and develops applications of these to various subject matter areas.

Public Health

31

Partners in Public Health

School of Public Health Policy Advisory Council 2005–2006

Foundations Support Advanced Training for Health Leaders

Margaret Cary, M.D., M.B.A., M.P.H. (Chair) Special Advisor, Medical-Surgical Services, Veteran’s Health Administration

The School has received $175,000 from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and $50,000 from the Thomas J. Long Foundation to support the Advanced Health Leadership Forum (AHLF), a joint program of UC Berkeley and the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, Spain.

The purpose of the forum is to enhance the quality of health care leadership globally, bringing together 25 senior health care leaders from developing and developed countries and from a mix of occupations with expert faculty and distinguished guest speakers. The foundation support will help AHLF overcome its greatest obstacle, which is the inability of many applicants from Africa and other developing countries to attend the forum.

Raymond J. Baxter, Ph.D. National Senior Vice President, Community Benefit, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospitals Terri Carlson, M.P.H. ’84 UC Berkeley Parents Fund Larry Brilliant, M.D., M.P.H. Executive director, Google.org Founder and Chair, Seva Foundation Peter F. Carpenter, M.B.A. Founder, Mission and Values Institute Alfred W. Childs, M.D., M.P.H. ‘64 Physician Linda Hawes Clever, M.D., M.A.C.P. Chief, Occupational Health, California Pacific Medical Center Founder, RENEW Abla A. Creasey, Ph.D. ’78 Vice President, Biological Sciences, ALZA Corporation Lauren LeRoy, Ph.D. President and CEO, Grantmakers in Health Leslie Louie, Ph.D. ’90, M.P.H. ’85 President, Public Health Alumni Association Director, School-Based Health Clinics and Practice Administrator, Children’s Hospital and Research Center at Oakland Nancy K. Lusk Chairman of the Board, The Lusk Company

“The presence of developing countries and their interaction with participants from the more developed countries is essential to our vision of shared learning and raising awareness across countries of the global health challenges, successful approaches, and how they can be applied in very different settings,” said Dean Stephen Shortell, Ph.D., M.P.H. “Support from these two foundations will enable us to increase participation of leaders from developing countries.”

The Advanced Health Leadership Forum program focuses on key health policy, management, and implementation issues facing all countries. Now

in its third cycle, the program includes a seven-day session in Barcelona in July 2006, followed by a second seven-day session in San Francisco in January 2007. Participants will complete a work-related project with a faculty mentor between the two sessions and share their results with each other.

In addition to leadership training, issues addressed will include how to design and implement payment programs, how to design public-private health insurance and delivery partnerships, designing benefit packages, implementing approaches for improving quality of care, assessing new technologies, regulating and pricing pharmaceuticals, and preparing for infectious disease outbreaks.

Faculty directors Richard M. Scheffler, Ph.D., from UC Berkeley and Pere Ibern, Ph.D., from the Universitat Pompeu Fabra will customize the curriculum based on participant interest and input. They note that increasing the participation from developing countries will also help reshape the curriculum and benefit faculty and participants from developed countries. “The interactions will heighten understanding of global challenges such as creating infrastructure, eradicating diseases, and the role of public-private partnerships. And all parties will learn from the innovative solutions that are being adapted in developing countries,” said Scheffler.

Martin Paley, M.P.H. ’58 Management Consultant Arnold X. C. Perkins Director, Alameda County Public Health Department Lisa Stone Pritzker Advocate and activist for child, adolescent, and women’s health J. Leighton Read, M.D. General Partner, Alloy Ventures L. James Strand, M.D., M.B.A. General Partner, Institutional Venture Partners Kenneth S. Taymor, Esq. Attorney-at-Law, MBV Law LLP Barbara S. Terrazas, M.P.H. ’76 Director, Planning, Development, and Policy Tiburcio Vasquez Health Center, Inc. 32

University of California, Berkeley

Participants at the January 2006 session of the Advanced Health Leadership Forum.

Partners in Public Health

Partners in Public Health Donor Honor Roll 2004–2005 The School of Public Health gratefully acknowledges the following individuals and organizations for their generous contributions from July 1, 2004 to June 30, 2005. $100,000 and Above Roni Leitner Helen Thorall $10,000 to $99,999 Betty G. Austin Patricia & Richard Buffler Marjorie Hunt J. Michael Mahoney Edward & Camille Penhoet J. Leighton & Carol Read Allan & Meera Smith $5,000 to $9,999 Gertrude & William Buehring Peter Carpenter & Jane Shaw Elizabeth Clark Ranu Grewal-Bahl Frances Hamblin Stefan & Kelly Maxwell Gordon & Betty Moore Julie Still $1,000 to $4,999 Mardelle Buss Eleanor & George Cernada Farah Champsi Alice Chetkovich Alfred & Eunice Childs Linda & James Clever Abla & Frank Creasey Margaret Deane Garold & Joyce Faber Gerald & Lorraine Factor David & Ellen Feigal Susan & James Foerster Elizabeth Fray Charles Fulhorst Wallace Gee Virginia Gladney Richard Gosselin David & Katharine Hopkins Jeffrey Kang & Brenda Lee-Kang Catherine & James Koshland Virginia & Franklin Lew Nancy Lusk & Michael Smith Lynne & Bruce Man Walter & Gwendal Miner Paul & Susan Penko Janet Perlman & Carl Blumstein Robert & Mary Porter Darwin & Donna Poulos Sarah & Steven Presser William & Barbara Reeves William & Mary Jane Reeves Shirley Roach Shirley Roberts Martha Roper Michelle Schwartz Rosalind Singer Maury Spanier L. James Strand

Paul & Andrea Swenson Kenneth & Patricia Taylor Kenneth Taymor & Elizabeth Parker Eric Vittinghoff Warren Winkelstein $500 to $999 Marcelle Abell-Rosen & Andrew Rosen Pamela & Rodrick Alston Raymond Baxter Robert & Meg Beck Seiko Baba Brodbeck Elizabeth Calfee Margaret Cary Po-Shen Chang & Julie Craig-Chang James & Anne Chin Bernard Cordes Patricia & Roger Crawford Adam Darkins Robert & Margo Derzon Jean Dixon Ursula & Jeffrey Edman Patricia Evans Daniel & Sandra Feldman Michael & Sandra Fischman David & Myrna Francy Michael Gallivan & Rice Douglas Mary Beahrs Grah James & Patricia Harrison Karl Johnson Julia Klees Eleanor Langpaap Francina Lozada-Nur Elizabeth Martini Arthur McIntyre Mary & Raymond Murakami Mary & Craig Noke Artist Parker Diana Petitti Mary Pittman-Lindeman & David Lindeman Arthur Reingold & Gail Bolan Carleton & Maureen Rider Mary Riese Leon & Anne Marie Rosen Jean Schaefer Janet Schilling Stephen & Susan Shortell William & Jacqueline Smith Shoshanna Sofaer & Lawrence Bergner Robert & Patricia Spear Richard Stephens & Sherrill Cook Constantine & Nancy Tempelis Barbara & Alfredo Terrazas May-Choo & Lingtao Wang Liane & Mitchell Wong William Yip & Ting Ho

At the Spring Alumni Brunch and Silent Auction, Public Health Alumni Assocation board member Lucinda Bazile, M.P.H. ’94, admires an autographed Oakland Raiders football, while fellow board member P. Robert Beatty, Ph.D. ’94, looks on.

$250 to $499 Barbara Abrams & Gary Root Ernest & Joan Altekruse Ramona Anderson Anonymous John Balmes & Sherry Katz John & Ruth Bellows Michelle Berlin & Robert Lowe Gladys & Clifford Block Joan & Howard Bloom Margaret Boyd Warren Browner Chin Long & Fu Chen Chiang Carol & Ronald Clazie Nancy Chapman Colb & Andrew Colb Douglas & Jacqueline Corley Sarah Cox David Crouch Richard & Arlene Daniels Barbara De Riemer James & Dorothy Devitt Kathryn Duke & Niels Kjellund John & Marlene Eastman Susan & Michael Eckhardt Sanford Elberg Bruce & Shirley Eldridge Claire Feder Robin Gillies Sally Glaser & R. D. Bower Christine Glogow Erica & Barry Goode Alan & Sheila Gordon Sylvie Griffiths Frederick Grose Victoria & Nelden Hagbom S. Katharine Hammond Thomas Hazlet John Hillman & Leta Leiman Arnell Hinkle & John Wolfe Genevieve Ho Alberta Horn Richard Jackson & Joan Guilford Melissa Jacobson Jerry & Darlene Jones

A. Arlene Kasa Marjorie Keck Laurence Kolonel Audrey Lau & B. D. Rodgers Che Keung & Chi Sim Lau Huy Le Leslie Louie & David Bowen Donald & Elaine Ludwig Robert & Sharlene Lund Caroline McCall & Eric Martin George & Joanne McKray Leslie Mikkelsen Shannon Mitchell J.C. & Lark Montgomery Jeffrey Newman Lisa & Roger Ota Catherine & Roderic Park Carol Parlette Arnold & Karen Perkins Karen Pertschuk Myrto-Xeni & Andrew Petreas Frederick Pintz & Helen Fragua Malcolm Potts & Martha Campbell Jeanne Raisler & Jonathan Cohn Joseph & Nancy Restuccia Barbara Rever & Jerry Ginsburg Sidney & Sally Saltzstein Frances Saunders Gordon & Rosemary Seck Nancy & Robert Shurtleff Kirk Smith & Joan Diamond John & Gail Swartzberg S. Leonard & Marilyn Syme Aline Thistlethwaite Claudine Torfs John Troidl Resa & Matthew Warner Michael Weiss Patricia & Phillip West Katherine & Robert Westpheling Carol & George Woltring Brian Wong & Cindy Gok Susan Yeazel & Richard Seegers Richard Younge & Yukiko Umemoto Jeremy Zhou Public Health

33

Partners in Public Health

Partners in Public Health Donor Honor Roll 2004–2005

William Harrison, M.P.H. ’06, (left) and Eduard Flores, B.A. ’06, (center), chairs of the 2006 Class Gift Committee, present a check to Dean Stephen Shortell.

$100 to $249 George & Susan Abbott T. Elaine Adamson & Edward Gould Thomas & Ann Akers E.R. Alexander Adele Amodeo Richard & Carlene Anderson Richard Bailey Dean Baker Lesley Bennett & Jayson Pereira Christine & Mitchell Berman Chhaganbhai & Sarojben Bhakta Caroline Bowker Laura Brown Evelyn Caceres-Chu & Albert Chu Grant Campbell Peggy Chan & Frederick Gladstone Nick Chiotras Michael & Jan Clar Ashley & Kenneth Coates Carol & S. Bruce Copeland Michael & Nan Criqui Nancy Lum Cuan & George Cuan Dale Danley David Dassey & Mark Zellers Gary & Martha Davidson Harry & Laurie Davis Robert & Merle Davis Brandon & Shirley DeFrancisci Doris & Carl Disbrow Martha Dominguez Sandra & Jerry Dratler David Dube & Ruth Rettig Flora Fernandez Julie Fishman & Terry Pechacek Julie Frederick-Metos & Tim Metos Dava & Donald Freed Carol Giblin

34

University of California, Berkeley

Amy Goldberg & Mark Day Laurel & Michael Gothelf L. Martin & Joyce Griffin Alexander Hall Jean Hankin David Harrington & Denise Abrams Geraldine Henchy Daniel Hernandez Glenn & Jan Hildebrand Carolyn Hoke-Van Orden & Frank Van Orden Elizabeth Holly Marjorie Hughes Jeffrey Hunter William Keene Kenneth & Marchelle Kesler Thomas & Shirley Ksiazek Robert & Susan Lane Joyce & Richard Lashof Kelvin Lee Melisse Leung Donald Lewis Fenyong Liu & Sangwei Lu Cara Mai Carol Marquez David Matherly Sarah McCarthy Alan & Margaret McKay Thomas & Virginia McKone Jennifer McNary & Mark Nicas Hellmut Meister Nikki & Larry Meredith Robert Miller & Paula Shadle Janet Mohle-Boetani & Mark Monasse Rachel Morello-Frosch & David Eifler Ralph & Jane Myhre

Linda Neuhauser & Craig Buxton Nora Norback David Null Mary O’Connor & Emil Brown Nanette & John Orman Marjorie Plumb Candice Poon Catherine Prato Valerie Randolph & Donald Fenbert Judith & John Ratcliffe Reimert & Betty Ravenholt Irene Reed Lee Riley & Jesse Furman Anna Robbert Silvestre & Victor Silvestre Anthony & Barbara Rooklin Zak Sabry & Ruth Fremes Martha Sandy & Qi Dang Gopal & Andrea Sankaran Catherine Schaefer Betty Seabolt Donna Seid Donna Shelley Yasuko & Sei Shohara Robert Simon James Slaggert Nicole Smith Usha & Bharat Srinivasan Mark & Nanelle Sullivan Corinna & William Tempelis Geoffrey Thompson Richard & Mary Haven Thompson Feng Tsai Michael & Barbara Turell Natalia & Mikhail Varhshavski Da-Hong Wang John Williams Therese Wilson H. Leabah Winter & Barry Dorfman Linda Young $1 to $99 Mary & Donald Abeyta-Behnke Beatrice & Larry Abrams Anita Addison Jennifer Ahern & Yohance Edwards M. Bridget Ahrens & Jean Szilva Jerianne Alberti Carolyn Albrecht Ellen & Paul Alkon Nancy Altemus Victor & Karen Alterescu Henry & Virginia Anderson Laura & Calvin Anderson Katharine Go Ang & David Ang Bradley & Elizabeth Appelbaum Michael Apte Balan & Gurdeep Arakoni Tania & James Araujo Jennifer Armstrong-Wells & Jason Wells Ann-Marie Askew Betty Austin

Howard Backer Katherine Baer Anna Bagniewska Robin Baker Amity Balbutin-Burnham Shelly Ball Jennifer Balogh Hoang Banh & Charles Aldred Martha Baptie Joseph & Clara Barbaccia Samuel & Carol Barboo Cecilia Barbosa Roland Bardony John Barker Marilyn Barkin Marina Baroff Mark Barrett Philippa Barron & Jeffrey Pilsuk Paul Barry David Bartel Cheryl Barth & Tom McCurdie Elaine Base Amy Bassell-Crowe & Jeffrey Crowe Robert & Linda Bates Sarah Bates Suzanne Battaglia Herbert & Hanna Bauer Lucinda & Ronald Bazile Rodney Beard John Beare P. Robert Beatty Gerald & Pamela Beck Godfrey Becks & Patricia Malicoat-Becks Robin Bedell-Waite & Thomas Waite James & Lisa Behrmann Monica Belyea & Stephen Smith Kenneth & Tamara Benau Catherine Bender Stephanie Bender-Kitz & Kevin Kitz Dorothy & Vernon Bengal Lester & Evelyn Bennett Alan Berg Joyce Berger Muriel & Paul Beroza Keith Betts Trinidad Bidar Dennis Black Kirsten Black Carolyn Blackwood Babette & Sydney Bloch Karen Bloch & David Morgan Lauren Blumenfeld Tanya Bobo Nora & John Boothby Jane & Lavern Borg Maria Boria-Berna & James Berna Michele Boudinot Frances Bowman W. Thomas & Jill Boyce James Boyer Anne Bracker & Jefferson Singer Lynda Bradford

Partners in Public Health

Margaret Bradford Aumann & Donald Aumann Joan Bradus & Dale Friedman Jeffrey Braff Judith Bramson Priscilla Branch Ellen & Nelson Branco Robert & Barbara Brandt Peggy Brandt Russell Braun Joseph Brazie Donald Brecker & Ann Darling Letitia Brewster & David Walton Megan Briggs Tangerine Brigham Lawrence & Girija Brilliant Claire & Ralph Brindis Kenneth & Donna Briney Iris & Howard Britton John & Mary Brockert Barbara Broderick Irene Bronston & John Wilson Jacqueline Brooks-Hanel & Daniel Hanel Claude Brown Coralie & Matthew Brown Jeffrey & Cathleen Brown Jeffrey Brown Julie Brown Robert Brown & Susan Wilson-Brown Marcia Brown-Machen & Terry Machen Katherine Bryon & Todd Kotler Hayley Buchbinder Merrill Buice Alexandre Bureau & Sylvie Marceau Colombe Burnett Caryl & John Burns Melissa Burton Kimberly Buss Rebekah & Thomas Butler Myfanwy Callahan Peter Callas & Karen Nepveu Barbara Campbell Edith Canfield Gerri Cannon-Smith Ann Capriotti-Hesketh & Peter Hesketh Gretchen & Charles Carlson Sarah Carmichael James Carpenter Kenneth & Antonina Carpenter Ralph & Betty Carpenter Herman Carrera Diana Cassady Arthur Castillo Edward & Joann Cavenaugh Anand & Michelle Chabra Raymond & Grace Chan Sue Chan Neha Chande Shawn Chandler

Doris Chang Hwa-Gan & Keh-Minn Chang Sophia Chang & Anson Lowe Patricia & Scott Charles Harriet Charney & Larry Sirott Helen Chase Patricia Chase Melody & Richard Chasen Hepei Chen & Jiang Ru Yue-Mei Cheng David & Stacie Cherner Marisa Cheung Roland & Sophie Chin Mary Chisholm Eric Chow Michael Choy Noel & Judith Chrisman Joyce Chung & Kevin Yang Lisa Chung Daniel Ciccarone Michele Cinq-Mars & John Neil Dolores & Samuel Clement Barnett & Nancy Cline Louis & Margaret Coccodrilli Janet Coffman Seymour Cohen Kelin & Stig Colberg Jenell Coleman Nancy Collins & Francesco Adinolfi Elena Conis Kitty Corbett & Craig Janes Laurence Corp Philip & J. Carolyn Cowan Lawrence & Constance Cowper Marguerite Cowtun & Henry Terrell Charles Crane & Wendy Breuer Lavera Crawley Eric & Lisa Craypo Alia Creasey Dorothy & Robert Creely Janice Crooks & Robert Jorgensen Jennifer Culp Lillian Cunningham Carol & James Cunradi Peter & Gwen Dailey Loring & Ann Dales Helena & James Daly Laurel & Stuart Davis Stephen Davis & Christine Laszcz-Davis Monique de Bruin & Ryan Schaper Sigrid Deeds Marlene Dehn Elizabeth Dell Orville & Helen Deniston Patricia & Walter Denn Colleen Denny-Garamendi & John Garamendi Louise Detwiler Rhea & Rajan Dev Debra & Michael DeZarn Ronald Dieckmann & Patricia Gates

Valerie Dixon Deborah Dobin & Scott Robinson David Dodds David & Reade Dornan William Dow Hellan & Bradley Dowden Harriet & Albert Draper Renee & Scott Drellishak Jean-Pierre Dueck Gordon Dugan

Erin Dugan & Brian Purcell Lisa & Leonard Duhl Ellen Dunn-Malhotra & Ripudaman Malhotra Kathleen Dylan Kathleen Earnhart Carey Eberle Molly & Kevin Efrusy Denis Egan Marcella Egenes

Decade Club Recognizing alumni and other individuals who have given for the past 10 years consecutively Nancy Altemus Adele Amodeo Ramona Anderson Anonymous Richard Bailey James & Lisa Behrmann Joan & Howard Bloom Judith Bramson Claude Brown Jeffrey & Cathleen Brown Patricia & Richard Buffler Ralph & Betty Carpenter Alice Chetkovich Alfred & Eunice Childs Linda & James Clever Margaret Deane John & Marlene Eastman Gerald & Lorraine Factor Michael & Sandra Fischman FMC Foundation Katharine & Daniel Frohardt-Lane Marilyn & Charles Froom Wallace Gee Carol Giblin Virginia Gladney Mildred Goodman Marian & Roger Gray Linda Greenberg & Hiroshi Motomura Sylvie Griffiths Joseph Guydish Frances Hamblin Jean Hankin Thomas Hazlet Dorith Hertz Glenn & Jan Hildebrand Donald & Marie Hochstrasser David & Katharine Hopkins Patricia & Harold Hosel David Hoskinson Mark & Estie Hudes Robert & Beverly Isman

Olive & D. M. Jack Robert Wood Johnson Foundation A. Arlene Kasa Jane Kenyon James & Sarah Kimmey Julia Klees Ruby Kuritsubo Clement & Donna Kwong Kelvin Lee Lynn Levin & Stanley Oshinsky William Light & Robin Vernay-Light Nancy Lusk & Michael Smith Mark Mendell Joan Milburn Donald & Elizabeth Minkler Meredith Minkler & Jerry Peters Jeffrey Newman Beata & Harlen Ng Joel & Phyllis Nitzkin Mary & Craig Noke Nova Fisheries, Inc. Mildred Patterson Darwin & Donna Poulos William & Mary Jane Reeves Lois Rifkin Shirley Roach The San Francisco Foundation Leigh Sawyer & Gerald Quinnan Donna Shelley Nancy & Robert Shurtleff Mitchell & Bonita Singal Rosalind Singer Esmond Smith Kirk Smith & Joan Diamond Robert & Patricia Spear Susan Standfast & Theodore Wright Bruce Steir & Yen Aeschliman Laurence & Ann Sykes John Troidl Katherine & Robert Westpheling Michael Williams Public Health

35

Partners in Public Health

Partners in Public Health Donor Honor Roll 2004–2005

Public Health Alumni Association past board president John Eastman, Ph.D., M.P.H ’80, and his wife Marlene (front) and associate dean Jeffrey Oxendine and his son Jake check out auction items at the Spring Alumni Brunch and Silent Auction.

Kathleen & Gerald Eisman Eric Elkin Richard Emmons & Barbara Voorhees-Emmons Robert Emrey & Maureen Norton Joseph Engelman Steven Englender Maria Enriquez Katherine Ensign Frederick & Jean Erdtman Shannon & Andrew Erstad Brenda Eskenazi & Eric Lipsitt Yvonne Esler Maria & Michael Faer Meridel Fahsl Barbara Famularo Glenn & Marian Farrell Lynn & Kurt Fielder Robin & Mark Fine Gerald & Linda Finer Kari Fisher Brendan & Luciana Flannery Carol & James Floyd Neil Flynn E Lynn Fraley & Kenneth Lindahl Karen Franchino & Reed Foster Robert Frangenberg & Ingrid Lamivault Thelma Fraziear Saul & Rita Friedlander 36

University of California, Berkeley

Jonathan Frisch Katharine & Daniel Frohardt-Lane Marilyn & Charles Froom Elena Fuentes-Afflick Daniel Funderburk Francisco Gallegos David Gan Celeste Garamendi John Garcia Laura Gardner Carole & Carl Garner John Garrison Theresa & Michael Gasman Joan Gates Jack & Karen Geissert Donald Gentner James Gentry & Patrick Dunn Jennifer & Raymond Gerhardt Nancy Gilien Philip Gillette Marjorie Ginsburg & Howard Slyter Alan & Sharonn Gittelsohn Giovanna Giuliani Martha Goetsch & Linda Besant Betty & Larry Goldblatt Suzie Golden Marilyn & Amos Goldhaber Orville & Ellina Golub Phyllis & Henry Gomez Janice Goode

Mildred Goodman Joan Gorrell June Goshi & Samuel Sweitzer Virginia & Larry Gotlieb Deanne & Sidney Gottfried Jeffrey & Benina Gould Gloria & Alfonso Grace Jill & Larry Granger Michael & Kazue Granich Doris Grasshoff Howard Graves & Julie Baller Marian & Roger Gray Sharon & Barry Gray Susan & Lowell Greathouse Lawrence Green & Judith Ottoson Linda Greenberg & Hiroshi Motomura Nathaniel & Ella Greenhouse Edna Grexton Bernard & Marilyn Griego Gail & Thomas Grogan Ruth & Edward Grogan William & Lynda Gross Nina Grove & Kenneth Johnson Richard Grundy & Jamei Haswell Erica & Casey Gunderson Karen & Richard Gunderson Robert Gunier & Andrea Saveri Jeffrey Gunzenhauser & Dianna Chooljian Richard Gustilo Joseph Guydish Anne Gwiazdowski & William Andersen Peter Haas & Miriam Lurie Hass Jill Hacker-Chavez & Raymond Chavez Corazon Halasan Amy Halio Nora Hall Terrance & Lily Hall Margaret Handley & Leif Hass Jovine Hankins Howard Hansell Frances Hanson Sandra Hare Lisa Harnack Gary Harper Robert & Martha Harrell Joan Harris Wendy Hartogensis Roger Haskell Susan & Stephen Haskell Richard & Carol Hayes Susan Helmrich & Richard Levine Darryl Henley & Shelly Hamilton Dorith Hertz John & Rebecca Hess Alfred & Stella Hexter Elizabeth & David Hibbard Elaine & Joseph Hiel George & Doris Highland Marisa Hildebrand Warren & Miriam Hill

Richard Hirsh Rosemary Hoban Donald & Marie Hochstrasser Arthur Hoffman Paul & Lois Hofmann Arlen & Helen Hoh Karen Holbrook Nina Holland Arthur Hollister Hallie & Gilbert Holtzman Heidi Hopkins Rita Hose Patricia & Harold Hosel David Hoskinson John Hough William & Charlotte Howatt Elizabeth & John Howe Grace Hsu Colin & Jacquelyn Hubbard Mark & Estie Hudes Linda Hughes Nancie & Thomas Hughes Sally & Trevor Hughes Stanley & Jill Husted Julia Hutchins Constance Huye & Lance Smith Roy & Joanne Ikeda Laurel Imhoff Jin In Ellen & Donald Irie Robert & Beverly Isman Mary & Yoshio Itaya John & Lillian Iversen Olive & D. M. Jack James Jackson Mary & Kraig Jacobson Loisann Jacovitz Nidhi Jain Brennan & Fitzgerald James Patricia James Roland & Reona James Sarah Janssen Marion Jarrett Jessica Jeffrey Marie Jenkins Alisa & Paul Jenny Debra & Nicholas Jewell Lucy Johns Bruce Johnson & Helen Porter Jo Johnson Rebecca Johnson Warren & Barbara Johnson Clay Johnston Andrea Jones Frank & Linda Jones Phillip & Phyllis Jones Marilyn Robbie Jossens & Lawrence Jossens K.K. Jurich James Jurik Judithanne Justice Alma & Ian Kagimoto Kathleen Kahler & Brian Stack David Kaisel

Partners in Public Health

Bouhinan Kalou-Badirou Jeannette Kamen Soo-Hyang Kang Barry & Toni Kaplan Nick Karabatsos John & Kim Kaso Gerald Kataoka Irene & Kiyoshi Katsumoto Mi Khin Khin Kaufman & Douglas Kaufman Susan Keim Steffi & Josh Kellam Jenness & James Keller Graham & Wanda Kemp Olivia & Richard Kendrick Jessica Kenny Jane Kenyon Margo Kerrigan Ruthann Kibler Katherine Kim & Tyrone Hayes Yong Kim James & Sarah Kimmey Robert & Barbara Kirshbaum Amy Kistler Karl & Sarah Klontz Freyja Knapp & Laurent Morton David Knego Kevin Knott & Melanie Timberlake Arthur & Laura Kodama Ruth Koepke Jean Kohn Jill Korte Kathryn Kotula Gloria Krahn Wojciech & Judith Krotoski Ruby Kuritsubo Elaine Kurtovich Mark Kutnink Kristina Kutter Marilyn Kwan Clement & Donna Kwong Amy Kyle Darwin & Merrily Labarthe Susan Lambert Andrew Lan Rebecca Landau Bruce & Phyllis Lane Corey Langenbach Odessa Larkin Robert Larsen Annette Laverty Sofia Layarda Janet Leader Jill Lederman Frances & Ronald Ledford Ai-Chu Wu Lee & Winston Lee Kimmie & Mason Lee Richard & Christine Lee Roberta Lee Susan & Stuart Lehrman Mary Leon Carl Lester Yvette Leung & Liwen Mah

Jane Lev Lynn Levin & Stanley Oshinsky Sylvia & Bernard Levinson Barbara & Edward Levy Beverly & John Levy Alexander Levy Virginia Lew Arline Lewis Wendy Leyden Rui Li Song Liang Liana Lianov Shi Liaw Adrienne & Van Horn Lieu William Light & Robin Vernay-Light Leesa Linck & Christopher Hogness Jean & Robert Lindblom David Lindquist Rae Lindsay Kris Lindstrom Eva & Henry Linker Edwin Linsley Sarah Liron & Sheldon Kahn Jennifer Livaudais Suzanne Llewellyn Sibylle Lob & Robert Badal Agnes & Christian Lobscheid Shanon Loftus Lois & Donald Lollich Marjorie Lollich Geoffrey Lomax Kate Lorig Diane & Bill Louie Cheryl & Clyde Lovelady Wallace Lowe James & Maureen Lubben Betty Lucas & Gordon Jackins Christopher & Kathryn Luck Anne & Charles Ludvik Amy Luisetti Merle Lustig & Ronald Glass Claudia & Robert Lutz Michael Lyon & Nancy Oliva Mary & Charles MacDonald Flora & Lincoln MacLise Shirley Main Ora Main-Geyer Jun & Kathleen Makishima Christina Malin & Stephen Texeira Mark Mammarella David & Anne Manchester Harry & Claire Manji David Mark Michael & Alexandra Marmot Grayson & Sally Marshall Jane Martin & Michael Samuel Claudia Martinez-Schwarz & Henry Schwarz Laura Martini Karen Martz Rani Marx & James Kahn Margaret & Joseph Masters

Nancy Masters & Paul Cohen Ben & Misato Mathews Timothy & Mika McAfee Marjorie & Robert McCarthy Brigid McCaw Jennie McClay Janet McDonald Michael & Story McDonald Victorya McEvoy Kevin McGirr Kathryn McGonigle & David Rawlings Mara McGrath & George Pugh Ruth McHenry-Coe Chad McHugh & Sara Kerr Carmel McKay Marta McKenzie & Lawrence Chapter Lou McLaren & Randall Gates Jane McLeod Sara McMenamin & Joel Kosakoff Mary McRae Rosa Medina Vincent Meehan Rachel & Brian Meek Raymond Meister & Mary Miller Elissa Meites Diane Melendez Mark Mendell Ying-Ying Meng Daniel Merians & N. E. Bradley Nancy & Larry Merriman Ruth & Harry Metzger James & Nancy Meyers Paul Mico & Helen Ross Joan Milburn Meredith Milet Deborah Miller Margaret & John Miller Mark & Carianne Miller Marlene & Thomas Miller Donald & Elizabeth Minkler Meredith Minkler & Jerry Peters Patrick Mitchell Seema Mittal Leone Mohney Annette Molinaro Thomas Monath & Margaret Garvan Cindy Moon Margaret & Talmage Morash Lynn Morgan Maureen Morgan Walter Morgan & Marlene Kramer Fred Morgia Pat & Ray Morris Kerry Morrissey Saam Morshed Marian Mulkey & John Powers Mark & Nancy Munekata Marta & David Munger Michael Musante Ward & Andrea Myers

Ruth Nagano George & Patricia Nakano Katherine Nammacher & Dean Diongson Jean Naples Richard Neumaier Harold & Marilyn Newman Beata & Harlen Ng Thanh Nguyen Thuan & Hanh Nguyen Anne Nicpon Joel & Phyllis Nitzkin Elizabeth & Robert Nobmann Janiece & Robert Nolan Jean Norris & Bluford Hestir Charlotte Noyes & Clark Watkins Louise Oberender Somao Ochi Elizabeth & Lambert O’Donnell Marcellina Ogbu Roberta O’Grady Afolabi & Mojirola Oguntoyinbo Ruby & Donald Okazaki

Benjamin Ide Wheeler Society Recognizing donors who have expressed their intention to include the School of Public Health in their estate plans Grace Bardine Paul Boumbulian Doris Brusasco Patricia & Richard Buffler Paul & Susan Conforti Viola Egli Garold Faber Robert Frangenberg & Ingrid Lamivault Marcia Gerin Joseph Homler Marjorie Hunt Kenneth & Marjorie Kaiser A. Arlene Kasa Jogi & Tejbir Khanna Joan Lam Carol Langhauser Eleanor Langpaap Therese Pipe Harper Puziss Ronald & Genevieve Roberto Rosalind Singer Beulah Teravainen Paola Timiras Barbara & John Whelan

Public Health

37

Partners in Public Health

Partners in Public Health Donor Honor Roll 2004–2005 Jon Olson Allison Oman David & Mary O’Neill Katherine O’Neill Alan Oppenheim & Alice Salvatore Laurie & David Ordin Karen Orsulak Susie Osaki Holm Charles & Barbara Osicka Lars Osterberg Ruth Osuch Laura Otting Emily Ozer Ralph Paffenberger & Joann Schroeder James Page Nitika & Madhukar Pai Edward Panacek Luz Pardini Valentine Paredes Alice Park Susan Park Melissa Parker Tyan Parker-Dominguez & Manuel Dominguez Monique Parrish Richard & Martha Pastcan Mildred Patterson Diane & Randall Peck Debra Pelkey-Creem & Mitchell Creem George & Lisa Perez Alissa Perrucci Nicholas & Patricia Petrakis Sarah & Zeno Pfau Wayne Phillips Tommie Pippins Jennifer & Matthew Plunkett Adam Polis Katherine Pollard Howard Pollick & Linda Strean Robert & Betty Pope Donald & Ann Porcella Martha & Cas Pouderoyen William & Inge Priester Savitri Purshottam Nancy Puttkammer Richard & Julia Quint Florence & Paul Raskin Daniel & Elizabeth Rathbun Suzanne & Mark Rauzon Barbara Razey-Simmons & Charles Simmons Kenneth & Ethel Read Sharon Redel David Reese & Ellen Peach Lester Reichek Kyndaron Reinier William & Norma Reisen Randy Reiter Kenneth Renwick & Trish Rowe Liza Reynolds

Allyson & Ralph Rickard Patricia & James Riddell David & Andrea Riedel Lois Rifkin Maria Rifo & Joyce Higgins Jean & Francis Riley Lorrene & Michael Ritchie Gordon & Whit Robbins Annette & Wilfrid Roberge Ronald & Genevieve Roberto Mary & Carl Rodrick Beth Roemer Jamesine Rogers Judith & Paul Rogers Ann Rojas & Jeffrey Jacobs Romina Romero Guido & Ruth Rosati Allan & Ellen Roseberg Martin Rosenblum Elizabeth Rosenthal & Jorge Ibarra Nicholas Ross Ronald Rowell Alice Royal Sarah Royce & David Theis Ritu Roydasgupta Thomas Rundall & Jane Tiemann Simran Sabherwal Jeffrey Sacks & Sue Binder Lisa Sadleir-Hart & Thomas Hart Jose Salazar Linnea Sallack Sarah Samuels & Joel Simon Victoria Sanchez & Chuck Holton Rabinder Sandhu Ann & Lars Sandven Laura Santos & Wilton Castro Clea Sarnquist Leigh Sawyer & Gerald Quinnan

Linda Smith Schermer & Harry Schermer Maureen Scherzberg Robert Schlegel & Janet Fogel Judith Schnepp Gretchen Schroeder & Toby Douglas Steven & Sally Schroeder Stephen Schultz & Mary Pacey Steven Schwartzberg William Seavey Alison Seevak Anne Seifert Anita Seigel Ruth Selan George & Linda Sensabaugh George Shaber Gary & Nan Shaw Fang Shen Roger & Louise Shephard Tina & Jeff Sherwin Beth Shipley Takeo & Maye Shirasawa James & Jo Shoemake Asaf Shor & Hilla Abel Sharon & Scott Shumway June & Aaron Shwayder Elizabeth Sibley Stephen Sidney & Carolyn Schuman Jessica Siegel & Stephen Tsoneff Kirstin & Geoffrey Siemering Jennifer & Joel Silberman Susan & Thomas Silver Raymond Simmonds Monique Sims Maureen Sinclair Phoenix Sinclair Mitchell & Bonita Singal Laura Sisulak & Anders Wagstaff

Janey Skinner Sally Slavinski & Ralph Russo Esmond Smith Grace & Carl Smith Margot Smith & Robert Purdy Rachel & Arthur Smith Sharon & Harry Smith Terrill Smith Lorraine Smookler Kristie Snider Susan & David Snyder Krikor & Caline Soghikian Karen Sokal-Gutierrez Norma Solarz Jeanette Spangle & Alan Walfield Gail Splaver Joan Sprinson Dorothy Stacey Susan Standfast & Theodore Wright Kenneth Stanton & Rivka Greenberg James Stark Trevor & Sarah Stearmen David Steffen Jacklyn Stein & Matt Atwood Bruce Steir & Yen Aeschliman Christopher & Ashley Stephens Maralyn Stephenson Sheila Stern Edith & Guy Sternberg Wayne Steward Howard & Virginia Stiver Marilyn & William Stocker Denise Stockman Susan & William Stokes Marc Strassburg Corwin & Adrian Strong Martin & Sharon Strosberg Harrison Stubbs

2005–2006 School of Public Health scholarship recipients gathered at the Women’s Faculty Club to meet their sponsors at the annual Scholarship Tea. 38

University of California, Berkeley

Renowned Scholar and Pharmaceutical Researcher Endows Chair in Biostatistics at UC Berkeley Frances & Mark Sturgess Sharon & Raymond Sugiyama Aristotle Sun John Sunkiskis Tricia Swartling & Chris Williams Karen Sweeney & Robert Kustra Larry & Betty Swick Louise Swig Laurence & Ann Sykes Sandra Szabat Krisztina Szabo William & Carolyn Talley Tania Tang William & Judith Tanner Patricia Tanquary Elfi & Hugo Tarazona Maxine Tatmon-Gilkerson & David Gilkerson Timothy Taylor Kimberly Taylor William & Judith Taylor William & Virginia Taylor Irene & Marsh Tekawa Samuel Tekyi-Mensah Marilyn Teplow Ronald Thiele Suzanne & Piri Thomas Pamela Thompson Nancy Thomson Sheryl Thorburn Shirley & Richard Timm Jill Tobacco Barbara Tomczyk Hendry Ton & Wetona Eidson-Ton Mary & Hoa Tran Rosalie Trevejo Laura Trupin Mary & Kenneth Tuckwell Janis & Daniel Tuerk Alison Tumilowicz Sandra Tye Adi Tzur Judith & Clarence Ueda Helen Ullrich Elizabeth & Robert Unger Mark van der Laan Katrina Van Hoesen Presti & Blair Presti Ludenia & Steven Varga Anne Vargas Dorothy & Clasten Vaughn Neylan & Elizabeth Vedros Juan Velasquez Jack Vermillion Michele & Antonio Violich Eileen & James Vohs Kathleen Vork Barry & Susan Wainscott Donald Waite Virginia Walega Hazelle Walker Kay Wallis Julia Walsh & Stephen Dell

Laura Walter Mary Ann Wampler & Philip Bierman Amy Wang & David Liao William & Kathryn Ward Martha Waters April & Timothy Watson Charles & Manuela Watson Anne Waybur Harvey & Rhona Weinstein Morris & Audree Weiss Constance Welch Ardyce Wells David & Kathryn Werdegar Gordon Werner Gwendolyn & Robert Werner Sanford & Carolyn Werner Kathleen Wesner & Daniel Sullivan John & Elizabeth Wikle Laura & Michael Williams Michael Williams Michael Wilson & Maria Kersey Terry & Teri Winter Barbara Wismer Sharon Witemeyer Lynne Wittenberg & James Feathers Ellen Wolfe Tova Wolking & Scott Williams Brenda & Vincent Wong Channing Wong Michelle Wong Otis & Teresa Wong Walter Wong George & Helen Woods Gail Woodward-Lopez & Jose Lopez Kara Wright & T. James Lawrence Kathryn Wymore Biao Xing Helen Xu Marcus Yaffee Robert Yarwood Joyce Ycasas Lily Yip Suzanne & John Young Sohail Yousufi Katherine Yu & David Su Stella Yu & Hingloi Hung Beth Zaentz-Trafton & Frank Trafton Susan Zahner & Leon Olson David & Janice Zalk Allison Zaum Habteab Zerit Hanjing Zhuo Lisa Zwerling Organizational Donors Alloy Ventures American Legacy Foundation Annapolis Roads Garden Club Argonaut Securities Bar-O-Bar Farm BASF Corporation Blue Shield of California

Karl E. Peace, Ph.D., a scientist who has made it his mission to create opportunities for promising researchers, recently created the Jiann-Ping Hsu and Karl E. Peace Endowed Chair in Biostatistics at the School of Public Health. The chair supports the teaching and research activity of a nationally recognized scholar in biostatistics.

Born into an uneducated, share-cropping family in Baker County, Georgia, Peace was the first in his family to graduate from high school. He paid for his college education with a scholarship and $500 borrowed from a businessman, while working part-time jobs to support his siblings and his mother, who had been diagnosed with cancer. After receiving his Ph.D. in biostatistics from the Medical College of Virginia, Peace accepted an entry-level position in the pharmaceutical industry and rose to become vice president of worldwide technical operations at an international pharmaceutical company.

He left to start his own company, Biopharmaceutical Research Consultants, Inc., which provides scientific and technical services to the pharmaceutical industry. Peace has contributed to the development and approval of many important drugs, including treatments for Alzheimer’s, cardiovascular, infectious and ulcer diseases, and panic disorders. He is the Georgia Cancer Coalition Distinguished Cancer Scholar, senior research scientist, and founding director of the Karl E. Peace Center for Biostatistics in the Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health at Georgia Southern University.

Peace’s late wife, Jiann-Ping Hsu, Ph.D. ’77, was born in mainland China and received her bachelor’s degree from National Taiwan University. She earned her master’s degree from Columbia and went on to receive her Ph.D. in biostatistics at UC Berkeley. Hsu worked to bring her family to the United States and supported her parents and four sisters, enabling them to receive a college education. She served with the Food and Drug Administration and on review panels for the National Institute on Drug Abuse clinical trial grant applications.

During her career, Hsu held research positions at leading pharmaceutical firms.

She helped grow Biopharmaceutical Research Consultants, Inc. with her husband and became president of the company when Peace stepped down. She received many professional awards and was a nationally recognized biostatistician. Just prior to Hsu’s death in 2004, Peace endowed the Jiann-Ping Hsu School of Public Health at Southern Georgia University—the first school of public health in the USG System—to commemorate her zeal for excellence, consideration of others, intelligence, and kindness.

Biostatistics professor Mark van der Laan, Ph.D., has been named the new chair’s first recipient. His research includes statistical methods in genomics, survival analysis, and multiple testing. Applications for his work have included using multiple testing methods to discover drug-resistant mutations in HIV and to determine which pollutants have significant effects on asthma in children. Van der Laan teaches master’s and doctoral students in the biostatistics program.

Van der Laan has received many honors for his advances in the field of biostatistics, including NIH grants for two projects; the President’s Award presented by the Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies; the van Dantzig Award presented by the Dutch Statistical Association; and the Lefkopoulou Distinguished Lectureship at the Harvard School of Public Health. “Mark van der Laan's accomplishments at such a relatively young age are truly exceptional. I am, and I’m sure my wife would have been, delighted by the choice of Mark as the first holder of the Jiann-Ping Hsu/ Karl E. Peace Chair in Biostatistics at UCB,” says Peace.

Public Health

39

Partners in Public Health

Partners in Public Health Donor Honor Roll 2004–2005 Boundroids, Inc. Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation California Community Foundation The California Endowment California Healthcare Foundation California Medical Association The California Wellness Foundation Canadian Institute For Advanced Research Catholic Healthcare West ChevronTexaco Corporation Chiron Corporation Cigna Foundation The Cleveland-Cliffs Foundation Empirical Data Analysis Services Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund First Quadrant Corporation 56SEVEN8 Design FMC Foundation Freed & Associates General Motors Corporation Foundation GlaxoSmithKline Corporation Global Health Initiatives Inc Goldman Philanthropic Partnerships Roger W. Haskell Rev Living Trust Hewlett-Packard Company Infectious Disease Research Institute Jewish Community Endowment Fund Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Johnson & Johnson Family 0f Companies Foundation Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. The Mitchell Kapor Foundation March of Dimes Dextra Baldwin McGonagle Foundation Merck & Co., Inc. Merck Company Foundation Mid Peninsula Ophthalmology Medical Group, Inc. Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation The New York Times Company Foundation, Inc. Noke Charitable Foundation Nova Fisheries, Inc. Novartis US Foundation Oracle Corporation The Oregon Community Foundation The Bernard Osher Foundation Pacific Business Group on Health Pathways Home Health & Hospice James B. Pendleton Charitable Trust Pharmavite LLC Philanthropic Ventures Foundation II Donald Porcella Revocable Trust Public Health Institute The San Francisco Foundation Shaklee Corporation

40

University of California, Berkeley

Shell International Limited Shell Oil Company Foundation, Inc. Sweetwater Springs Ranch Telecare Corporation Third Party Associates, Inc. Thrasher Research Fund Trafton Trust UC Chinese Alumni Foundation Weiss Family Trust WellPoint, Inc. Wells Fargo Foundation Wyeth Class Campaign 2005 Michael Applebaum Sarah Bates Keith Betts Lauren Blumenfeld Neha Chande Doris Chang Lisa Chung Janet Coffman Jenell Coleman Monique de Bruin Karina Delgado David Dodds Maria Enriquez Katherine Ensign Myleine Flojo Giovanna Giuliani Nancy Hills Christine Ho Heidi Hopkins Grace Hsu Sarah Janssen Deborah Johnston Jeannette Kamen Youngshin Kim Freyja Knapp Marilyn Kwan Corey Langenbach Judy Li Rui Li Agnes Lobscheid Jennie McClay Deborah Miller Maureen Morgan Saam Morshed Thanh Nguyen Anne Nicpon Lars Osterberg Madhukar Pai Marjorie Plumb Jamesine Rogers Simran Sabherwal Gretchen Schroeder Asaf Shor Aristotle Sun Kimberly Taylor Natalia Varshavski Lorraine Woo Biao Xing Marcus Yaffee

At the Scholarship Tea, Lawrence W. Green, Dr.P.H. ’68 (right), meets Michelle Lesar, M.P.H. ’03 (center), recipient of the Lawrence W. Green Scholarship, and her mother, Florence Lesar, also a Cal alumna.

Lily Yip Sallie Yoshida

David & Yoshiko Carpenter

by James Carpenter

Gifts in Kind The Bakeshop Jimmy Bean’s Beringer Vineyards Berkeley Bowl Berkeley Reperotory Theatre Bikram Yoga Blake’s on Telegraph Cancun Taqueria Chalk Hill Downtown East Wind Books Eden Canyon Vineyards Fat Slice Funky Door Yoga Gundlach Bundschu Carl Lester Peirano Estates Poulet St. Supery See’s Candies

Eugene Chisholm

by Mary Chisholm

In Memory of Margaret Beattie

by Nick Chiotrasn Sally Bellows

by John & Ruth Bellows Sara McMenamin & Joel Kosakoff Reuben Berman

by Bradley & Elizabeth Appelbaum E. Harry Bliss

by Ben & Misato Mathews William Bruvold

by Katharine & Daniel Frohardt-Lane John Hough Genevieve Caffney

by June & Aaron Shwayder

Lloyd Churgin

by Shoshanna Sofaer & Lawrence Bergner Martha Cowden

by Anne Waybur Marguerite de la Vega Linsley

by Edwin Linsley Susan DeYoung

by Margaret Bradford Aumann & Donald Aumann Ramon Faliciano

by Suzanne & Piri Thomas Frank Falkner

by Gopal & Andrea Sankaran Eli Glogow

by Eleanor & George Cernada Jill Hacker-Chavez & Raymond Chavez Christine Glogow Frances Hamblin Carmel McKay Michael & Barbara Turell Tom Haywood

by Tommie Pippins Ruth Huenemann

by Richard & Arlene Daniels Jean Hankin Genevieve Ho Katherine & Robert Westpheling Hilliard Katz

by Alan & Sheila Gordon Catherine Kennedy

by William & Charlotte Howatt Helen Levin

by Alan & Sheila Gordon Edith Lindsey

by Jane & Lavern Borg

Brilliant Recognized for Innovative Solutions to World Problems Connie Long

by Carol & James Cunradi Shirley Roach John Troidl Larry Macupa

by Linnea Sallack Stuart Madin

by June & Aaron Shwayder Walter Mangold

by Samuel & Carol Barboo Lawrence & Constance Cowper Orville & Helen Deniston Sheldon Margen

by Adele Amodeo Richard Bailey Irene Bronston & John Wilson Patricia & Richard Buffler Erica & Barry Goode Gail & Thomas Grogan Olivia & Richard Kendrick Catherine & Roderic Park Rosalind Singer Michael McRae

by Mary McRae Debby Morris

by David & Janice Zalk My Late Father

by Nitika Pai Dorothy Nyswander

by Nora Halll J. G. Okamoto

by Ruth Nagano Nicholas Parlette

by Christine Glogow Carol Parlette Kay Pierog

by Marion Jarrett Frederick Post

by Arthur McIntyre Stan Rafael

by Channing Wong William Reeves

by Richard Bailey Rodney Beard Joan & Howard Bloom Margaret Boyd Patricia & Richard Buffler Peter Callas & Karen Nepveu Grant Campbell Chin Long & Fu Chen Chiang James & Anne Chin Carol & Ronald Clazie Barnett & Nancy Cline Seymour Cohen Kelin & Stig Colberg Michael & Nan Criqui Loring & Ann Dales

David Dassey & Mark Zellers Sanford Elberg Bruce & Shirley Eldridge Richard Emmons & Barbara Voorhees-Emmons Steven Englender Frederick & Jean Erdtman Carol & James Floyd David & Myrna Francy Sally Glaser & R. D. Bower Sylvie Griffiths Jeffrey Gunzenhauser & Dianna Chooljian Peter Haas & Miriam Lurie Hass Richard & Carol Hayes Elizabeth Holly Patricia & Harold Hosel Sally & Trevor Hughes Phillip & Phyllis Jones Nick Karabatsos Graham & Wanda Kemp Jessica Kenny Wojciech & Judith Krotoski Thomas & Shirley Ksiazek Darwin & Merrily Labarthe Robert & Susan Lane Joyce & Richard Lashof Michael Lyon & Nancy Oliva Ora Main-Geyer Michael & Alexandra Marmot Timothy & Mika McAfee Chad McHugh & Sara Kerr Walter & Gwendal Miner Meredith Minkler & Jerry Peters Thomas Monath & Margaret Garvan Jeffrey Newman Elizabeth & Lambert O’Donnell Emily Ozer Ralph Paffenberger & Joann Schroeder Edward & Camille Penhoet Diana Petitti Wayne Phillips Robert & Betty Pope Catherine Prato Sarah & Steven Presser William & Inge Priester Savitri Purshottam Valerie Randolph & Donald Fenbert Reimert & Betty Ravenholt Arthur Reingold & Gail Bolan William & Norma Reisen Shirley Roach Ronald & Genevieve Roberto Martha Roper Leon & Anne Marie Rosen Sally Slavinski & Ralph Russo Zak Sabry & Ruth Fremes Catherine Schaefer Anne Seifert

When a leading search engine company decides to give more than a billion dollars towards solving global problems such as poverty, who does it tap to spearhead the effort? Larry Brilliant, M.D., M.P.H., a leader in global public health efforts and a successful Internet entrepreneur, was the logical choice to become the first executive director of Google.org, the philanthropic arm of Google. In February, Google announced that Brilliant would head its newly founded charitable institution, the mission of which is to utilize technology and resources to address significant problems around the world. The nonprofit focuses on global poverty, health, the environment, and energy. Google has pledged at least a billion dollars to the organization.

Brilliant was also recognized this year with the TED Prize, an award created by the renowned TED (an acronym for technology, entertainment, and design) Conference. The TED Prize recognizes individuals who have shown that they can positively impact life on earth. The award invites recipients to develop one wish to change the world and then provides $100,000 towards fulfilling the wish. The honorees present their wishes at the TED Conference, a meeting attended by influential thought leaders from the business and the nonprofit sectors. Brilliant’s plan was for the establishment of a global early-detection and response system that would alert the international public health community about threats such as pandemics.

An epidemiologist by training, Brilliant has been leading efforts to change the world for many years. In the 1970s he helped manage the World Health Organization’s highly successful campaign against smallpox in India. The campaign vaccinated more than 2 million people and essentially eradicated the disease from the continent. After returning to the United States, he cofounded the Seva Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to curing blindness in Asia and Africa through sustainable solutions. He also cofounded one of the first Internet companies and was an architect of the Well, one of the first online communities. He is a member of the School’s Policy Advisory Council and the recipient of the School’s 2004 International Public Health Hero Award.

Public Health

41

Alternative Minimum Tax:

Donor Honor Roll 2004–2005

The New Nightmare for the Middle Class It has been said repeatedly that the alternative minimum tax (AMT) only applies to high-income individuals. This is no longer true. When AMT legislation was first passed in 1969, Congress failed to tie inflation to income brackets. For example, exemptions for a married couple back then were $40,000. Adjusting for inflation would make that number $82,000 today. Alas, it is only $58,000.

In 2005, only 1.8 percent of married couples with a couple of children and an adjusted gross income between $75,000–$100,000 were subject to AMT. But in 2006, with the same facts, more than 73 percent of married couples will be ensnared by AMT rules. Fortunately, Congress passed legislation in mid-May to create an AMT “patch”—raising the exemptions so that millions of middle-income families could avoid paying higher taxes in 2006. The exemptions rose by $4,550 to $65,500 for married couples and by $2,250 to $42,500 for singles/head of household. If this patch had not passed, the exemption amounts would have reverted back to $45,000 and $33,750 respectively—talk about an unpleasant surprise!

Under the regular tax system, you have gross income, which then is reduced by such deductions as state and property taxes paid, exemptions like child credits, business expenses, etc. But when you go to calculate your AMT taxes, many of the usual deductions and exemptions (referred to by the IRS as preferential items) are phased out (starts at $75,000 for singles and $150,000 for married filing jointly); that is how you end up paying more in taxes.

What kind of tax planning should you do this early in 2006? One strategy would be to identify a deduction that would not be considered a preferential item, then utilize it fully. This would be a very good year to consider making major gifts or capital gifts to charity (like the School of Public Health at UC Berkeley). Use those deductions to reduce your AMT exposure, maybe to the point of getting back to the regular tax system. Otherwise, those extra tax dollars will end up in the U.S. Treasury instead of the School of Public Health funds for supporting programming and scholarships.

Remember, by law, everyone who files taxes is obligated to figure out whether they have to pay AMT. (Line 44 on the 1040 will lead you to a worksheet and form 6251.) So if your total deductions (from itemized deductions like local, state, property and mortgage interest, and multiple child exemptions) come close to the current exemptions for your marital status, you should consult with your financial adviser and start planning now to compensate, as the Congressional patch will not solve this AMT problem for you in 2007 and beyond.

— Rick Zurow is a major gift officer and philanthropic adviser at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health.

William Reeves, continued

by George & Linda Sensabaugh Gary & Nan Shaw Roger & Louise Shephard Stephen & Susan Shortell Susan & Thomas Silver Mitchell & Bonita Singal Grace & Carl Smith William & Jacqueline Smith Lorraine Smookler Richard Stephens & Sherrill Cook Harrison Stubbs John & Gail Swartzberg S. Leonard & Marilyn Syme Kenneth & Patricia Taylor Constantine & Nancy Tempelis Michael & Barbara Turell Elizabeth & Robert Unger Neylan & Elizabeth Vedros Sanford & Carolyn Werner Warren Winkelstein George & Helen Woods Susan Standfast & Theodore Wright David Riese

by Mary Riese Beryl Roberts

by Elaine Base Sanford Roberts

by Maria Roberts Robert Ryan

by Arthur Hollister Charles Smith

by Robert & Martha Harrell Malka Stern

by Mark & Estie Hudes Gary Stewart

by Alissa Perrucci Jean Todd

by Lynda Bradford David Lindquist Danelle Williams

by Michael Williams

Patricia Buffler

by Linda & James Clever Shirley Roach Chin Long Chaing

by Margaret Deane Samuel Tekyi-Mensah Alfred Childs

by Nancy & Robert Shurtleff Kathryn De Riemer

by Barbara De Riemer Leonard Duhl

by John Hough Patricia Hosel

by Linda & James Clever Joyce Lashof

by Shirley Roach Connie Long

by Shirley Roach Donald Minkler

by Helen Xu Meredith Minkler

by Rosalind Singer My Parents

by Ritu Roydasgupta V. Ramakrishna

by Mildred Patterson William Reeves

by Sally Glaser & R. D. Bower Kenneth & Patricia Taylor Sanford Roberts

by Maria Roberts Zak Sabry

by Jessica Siegel & Stephen Tsoneff Rosalind Singer

by Mildred Patterson Russell Schnepple

by Gregg Schnepple

Veva Winkelstein

by Erica & Barry Goode

David Starkweather

by George & Lisa Perez

Yen Wong

by Channing Wong

Ruth Stimson

by Dava & Donald Freed Virginia & Larry Gotlieb

In Honor of Erma & Lyle Anderson

by Ramona Anderson

University of California, Berkeley

Henrik Blum

by Mary Pittman-Lindeman & David Lindeman

Christine Wilson

by Annapolis Roads Garden Club Valerie Dixon

J. Yerushalmy

by William & Judith Taylor

42

Bhulabhai & Dhanima Bhakta

by Chhaganbhai & Sarojben Bhakta

Helen Wallace

by Claude Brown

For a Gift that Keeps Blooming Consider A Life Income Gift

Are you interested in supporting the School of Public Health while also supporting yourself?

Consider making a “life income gift” to Cal. These life income gifts, which begin at $10,000, provide the following benefits: • Income payments to you for your lifetime; • Avoidance of capital gains tax at the time of the gift if appreciated assets are donated; • A current income tax charitable deduction; and • The knowledge that your gift will ultimately benefit the School of Public Health.

For more information, and a proposal prepared for your own situation, please contact the Office of Gift Planning at: (800) 200-0575 or (510) 642-6300.

UC Berkeley Sample Charitable Gift Annuity Rates: Single-Life Charitable Gift Annuity Rates

Two-Life Charitable Gift Annuity Rates

Age

Payment Rate

Spouse 1

Spouse 2

Payment Rate

60 65 70 75 80 85 90 and over

5.7 6.0 6.5 7.1 8.0 9.5 11.3

60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 and over

60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 and over

5.4 5.6 5.9 6.3 6.9 7.9 9.3 11.1

Public Health

43

Alumni News

President’s Message Greetings, Fellow SPH Alumni:

Leslie Louie

Public Health Alumni Association Board of Directors 2005–2006

Leslie Louie, Ph.D. ’90, M.P.H. ’85 (President) Carol A. Clazie, B.S. ’62 (Vice President) James H. Devitt, M.P.H. ’77 (Secretary-Treasurer) John W. Eastman, Ph.D., M.P.H. ’80 (Immediate Past President) Philippa Barron, M.B.A., M.P.H. ’94 Lucinda Brannon Bazile, M.P.H. ’94 Julie M. Brown, M.B.A, M.P.H. ’85 Brandon DeFrancisci, M.P.H. ’96 David Harrington, M.P.H. ’88

This year has been very busy and rewarding serving on the Public Health Alumni Association (PHAA) board of directors. I feel honored to work beside such energetic and dedicated staff and alumni. I would like to welcome our five new directors, each of whom has joined us for a three-year term: Joan Lam, B.S. ’62, Harvey Bichkoff, M.P.H. ’85, P. Robert Beatty, Ph.D. ’94, Melinda Lassman, M.S. ’77, and Laurel Davis, M.P.H. ’94. At the same time, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the outgoing directors. John Eastman, Ph.D., M.P.H. ’80, has served six years, three of them as president and one as past president.

John will continue to work with us on our By-Laws Committee as a regular alumnus. Lisa Ota , M.A., M.P.H. ’90, has worked on the Multicultural and Diversity Concerns Committee and chaired the Wellness Letter, Nominations, and Zak Sabry Committees. Lisa will continue to chair the Zak Sabry Committee, which honors a faculty member for his or her role in mentoring students. Brandon DeFrancisci, M.P.H. ’96, has chaired the Scholarship Committee. Brandon has worked hard to revisit the selection process for scholarships. Carol Clazie, B.S. ’62, our outgoing vice president, has worked on the Alumni Network/Outreach Committee, and chaired the Nominations and Scholarship Committees.

Lisa, Brandon, and Carol have each served three years on the Board. They will all be missed!

With the end of our lengthy rainy season, we welcomed spring with our Spring Brunch revival on April 23. We shared a delicious brunch and champagne with more than 50 of our comrades and colleagues and had the opportunity to listen to Dean Shortell speak on the exciting future of the school, our prospects for a new SPH home, and expanded programs. Of interest is the fact that only 11 percent of our alumni contribute to the Annual Fund. Although this is on par with the rest of the campus, Dean Shortell would like to move our level of participation to 20 percent of SPH alumni. Did you know that even a $20 contribution each year counts towards our participation?

As part of the Spring Brunch, we held a silent auction—a truly landmark event, independently raising money for the PHAA for the very first time. (See photos on pages 33 and 36.)

Through the generous donations and support of local businesses, alumni, and faculty, we were able to exceed our fundraising goal and raise over $5,600 to support student scholarships.

Scholarships were the top priority identified by alumni through a survey conducted prior to the event, followed by professional development and diversity in public health.

Alan R. Stein, M.P.H. ’78, M.S., M.F.T.

In the coming year, we plan to focus on increasing our activities in these high priority areas and to increase the active participation of our membership. Note that any alumnus or alumna of the School of Public Health is welcome to participate in our activities—board membership not required! If you are not local to the Bay Area, participation is still possible. We are hoping to create a few local chapters of the PHAA where the alumni concentration is high. If you are interested in service to the School in partnership with the PHAA, please contact me through Eileen Pearl (phaa@ berkeley.edu), associate director, external relations. In the meantime, have a great summer.

Sarah Stone-Francisco, M.P.H. ’03

Sincerely,

Paul R. Mico, M.P.H. ’58 Lisa Tremont Ota, M.A., M.P.H. ’90 Beth Roemer, M.P.H. ’76 Jan Schilling, M.P.H. ’91

John Troidl, Ph.D. ’01, M.B.A.

Leslie Louie, Ph.D., ’90, M.P.H. ’85 President, Public Health Alumni Association 44

University of California, Berkeley

Alumni News

Alumna Spotlight: Returning to the Community: Marilyn Winkleby, Ph.D.‘86, M.P.H. ’83 Students arriving for the Stanford Medical Youth Science Program (SMYSP) describe feeling out of place and intimidated when they first see the carefully clipped lawns and imposing buildings of the Stanford campus.

Marilyn Winkleby can relate. When she accepted a professorship there, she describes wryly, she had a difficult transition. “Here I was coming from a small farm and really modest background, and suddenly my colleagues’ fathers had buildings at Harvard and Yale named after them. I knew then that I had to find a way to stay connected to my roots.”

She did not have to wait long for the opportunity: Shortly after starting at Stanford, she was approached by two pre-med students who wanted to start a mentoring program. The students hoped to reach out to bright, committed students from low-income families who were not on track for college, and offer them resources and opportunities to put them on the path towards higher education. The idea appealed to Winkleby, and she and the students founded the Stanford Medical Youth Science Program.

This desire to bring health professionals closer to the communities they serve runs throughout Winkleby’s career. She was raised on a twoacre farm in Vista, California, and her father took on jobs at night in order to make ends meet. When Winkleby mentions her “roots,” it is her experience growing up in a low-income farming community that she recalls.

She completed high school and received a bachelor’s degree in social science and master’s degree in clinical psychology from Sacramento State University. She was introduced to epidemiology when she began work on a cervical cancer study at UCLA. The investigators for the study, which collected data from community clinics in East and South Central Los Angeles, had a difficult time finding researchers willing to go to these areas in the post-Watts-riot climate. For Winkleby, this experience of witnessing health disparities proved formative. “Women [in these communities] were very genuine; they were hard-working;

they had a strong sense of community. And they also had little access to health care and a very high risk for cervical cancer.”

impressive, among college graduates, 54 percent are attending or have graduated from medical or graduate school.

Her interest in epidemiology led her to pursue her doctorate at Berkeley. The School turned out to be a perfect match for her. “My time at Berkeley was truly a gift,” she says. “I will always look back to that opportunity because it allowed me to do my life’s work.” She found that the study of health disparities was integrated throughout the epidemiology curriculum, and the social activism at the Berkeley campus mirrored Winkleby’s own drive towards public service.

Juan Ibarra, M.P.H., M.S.W., who as a high school student completed the program in 1990, credits Winkleby with his first introduction to the field of public health and the topic of racial and ethnic disparities in health. The youngest child of migrant farm workers, Ibarra is currently a student in the Dr.P.H. program at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health.

Winkleby, he says, has been a mentor. “After I finished my undergraduate work and was working in public health, she was the one who encouraged me to go to graduate school.”

After receiving her Ph.D., Winkleby began working at Stanford, where she leads a research group whose work focuses on the health of medically underserved communities.

In her “free” time, she has been the main visionary of the Stanford Medical Youth Science Program. Today, almost 20 years later, the program continues to help low-income and ethnic minority teens gain admission to college and receive hands-on training in biology and medicine. High school students from Northern and Central California live on the campus for the summer, learn from faculty, receive mentoring from undergraduate students, and gain the skills necessary to apply for and succeed in college. SMYSP has been highly successful, and 99 percent of the 405 students who have completed the program have been accepted to college. Of those, 81 percent have graduated from four-year institutions. Even more

Winkleby’s voice takes on a tone of urgency as she talks about programs like SMYSP increasing ethnic diversity in the health professions.

This diversity, she believes, will be key to reducing health disparities, as people from underserved groups complete education and become health professionals. “They will be the leaders in reducing disparities, because they have the passion, they understand diverse cultures, and they are most likely to form hypotheses that are pertinent to health disparities. Those that choose to become clinicians are likely to choose primary care, and return to low-income communities to serve.” Programs like SMYSP are a critical way to achieve that diversity, states Winkleby, and she has 18 years of research and public service to prove it. “We know what works.”

—Kelly Mills

Public Health

45

Alumni News

Alumni Notes 1940s Marillyn (Shenberg) Teplow, B.A. ’45 “Enjoying retirement, visiting children/grandchildren, attending opera/ballet/plays; keeping fit bike-riding and skiing.”

Herbert Bauer, M.D., M.P.H. ’48 “Recently elected to UC Davis Advisory Board.”

1950s Edith K. Canfield, M.P.H. ’51 “Employed by County of San Diego Health Department. Retired in Oct. 1978. I am probably the last living member of the Class of ’51 Health Education.”

Washington Burns, M.D., B.S. ’52, received a Jefferson Award from the American Institute for Public Service for making a difference in his community. Burns is executive director of the Prescott-Joseph Center for Community Enhancement, a nonprofit corporation offering free health, education, art, and social services in West Oakland. The organization evolved out of the conceptual scheme for the adaptive re-use of the former Saint Joseph’s Convent (St. Patrick Convent) as a center for community services, education, culture, and development.

Robert Darter, M.D., B.S. ’54, was named Napa Valley Distinguished Citizen 2005 by the Mt. Diablo Silverado Boy Scout Council at a November 2005 reception at the Napa Elks Lodge. His scouting career spans more than 48 years; he joined St. Helena, California’s Troop 1 as an adult leader in 1962 and has been the troop treasurer and an assistant scoutmaster for 45 years. He also volunteers as the team physician for St. Helena High School and the Carpy Gang football team.

Louise B. Detwiler, B.S. ’54 “There was a major in biostatistics 50+ years ago, which provided graduates with the tools to work in local health departments. I’m glad to see the major has been reinstituted at the undergrad level; there is a need for quality data to make informed decisions about program direction and evaluation!”

Colin P. Hubbard, M.D., B.S. ’54 “Retired from pediatric practice in 1996. Currently working part-time as a medical expert for the Office of 46

University of California, Berkeley

Hearings and Appeals in regard to childhood SSI cases. Son Dr. Alan E. Hubbard is adjunct professor of biostatistics at Cal. (Third generation!)”

Betty Ivie Goldblatt, R.D., M.P.H. ’69 “Sold my newsletter business, ‘Environmental Nutrition,’ after 27 years. Enjoying my freedom!”

Donald J. Ludwig, M.P.H. ’54, writes in reference to an article about California Secretary of Business, Transporation, and Housing Sunne Wright McPeak, published in the Fall 2005 issue of UC Berkeley Public Health: “I knew Ms. McPeak while she was a supervisor at Countra Costa County, where I had worked for 24 years in the medical services. In the article she is quoted as saying, ‘In 1979 I created the first HMO with licensure from the state.’ I would like to put the record straight. I developed the HMO starting in 1969. Contra Costa was the first in the state to receive a contract.

Subsequently a Medicare contract was granted, which was also the first in the nation.”

Charles W. Maas, M.D., M.P.H. ’69, B.S. ’62 “Since 2000 I have been a faculty member of UC Davis Dept. of Psychiatry. It’s an unusual position for a pediatrician. I deal with foster children and teens in the juvenile justice system. It is an enjoyable change of pace.”

Henry P. Anderson, M.P.H. ’56 “Gave paper at UC Santa Barbara, 5/5/05, on bracero health survey conducted under UCB School of Public Health auspices, 1956–1959.”

Chhaganbhai B. Bhakta, B.S. ’58 “During 1959–64 I spent time in England with Leeds Hospital Board and Food Microbiology & Technology with Marsh & Baxter, Ltd. From 1965–95 I worked as P.H. microbiologist with L.A. County Health Department and retired on Nov. 6, 1995. Now enjoying—with family— granddaughters and traveling. In Sept. 2005 went to China with senior citizens for 10 days.”

1960s Patricia E. Taylor, Ph.D. ’64 “Ph.D. (Bact.) 1964; Order of Canada 1981; Canadian Women’s Club Woman of the Year, 1992; chair established at Victoria University (Toronto), Kenneth and Patricia Taylor Visiting Distinguished Professor in Political Science, 2004.”

Mildred F. Patterson, M.P.H. ’65 “I continue to enjoy living in a retirement home, seeing my family now and then, and quilting.”

Neal Dockal, J.D., M.P.H. ’66 “My wife (Judy Cook, M.D.) and I are retiring. We plan to travel, do volunteer work, get involved in health policy areas, and do some pro bono law work.”

1970s Anne Suguitan, M.P.H. ’70 “Retired from the Arizona Dept. of Health as MCH nutritionist in 2001. Enjoy travel, our cabin in the White Mountains where I grew up, and all the theater, music, and dining that Phoenix now offers.”

Richard M. Mangion, M.P.H. ’72, announced that he will be retiring next year from his position as president and CEO of Harrington Memorial Hospital in Southbridge, Massachusetts, after 29 years.

Alice L. Royal, M.P.H. ’72, has been placed in the Congressional Record for her volunteer work for Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park.

Claude H. B. Brown, M.D., M.P.H. ’73 “My wife (Satyra) and I try to cope with ‘chronological maturity’ by fly-fishing and enjoying the sights and weather of New Mexico.”

Robert A. Chernow, M.P.H. ’74, was appointed to the newly created position of vice provost for entrepreneurship at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Chernow said he took the position because of his interest in technology and innovation. He noted that while at many universities entrepreneurship is only taught within the business school, the aim of his position is to make it a focus across the Rensselaer campus.

Judith E. Heumann, M.P.H. ’75, World Bank adviser on disability and development, was the featured speaker in Februrary at the Thornburgh Family Lecture Series in Disability, Law, and Policy at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. Heumann was the School of Public Health’s 1981 Alumna of the Year and received the California Alumni Association’s 1999 Excellence in Achievement Award.

Alumni News

Esther O. Quirolgico, M.D., M.P.H. ’75, earned an E.M.B.A. in 1997 from the Peter F. Drucker Graduate School of Management at Claremont Graduate University.

Linda Blachman, M.P.H. ’79, M.A., has authored Another Morning: Voices of Truth and Hope from Mothers with Cancer, a book that shows how mothers go on living and loving in the face of mortality, and how they do so in a culture that denies illness, death, and the underside of motherhood. The book was published in February by Seal Press/The Avalon Group. More information is available at www.lindablachman.com.

Barbara Griffiths, M.D., Q.M.E., A.C.P.H., M.P.H. ’79 “Awarded America’s Top Physicians 2004–2005 in specialty of occupational, environmental, and preventive medicine. Married and retired in Roseville, California, from private medical-legal practice. Enjoying art, organic gardening, and volunteering as a physician in third world countries.”

1980s Jim Carpenter, M.D., M.P.H. ‘80 “I have been a hospitalist and child abuse pediatrician with Contra Costa Health Services for more than two decades. I recently returned to the SPH to lecture on perinatal substance abuse issues.”

W. Frederick Shaw, Dr.P.H. ‘80, M.P.H. ’76, is employing his model, “Developing Indigenous Resources,” in Janta Colony, Nayagaon, India, to encourage people to take control over their own lives, starting with their health. He has assembled a team of 11 residents who spread this message and conduct door-to-door surveys on health indicators. Recently, villagers removed stagnant water from a clogged sewage pipe to prevent the spread of malaria. “People everywhere have the capacity to solve problems, only if they are made aware of these and are given the confidence that they have the power to solve them,” says Shaw.

Douglas P. Fowler, Ph.D. ’81, C.I.H., is a visiting lecturer in industrial hygiene, Dept. of Medicine, UCSF; visiting associate professor, Babes-Bolyai

University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania; and Distinguished Visiting Professor, University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

have returned to the Northwest, where Chris is employed as a program manager at Public Health – Seattle & King County.

Sarah E. Samuels, Dr.P.H. ’82, received the Catherine Cowell Award from the Food & Nutrition Section of the American Public Health Association in December 2005. The award recognizes excellence and achievement in administration, planning, mentoring, and team building in public health nutrition, including meeting the special needs of urban populations and young children. Samuels is president of Samuels & Associates, a public health evaluation, research and policy consulting firm.

Anjali Morris, M.D., M.P.H. ’86, worked in Cambodia, teaching physicians, and in India, helping in the HIV the orphan program and learning disability program and setting up an informal education program for sex workers.

Pamela Reitman, M.P.H. ’83 “Industrial hygienist, C.I.H. (retired), full-time writer, publishing poetry, non-fiction, fiction.”

Barry L. Wainscott, M.D., M.P.H. ’86, last year joined the faculty of the University of Louisville School of Public Health and Information Sciences as an assistant professor in the Department of Health Management and Systems Sciences. He has more than 25 years of community health experience in various local, state, and university settings in both Kentucky and California, including administrative and clinical involvement. He recently retired as Communicable Disease Branch manager with the Kentucky Department for Public Health and continues working with the department on special assignments.

Maria Sakovich, M.P.H. ’84, has written a book for the Richmond Museum of History in Richmond, California, titled La Nostra Storia: Italian Americans in Richmond—The Immigrant Generation as Recounted by their Children. Based on a 2003 exhibition also compiled by Sakovich, the book looks at Italian immigrants’ daily lives, social activities, hardships, and the self-sufficiency that marked the city’s largest immigrant population prior to World War II. The book is available through the Richmond Museum of History.

Shoshanna Sofaer, Dr.P.H. ’84, M.P.H. ’77 “Larry Bergner, M.D., M.P.H. ’59, and I got married in New York on May 8, 2005.”

Jacob Eapen, M.D., M.P.H. ’85, a pediatrician for Alameda County Health Services, was elected to the board of directors of the Association of California Healthcare Districts. He says he plans to focus on making health care more accessible during his term on the state board.

Robina Elaine Ingram-Rich, M.P.H. ’86, M.S. ’85 “On board of directors of Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon. Have been here 20 years already! On advisory board of Center for Health Disparities, School of Nursing, Oregon Health & Science University.”

Chris Jones, M.S.W., M.P.H. ’85, and his partner Bill Prince, M.D., took a 12-month sabbatical, traveling through 11 European countries. They

Bruce Steir, M.D., M.P.H. ’86, has worked as a volunteer at the Women’s Option Center at San Francisco General Hospital for the past six years and represents San Francisco as a senior senator in the California Senior Legislature.

Susan Desmond-Hellmann, M.D., M.P.H. ’88, president, product development at Genentech, was named 2006 Woman of the Year by the Healthcare Businesswoman’s Association (HBA).

She was honored at the 17th annual HBA Woman of the Year luncheon in New York City in May. Criteria for Woman of the Year include success in the health care industry, strong leadership abilities, proven mentoring skills, and contributions to the community at large. Said HBA president Debra L. Newton, “Sue has made an amazing impact in her corporate role at Genentech, and at the same time, remains dedicated to patient care, a critical combination in today’s health care environment.”

KIrsten J. Black, Ph.D., M.P.H. ’89 “I recently completed my Ph.D. in health and behavioral science at the University of Colorado and am now working for the medical school doing practice-based research in the area of diabetes.

continued on page 48

Public Health

47

Alumni News

Alumni Notes, continued

1990s JoAnn Ten Brinke, Dr.P.H. ’95, M.P.H. ’92 “After completing the Dr.P.H., did postdoctoral work in Oxford, England, for three years.

Worked at Health Effects Institute focusing on health effects of ambient air quality.”

Marian McDonald, Dr.P.H. ’94, M.P.H. ’89, chaired the second “International Conference on Women and Infectious Disease: Progress in Science and Action” (ICWID), held in Atlanta March 16–18. The conference, sponsored by the CDC, the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), the World Health Organization, the Pan American Health Organization, the American Society for Microbiology, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, was aimed at enhancing prevention and control of infectious diseases among women globally. McDonald, who serves as associate director for minority and women’s health for the National Center for Infectious Diseases at the CDC, spearheaded the first ICWID in 2004. For her efforts in minority health, McDonald received the CDC’s highest minority health award in 2005, the CDCATSDR Health Equity Mentor/Champion Award. She was recently nominated for the Secretary’s Award for Contributions to Minority Health, DHHS’s highest minority health award. She was also honored in October 2005 for her outstanding commitment and service as elected cochair of the CDC-ATSDR Minority Initiatives Coordinating Committee from 2003 to 2005.

Melissa Stafford Jones, M.P.H. ‘95, has been appointed president and CEO of the California Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems. She has served as the organization’s vice president and director of policy since 2000. Prior to that, she was regional vice president for the Hospital Council of Northern and Central California. She has also served as an analyst in the Nevada state legislature and worked in administration at Contra Costa Regional Medical Center.

48

University of California, Berkeley

Robert S. Brown, Jr., M.D., M.P.H. ’96 “Enjoying life in New York running a liver transplant program and chasing after three kids (Jacqueline, 8, Dylan, 6, and Jake, 2,) and a sweet puppy.”

Kay R. Wallis, M.P.H. ’96, works for the Department of Medicine at UCSF and is involved in grassroots activism in Richmond, California.

John F. Hough, Dr.P.H. ’97, M.P.H. ’84, accepted a position as a statistician at the CDC National Center on Health Statistics in 2005. He serves in the NCHS Classifications and Public Health Data Standards Branch.

Harvey Kayman, M.D., M.P.H. ’99, created a course, “Ethics and Public Health in an Age of Terrorism,” first presented at the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina in January 2005. In August of that year, he was the featured speaker at a 90-minute satellite broadcast on ethics and bioterrorism at the New York Center for Public Health Preparedness at the University at Albany (SUNY).

Andrew J. Lan, M.P.H. ‘99 “I moved to Almaty, Kazakhstan, last year to work as the deputy director of CDC’s Central Asia regional office. It is a beautiful part of the world and an exciting time to be here.”

Basia Tomczyk, Dr.P.H. ’99, M.P.H. ’94, M.S., R.N., has been with the CDC for the past six years. She works in the International Emergency and Refugee Health Branch of the CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health and has been collaborating with the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations in Liberia. “The UN asked us to help out with a survey they were doing on HIV knowledge and practices,” she says. “We were brought in to give validity and reliability to the survey, to help them conduct it in a scientific way. I wrote the protocol….We interviewed 667 peacekeepers in a systematic, random survey. We had to focus on their sexual activity during their missions. A lot of work went into the survey to make it appropriate for the mission. CDC was part of that—developing an appropriate tool—to work with the UN peacekeepers. It’s the first time it’s ever been done…. We have plans to go to Haiti next year to do a second assessment with the peacekeepers there.”

2000s Pam Ling, M.D., M.P.H. ’00, writes, “While I was in the Interdisciplinary M.P.H. program, I was doing a postdoctoral fellowship in HIV prevention, focused on social marketing and media campaigns. My studies in social marketing led me to become more interested in commercial marketing. I worked with Dr. Stan

A strong network needs a strong connection. So whether you are networking for fun or for a job, make sure your info is up-to-date in UC Berkeley School of Public Health’s online alumni community, SPH@cal.

As an @cal member, you can also visit the new@cal café and create your blog, connect with friends, and set up groups.

Alumni News

Glantz at UCSF, analyzing tobacco industry marketing documents. We decided to focus on marketing to young adults, who are also the focus of many HIV prevention campaigns. Five years later, I have a full program of research devoted to tobacco industry marketing strategies that target young adults, using marketing principles to improve public health interventions in tobacco control.” She continues to work at UCSF, where she joined the faculty in 2002. She conducts research, has a clinical internal medicine practice, teaches clinical medicine to residents, and directs the postdoctoral fellowship program at the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education.

Over the past few years she has mentored several School of Public Health students.

Susan J. Zahner, Dr.P.H. ’00, assistant professor of nursing at the University of Wisconsin– Madison, received the Van Hise Outreach Award, one of the university’s 2006 Distinguished Teaching Awards. Last year she received the Mary Adelaide Nutting Award for Academic/ Practice Linkages from the Western Wisconsin Public Health Education Consortium. She has been on the UW-Madison nursing faculty for the past five years.

Janet Mohle-Boetani, M.D., M.P.H. ’01, is chief of the Disease Investigations Section of the Infectious Diseases Branch of the California Department of Health Services.

Kevin Peterson, M.D., M.P.H. ’01, runs The Gambia’s MRC HIV/STI clinic. He writes, “We have approximately 1,400 HIV patients, among them several hundred with HIV-2. The MRC clinic has been handling HIV here since 1986. We have a very experienced core staff that has nearly doubled, and we can now provide more comprehensive care. On a typical day we see about 75 patients, half STI, half returning HIV. For our HIV patients we provide free medical care, free medications, and taxi fares.”

Joseph F. O’Neill, M.D., M.P.H. ’03, former director of the Office of National AIDS Policy, has joined the Immune Response Corporation as its new CEO and president. O’Neill led fed-

eral AIDS policy at the White House, the Office of the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, and the Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator at the U.S. Department of State.

He will leverage his extensive experience and relationships in public health initiatives to lead the corporation in the ongoing development of its products for HIV and multiple sclerosis. He will also serve on the company’s board of directors.

Nitika Pai, M.D., M.P.H. ’03, current Ph.D. student “UC Berkeley provides an intellectual forum to air liberal viewpoints. Tolerance is its religion, diversity its soul, and education and enlightenment through the path of knowledge its mission. I am fortunate to have passed through its portals of knowledge.”

Deborah Edelman, Dr.P.H. ’04, has had her fellowship extended at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where she has initiated two original research projects involving youth radio and youth media. She is engaged to marry Joseph Davis.

Young Shin Kim, Ph.D. ’05 “Assistant professor, child and adolescent psychiatry, Child Study Center, Yale University School of Medicine.”

Katrina Kahl, M.P.H. ’05, has joined Breast Cancer Action as a communications associate.

She writes, “I am excited to be part of an organization dedicated to the fundamental principles of public health—prevention of disease, the precautionary principle, and access to quality care.”

Corey Langenbach, M.P.H. ’05, has published “Misoprostol in preventing postpartum hemorrhage: A meta-analysis,” in the January 2006 issue of the International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics. According to the abstract, the study’s objective is “to assess misoprostol’s ability to prevent postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) where no alternatives exist.

Comparison to oxytocics demonstrates how similarly misoprostol achieves a level of effectiveness—obtainable only in hospitals—in remote locations around the world.”

Krisztina Szabo, M.P.H. ’05 “Behind the beautiful smiling faces of the children in favela Pau da Lima lies a story of tenuous access to elementary education, deep poverty, and entrenched social inequality. Left to roam communities blighted by open sewers, unstable infrastructure, rabid dogs, and a high prevalence of infectious diseases, many of these children are invisible to the government because they lack proper identification.

Despite these odds, there is hope and energy in this community. A small school in the heart of the favela transforms the lives of nearly 70 children daily. The school, which collapsed during the rainy season, has been rebuilt, one brick at a time. In 2004 as a graduate student I was privileged to be able to help build community capacity by fostering already existing social networks among motivated community volunteers. With the efforts of many, $3000 was raised in California during the spring of 2005, which built the foundation and walls of the school with community volunteers. With the help of Connie Chen, in early 2006 a fundraiser and film screening event in New York, “Favela Rising,” raised $2100, while $1300 was raised by the Alameda County Public Health Department. We hope the school will serve as a point of maternal and child health education and mother’s club, an asset to the community which will empower children through education. Our hope is to start a nonprofit organization to provide education and social support to children in hard to reach places. Please visit us at www.brazilreads.com to see our community’s progress.”

Public Health

49

Mental Health Worker Recognized with Campus Award

Harrison C. Spencer Chosen to Receive Berkeley Alumni Honor

Chia-Chia Chien, M.P.H. ’74, M.S.W., received the 2005 Peter E. Haas Public Service Award from UC Berkeley on April 22. The award was presented by Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau at a special “Cal Day” event, where Chien delivered a lecture titled, "Bridging the Gap: From Cal to the Community."

Chien is a social worker who is passionately committed to promoting mental health, particularly in the Asian American community. Her efforts— through numerous community services and community building programs— have helped reduce the cultural stigmas associated with mental illness and educate people about the importance of receiving professional help at an early stage.

Chien’s outstanding dedication and leadership have touched the lives of many. As part of the White House Millennium “Save America’s Treasures” project, she coordinated the Save Angel Island League to help promote intercultural understanding for this historical landmark.

In 2001, she successfully founded the Culture to Culture Foundation, which promotes peace and harmony among individuals with different cultures, languages, and ethnic backgrounds. The foundation’s various programs include the Chinese American Mental Health Network, Chinese-American Mental Health Scholarship, Chinese Helpline, Chinese-American Senior Center, and Chinese-American Healthy Living Center. She also developed the Asian American Mental Health Directory, both in print and online, to connect local bilingual and bicultural mental health professionals.

50

University of California, Berkeley

Dean Stephen Shortell with Harrison Spencer.

The University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health selected Association of Schools of Public Health (ASPH) president and CEO Harrison C. Spencer, M.D., M.P.H. ’72, as Alumnus of the Year.

Spencer was honored at the School’s commencement ceremony on May 13.

The Peter E. Haas Public Service Award was established by Mrs. Peter E. Haas on the occasion of her husband’s 80th birthday. Its purpose is to recognize alumni of the University of California, Berkeley who have made significant voluntary public contributions to the betterment of society, particularly at the community level, within the boundaries of the United States. One of the most prestigious honors conferred by the Berkeley campus, this award is a counterpart to the Elise and Walter A. Haas International Award, which recognizes work by distinguished Berkeley alumni overseas.

The Haas Public Service Award acknowledges outstanding contributions in four major areas: community service (including social service), health care, environmental work, and education. Special consideration is given to activity at the grassroots level, for such activity best illustrates the impact that an individual can have on society through creative social change.

Spencer was chosen for the award on the basis of his many accomplishments throughout his career, particularly for the leadership he has provided the 37 accredited graduate schools of public health as president of ASPH. Spencer became the first full-time president and CEO of ASPH in July 2000.

As ASPH president, Spencer has drawn on his experience serving as dean of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and his work prior to that as dean of the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans. He has focused much of his career on communicable disease prevention and eradication. He served as an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer and at the field station in El Salvador for the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and founded and directed a CDC research station in Kenya. Spencer has also held important roles as the senior medical officer at the Malaria Action Program of the World Health Organization, and as chief of the Parasitic Diseases branch of the CDC. Spencer received his M.P.H. from UC Berkeley in 1972. He also received an M.D. from Johns Hopkins University , a D.T.M.&H. from the University of London, and he is board certified in internal and preventative medicine. He was elected to the Institute of Medicine in 2003.

In Memoriam

Henrik Blum, Professor Emeritus and Leader in Field of Health Policy Henrik L. Blum, M.D., M.P.H., professor emeritus of health administration and planning at the University of California, Berkeley, and a pioneer in health care reform, died at age 90 on Jan. 3, 2006, at his home in Oakland, California.

was called back from retirement to serve as interim chair of the UC Berkeley-UCSF Joint Medical Program, a position he held for three years.

He also served as a consultant or member of numerous committees for the National Institutes of Health, American Public Health Association, U.S. Public Health Service, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, U.S. Agency for International Development, and the World Health Organization. He was vice president of the American Public Health Association in 1990.

Considered the father of health planning, Blum saw the need to impart structure and organization into a health care system that was disjointed, inefficient and, above all, inequitable.

“Until the passage of Medicare and Medicaid legislation in the mid-1960s, the provision of medical services for the poor and elderly was virtually nonexistent,” said Richard Bailey, UC Berkeley professor emeritus of health policy and administration and a colleague of Blum's for more than three decades. “Reliance on the charity of local physicians and hospitals was usually demeaning, while the availability of services at public health clinics and hospitals run by counties and municipalities was spotty and notoriously underfunded. The massive infusion of federal funding made everyone aware of critical shortages of physicians, nurses, dentists and other health professionals, as well as facilities in which to provide services.”

In this environment, Blum envisioned a comprehensive health system for the United States that actively involved consumer and provider participation in decision-making about the types of health care services to be made available locally, regionally, and nationally.

Howard Barkan, one of Blum’s former graduate students at UC Berkeley, noted that some of Blum's ideas for health care delivery are now taken for granted.

“Dr. Blum made a major conceptual breakthrough in rational planning for health care and health services resources, and that is the idea of locating services where they are going to be needed,” said Barkan, who is now a biostatistician and research methodologist at Kaiser Permanente. “As obvious as that sounds now, in the 1960s and 1970s, it was radical.”

Barkan added that Blum was an inspirational and influential mentor to his students.

In 1937, Blum earned his B.S. degree in chemistry from UC Berkeley. It was while he was a student

at UC Berkeley that he met his future wife, Marian H. Ehrich, a fellow undergraduate who studied social welfare. They married in 1939 and remained together until her death in 2005.

Blum went on to earn his M.D. in 1942 from UC San Francisco and a master’s in public health from Harvard University in 1948. Between his advanced degree studies, he worked from 1944 to 1945 as an assistant physician at Johns Hopkins University, and then from 1946 to 1947 as a fellow at Stanford University.

From 1950 to 1966, Blum served as health officer for Contra Costa County, where he helped establish numerous public health programs, including vision screening in schools, community mental health and genetic counseling. While he was a health officer, Blum also served as a lecturer at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health until 1966, when he joined the faculty as a clinical professor. Two years later, he became a professor of community health planning. In 1970, Blum established the School’s Program in Planning and Policy, chairing the program until his retirement in 1984.

Throughout his career, Blum held teaching appointments at Stanford University’s Medical School as well as at UC Berkeley. In 1991, he

Blum was equally active in local and state community health development, serving as president of the California Conference of Local Health Officers and the Northern California Public Health Association. He also served as chairman of the board of trustees of Alta Bates Hospital in Berkeley, and helped found and chaired the HEALS Corp., a Bay Area health maintenance organization.

In addition to Blum’s numerous research publications, he authored three landmark texts on community health and health planning: Public Health Administration: A Public Health Viewpoint, Health Planning, and Planning for Health.

Among his many awards were the 1985 Sedgwick Memorial Medal, the most prestigious honor of the American Public Health Association; the 1985 Schlesinger Award of the American Health Planning Association; and the 1984 Berkeley Citation. He also received a Fulbright Scholarship to Sweden in 1986, and in 1987, he spent a year at West China University of Medical Sciences in Chengdu, China, as a visiting professor.

He is survived by his nieces, Lynda Brothers and Peggy Brothers Cory.

If you would like to make a tax-deductible gift in Henrik Blum’s memory, mail your check (payable to “UC Regents”) to the attention of Patricia Hosel, Office of External Relations, UC Berkeley School of Public Health, 140 Warren Hall, Berkeley, California, 94720-7360, and include a note that the gift should be directed to the “Henrik L. Blum Fund.”

—Sarah Yang Public Health

51

In Memoriam

In Memoriam Paul Palmisano, M.D., M.P.H. ’79, died May 24, 2005, in Dayton, Ohio. Palmisano was a pediatrician and former associate dean and director of student affairs at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, School of Medicine. He was a dedicated teacher and medical student advocate. Previously, Palmisano served as medical officer for the Food Administration and was instrumental in developing a successful poison control center and child safety programs, working for approval of the Poison Prevention Packaging Act. After his retirement from the University of Alabama in 1990, he received the American Academy of Pediatrics Lifetime Achievement Award.

Mike Pendo, M.P.H. ’96, died suddenly on November 15, 2006 at age 41. At the time of his death, he was working on completing his doctoral dissertation on “HIV Prevalence and Risk Behavior in a Late-Night Population of Men Who Have Sex with Men.” Pendo, who earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at UC Berkeley, was a popular graduate student instructor at the School, earning an Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor award in 2003. In addition, he was a longtime HIV prevention educator and researcher at the San Francisco Department of Public Health’s AIDS Office, first joining the department as a volunteer in 1992 and then working part-time while pursuing his public health degrees.

“Mike was an amazing human being and a tireless AIDS researcher and community leader.

He was much beloved at the San Francisco Department of Public Health and here at the School,” said Professor Meredith Minkler, who served as chair of Pendo’s dissertation committee. A California native, Pendo is survived by his parents; four sisters; one brother; brothers- and sister-in-law; 12 nieces and nephews; and a goddaughter. The Michael L. Pendo Fellowship is being established at the School to honor his

52

University of California, Berkeley

memory and recognize a Dr.P.H. student each year who embodies his spirit and commitment.

Alan Akira Watahara, Dr.P.H. ’87, M.P.H. ’79, J.D., died October 29, 2005, at age 52. He was a dedicated advocate for disadvantaged children across California for 30 years. He began his career in the early 1970s in Sacramento as founder and director of the Sacramento Dental Care Foundation, Inc., a public private partnership that offered dental care to underserved communities. In 1983 he clerked for the Honorable Harry W. Low, presiding justice First Appellate District in San Francisco. In 1988, he worked in San Francisco’s Youth Guidance Center providing legal counsel for incarcerated youth as a deputy city attorney in San Francisco’s City Attorney’s office. He went on to found the Children and Youth Policy Project, a statewide advocacy and research organization at UC Berkeley, and began to explore other issues pertaining to children’s needs and rights. This project grew into the Sacramento-based California Partnership for Children; for nearly a decade, Watahara was its president and general counsel and held the same positions with the California Children’s Lobby. He was most recently a principal in the Watahara Group in Sacramento, providing legal counsel and advice to many nonprofit and philanthropic organizations.

He served on many community, regional, state, and national boards of directors. He was most active in San Francisco’s Japanese American community, serving on the board of directors of the Japanese Community Youth Council. In addition, he served on the boards of Menlo Park’s Lucille Packard Foundation for Children’s Health, California Pan Ethnic Health Network in Oakland, and California Tomorrow in Oakland, and was a commissioner for the San Francisco Human Rights Commission and a member of the Committee on Diversity for the California Children and Families Commission. He was the recipient of the 1998 Heroes in Health Care Award from the Wallace A. Gerbode Foundation Fellowship.

He earned his master’s and doctoral degrees from UC Berkeley and his law degree from Golden Gate University. Watahara is survived by his aunt and many beloved relatives.

Leland I. White, M.P.H. ’70, died January 4, 2006, at Philadelphia’s Thomas Jefferson University Hospital at age 59. White served as chief executive of Main Line Health from 2001 to 2004, when he resigned for health reasons.

Main Line Health comprises several suburban health care facilities in Pennsylvania, including Bryn Mawr, Lankenau and Paoli Hospitals.

Before becoming Main Line president, White had been president of Paoli Hospital for nine years, served as vice president of Main Line and of Jefferson Health System, and had been hospital director at the former medical College of Pennsylvania. He is survived by his wife, three sons, and a sister.

In Memoriam

William Oswald, Pioneer in the Use of Algae to Treat Wastewater William J. Oswald, Ph.D. ’57, a University of California, Berkeley, professor emeritus of public health and of civil and environmental engineering, and an innovator in algae biotechnology and natural wastewater treatment, died Dec. 8, 2005, at his Concord home at age 86.

Oswald was among the first engineers to study the symbiotic interactions between algae and bacteria in wastewater treatment ponds. In the 1950s Oswald began his research leading to designs of natural treatment systems powered primarily by solar energy, making wastewater treatment more affordable and sustainable. He is credited with developing the Advanced Integrated Wastewater Pond Systems technology in which wastewater passes through a series of ponds to be treated. The process involves the use of algae photosynthesis in “high rate ponds” rather than the electromechanical aeration devices used in more expensive, conventional wastewater treatment systems. The algae produce oxygen that allows aerobic bacteria to break down remaining contaminants in the water. The water is then reclaimed through a series of tertiary processes for reuse and recycling in such applications as agricultural irrigation.

The study of such natural systems has developed in recent decades into the field of ecological engineering. Thousands of communities throughout the United States have adopted successful natural wastewater treatment systems, although large urban areas that do not have enough land required for ponds or wetlands still use mechanical systems.

Colleagues pointed out that the needs of the developing world—where many people bathe in and collect drinking water from rivers polluted with raw sewage—motivated Oswald’s research and the development of simple, affordable, and more sustainable wastewater treatment technology that produces renewable energy through methane fermentation and biogas recovery.

“Bill Oswald has contributed to wastewater treatment, and hence to public health, in the less developed world, more than anybody else

I know,” said Gedaliah Shelef, professor emeritus of Israel’s Technion Institute of Technology, an expert on wastewater engineering and a former student of Oswald’s.

Oswald received his B.S. degree in civil engineering in 1950 and his Ph.D. in sanitary engineering, biology, and public health in 1957, all at UC Berkeley. That same year, he joined the UC Berkeley faculty as an assistant professor in biomedical and environmental health sciences at the School of Public Health and in environmental engineering at the College of Engineering. He was also affiliated with the campus’s Energy and Resources Group.

Oswald was promoted to associate professor in 1963, and to full professor in 1970. In 2001, Oswald joined Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Earth Sciences Division as a senior staff scientist. He retired from teaching at UC Berkeley in 1990, but he continued his research and engineering practice as a scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory until the last days of his life.

Oswald authored more than 400 works published in academic journals, conference proceedings and books. He won several medals and prizes for his research from the national Water Environment Federation and the American Society for Civil Engineers, and was a fellow in the American Academy

for the Advancement of Science and a diplomate in the American Academy of Environmental Engineering. In 2005, the International Society for Applied Phycology presented him with a lifetime achievement award. Colleagues from around the world have also nominated him for the 2006 Stockholm Water Prize.

He was also president and founding partner of Oswald Green, LLC, an environmental technology company, and of Oswald Engineering Associates, Inc., an engineering services company.

Oswald is survived by his wife Eileen, two sons, eight grandchildren, and a sister. He was predeceased by a son and daughter.

If you wish to make a gift in his memory to the School of Public Health fund, mail your check (payable to the “School of Public Health Fund”) to the attention of Patricia Hosel, Office of External Relations, UC Berkeley School of Public Health, 140 Warren Hall, Berkeley, California, 94720-7360, and include a note that the gift is in memory of William Oswald.

—Sarah Yang

Public Health

53

Non-Profit Org US Postage PAID University of California

1-54837-14073-40-*CP5316-CPEXT

University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health 140 Warren Hall #7360 Berkeley, CA 94720-7360

P UBLIC H EALTH H EROES H ONORED

AT

AWARDS C EREMONY

The 10th Annual Public Heroes Awards Ceremony was held March 17 at the Exploratorium in San Francisco. Pictured left to right: Arnold Perkins, award presenter; Richard Gibbs, representing Organizational Hero San Francisco Free Clinic; Robert Scott, Regional Hero; Tricia Gibbs, representing San Francisco Free Clinic; Norman McSwain, National Hero; Jeffrey Sachs, International Hero; Dean Stephen Shortell; Richard Feachem, award presenter; Chris Hellman; Margaret Cary, chair, School of Public Health Policy Advisory Council; George Strait, master of ceremonies; Larry Brilliant, award presenter; and Warren Hellman, award presenter.