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JUNE 2011
UCLA
PUBLIC HEALTH
building healthier futures for half a century
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UCLA
PUBLIC HEALTH
Gene Block, Ph.D. Chancellor
Linda Rosenstock, M.D., M.P.H. Dean, UCLA School of Public Health
Sarah Anderson Assistant Dean for Communications
John Sonego Assistant Dean for Development and Alumni Relations
features
Dan Gordon Editor and Writer
Martha Widmann Art Director
E D I TO R I A L B OA R D Roshan Bastani, Ph.D. Professor, Health Services Associate Dean for Research
Thomas R. Belin, Ph.D. Professor, Biostatistics
Pamina Gorbach, Dr.P.H. Associate Professor, Epidemiology
Moira Inkelas, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Health Services
Richard Jackson, M.D., M.P.H. Professor and Chair, Environmental Health Sciences
Michael Prelip, D.P.A. Associate Professor, Community Health Sciences
May C. Wang, Dr.P.H. Associate Professor, Community Health Sciences
Andrew Tsiu and Tarah Griep Co-Presidents, Public Health Student Association
Christopher Mardesich, J.D., M.P.H. ’98
UCLA
Public Health Alumni Association
School of
Public Health
4 Public Health Champions & Alumni Hall of Fame: the 2011 Inductees
8 Celebrating Fifty Years On the school’s golden anniversary, we look back at what was and look ahead – through the eyes of five of the school’s stellar students – at some of the challenges in the 50 years to come.
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Paving the Way
Pandemic Watch
in every issue 24 RESEARCH
16 Profiles of the three most recent SPH deans: Lester Breslow, Roger Detels, and Abdelmonem A. Afifi.
Nurse understaffing and patient mortality…food marketing and obesity… combating cysticercosis …vaginal births after cesarean…breast cancer, chemotherapy and quality of life…climate change and world hunger.
22 19 Peace Corps Be With Them Another institution turns 50 this year — one that has inspired many SPH faculty and students to go into public health.
The state-of-the-art Global Bio Lab at UCLA improves the capacity to respond to the world’s deadliest biological threats.
28 STUDENTS 32 FACULTY 33 NEWS BRIEFS 35 FRIENDS
PHOTOGRAPHY ASUCLA: Todd Cheney / TOC: sph champions/hall of fame; pp. 4-7; p. 11: Cummings; p. 12: King; p. 13: Massey; p. 14: Quiros; p. 15: Palacios; pp, 30-31
Reed Hutchinson / TOC: Pandemic Watch; pp. 17-18, 22-23, 29 Sarah Anderson / p. 34 Yvette Roman / p. 13: green tea Courtesy of UCLA University Archives / pp. 10, 12: milestones Courtesy of Karen Parker / TOC: Peace Corps; p. 19: Niger Courtesy of Donald Morisky / p. 19: Philippines Courtesy of Deborah Glik / p. 20: Togo Courtesy of Jessica Gipson / p. 20: Dominican Republic Courtesy of Paige Lapen / p. 21: Togo Courtesy of Ashley Kissinger / p. 21: Guatemala Courtesy of Martha Whitmore / p. 21: Corire, Peru Courtesy of Philip Massey / p. 28 Courtesy of Mobile Clinic Project at UCLA / p. 15 Courtesy of UCLA School of Public Health / p. 2; pp. 11, 14: milestones; p. 15: textbook; pp. 16, 32-33; back cover
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — Public Health Image Library (PHIL) / p. 8: polio, small pox vaccination National Institutes of Health/Department of Health and Human Services / p. 9: lung disease Getty Images © 2011 / p. 8: helmets save lives; p. 9: car seat, HIV iStockphoto © 2011 / p. 8: JFK; p. 9: pollution, maternal health; p. 13: highway; pp. 24, 26 Veer © 2011 / p. 25
School of Public Health Home Page: www.ph.ucla.edu E-mail for Application Requests: app-request@admin.ph.ucla.edu UCLA Public Health Magazine is published by the UCLA School of Public Health for the alumni, faculty, students, staff and friends of the school. Copyright 2011 by The Regents of the University of California. Permission to reprint any portion must be obtained from the editor. Contact Editor, UCLA Public Health Magazine, Box 951772, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1772. Phone: (310) 825-6381.
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dean’s message FIFTY YEARS AGO, the Regents of the University of California voted to establish the UCLA School of Public Health. In this issue, we commemorate that historic decision and look back over five decades of accomplishment. Beginning on page 10, you will find 50 achievements that showcase some of the ways UCLA has improved lives around the world during the past 50 years. The list includes Dr. Lester Breslow’s landmark study in the early 1960s identifying seven healthy behaviors (including not smoking, regular exercise and weight control) that could significantly extend and enhance life, as well as more recent research, such as Dr. Beate Ritz’s studies linking pesticide exposure to an increased risk for Parkinson’s disease. Although this list is incomplete, it provides a good sampling of how our faculty have been influential and instrumental in bringing about advances in public health. The UCLA School of Public Health was created the year President John F. Kennedy challenged in his inaugural speech, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country,” ushering in an era of individuals committed to service. Many signed up to volunteer for the Peace Corps and learned firsthand about public health challenges in developing countries. The Peace Corps, which is also celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, has served as a critical pipeline to the field of public health, inspiring a career path for many of our faculty, students and alumni. We’ve shared a few of their stories (and photos) beginning on page 19. Though we honor the school’s history, our students, faculty and alumni remain focused on the health challenges of today and tomorrow. In May the school launched its latest major initiative, the Global Bio Lab at UCLA. Designed in collaboration with colleagues at Los Alamos National Laboratory, the lab was created to serve as a first line of defense against an influenza or
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other disease outbreak or bioterrorist event. This lab is the first of its kind,
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2010-2011 DEAN’S A DV I S O RY B OA R D
utilizing high-speed, highly automated systems to process large samples quickly. We welcomed Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and Congressman Henry Waxman to campus to help us launch this state-of-the-art facility. Finally, I’d like to encourage you to read excerpts from the winning submissions from our first-ever student competition. Challenged to identify the most pressing public health issues of the next 50 years and how they would tackle them, our students offered eloquent, insightful presentations. We were all reminded that we have tremendously bright, talented and capable students. They represent the future of public health, and we are in good hands.
Linda Rosenstock, M.D., M.P.H. Dean
Ira R. Alpert * Lester Breslow Sanford R. Climan Edward A. Dauer Samuel Downing * Robert J. Drabkin Gerald Factor (Vice Chair) Jonathan Fielding Dean Hansell (Chair) Cindy Harrell Horn Stephen W. Kahane * Carolyn Katzin * Deborah Kazenelson Deane * Carolbeth Korn * Jacqueline B. Kosecoff Kenneth E. Lee * Thomas M. Priselac Monica Salinas Fred W. Wasserman * Pamela K. Wasserman * Thomas R. Weinberger Cynthia Sikes Yorkin
*SPH Alumni
S AV E T H E D AT E UCLA SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH ALUMNI AND FRIENDS RECEPTION MONDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2011 6:30 – 8:00 p.m. Washington Convention Center (WCC), Room 202B
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During the Annual Meeting of the American Public Health Association, October 29 – November 2, in Washington, DC.
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public health champions At the school’s 50th Anniversary Gala February 2 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Century City, the school’s dean, Dr. Linda Rosenstock, recognized three individuals who have made significant contributions to the field of public health – particularly in areas that reflect the school’s mission. The school’s 50th Anniversary Public Health Champions are:
UCLAPUBLIC HEALTH
CINDY HARRELL HORN Through passion, commitment and hard work, Cindy Harrell Horn has made a global impact that will produce benefits for generations to come. Horn co-founded the Environmental Media Association in 1989 to increase public awareness of the world’s environmental challenges. Since then, she has become a leading advocate to improve education, health and the environment. After 9/11, she and several friends, concerned about the safety of their families, began researching and sharing information about emergency preparedness. They invited leading experts, including members of the UCLA faculty, to speak with them about their work. A chilling fact soon emerged: Nowhere in the world was there a combined laboratory and informatics resource for tracking disease outbreaks as they happened. “It was hard to believe something as critical as identifying and tracking global emerging infectious diseases wasn’t already occurring,” Horn says. “My father was a health inspector, so I grew up with health issues often being discussed at the dinner table. When I learned about the lack of a global laboratory infrastructure I didn’t know how I could help make it a reality, but I knew I had to try.” Horn scheduled a meeting with Dr. Linda Rosenstock, dean of the UCLA School of Public Health, and the rest is history. Horn worked closely with Rosenstock to bring her message to Washington, DC and Sacramento, and has been a driving force in securing $32 million in federal and state government funding to develop the Global Bio Lab at UCLA. In addition, she serves on the School of Public Health’s Dean’s Advisory Board, and continues to advocate on issues of global concern, including the health effects of climate change.
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champions
JAMIE OLIVER
ROBERT K. ROSS, M.D.
“Take this revolution and make it your own. Educate yourself about food and cooking. Find out what your child is eating at school. Make only a few small changes and magical things will happen.”
Dr. Robert K. Ross has shown unwavering commitment and advocacy for the health needs of underserved Californians. For the last decade, Ross has served as president and chief executive officer of The California Endowment, a private, statewide health foundation created in 1996 to expand access to affordable, quality health care for underserved individuals and communities, and to improve the health status of all Californians. Under Ross’ leadership, the foundation has championed the cause of health coverage for all children, strengthened the capacity of community health centers, improved health services for farm workers and strengthened the pipeline for bringing racial and ethnic diversity to the health professions. Ross has also been an active supporter and advocate for health improvement in South Los Angeles, the reopening of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Hospital, and a resurgent Charles Drew University. Ross has an extensive background as a clinician and public health administrator. He previously served as director of the Health and Human Services Agency for San Diego County and as commissioner of public health for the City of Philadelphia. A Diplomate of the American Academy of Pediatrics, he earned his undergraduate, Masters in Public Administration and medical degrees from the University of Pennsylvania. Named by Capitol Weekly as one of California’s most influential civic leaders in health policy, Ross has also been actively involved in community and professional activities at both the local and national levels. He served as a member of the National Vaccine Advisory Committee, and on the boards of the National Marrow Donor Program, San Diego United Way and Jackie Robinson YMCA. Among his many honors are the Council on Foundations’ 2008 Distinguished Grantmaker of the Year Award, and the National Association of Health Services Executives’ award for Health Administrator of the Year.
Opposite page, left: Speakers at the 50th Anniversary Gala included Dean Linda Rosenstock, actress Jamie Lee Curtis and the featured speaker, Dr. Atul Gawande, distinguished surgeon and bestselling author.
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Jamie Oliver is a phenomenon in the world of food – a British chef and TV personality who has worked tirelessly to educate and enlighten children and families throughout the world about healthy eating. Oliver’s television career began in 1999 when he was offered his own television show, The Naked Chef. The concept was about stripping food down to its bare essentials. Oliver’s goal was to inspire people to enjoy being in the kitchen – and even to start growing their own food. The show made Oliver one of the world’s best-loved TV personalities, with programs broadcast in more than 100 countries and best-selling cookbooks on display throughout the world. In 2005, Oliver developed an idea for a series about children’s nutrition. Jamie's School Dinners uncovered the appalling quality of food served in school dining halls across the UK. Oliver started the “Feed Me Better” campaign to demand government intervention, and the country’s School Food Trust was established to transform school food, promote education on healthy eating, and improve the quality of food in schools. Oliver wanted to take this message into the homes as well. In 2008, he established Jamie’s Ministry of Food centers throughout the UK to teach healthy and economical cooking. With the success of these two campaigns, Oliver was ready to take on a new challenge: the obesity epidemic in the United States. He got his opportunity with his hit ABC series Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution. The show debuted on March 22, 2010 when Oliver brought his message of healthy eating to school children and their families in Huntington, WV. In its second season, Jamie’s Food Revolution takes place in schools in Los Angeles. “This food revolution is about saving America’s health by changing the way you eat,” Oliver says. “It’s not just a TV show, it’s a movement for you, your family and your community.”
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alumni hall of fame: the 2011 inductees The UCLA School of Public Health Alumni Hall of Fame was established in 2002 to honor alumni with outstanding career accomplishments in public health, as well as those who have volunteered time and talent in their communities in support of public health activities. The 2011 inductees, recognized February 2 at the school’s 50th Anniversary Gala, exemplify the school’s commitment to teaching, research and service. This year’s inductees were honored in two categories: Lester Breslow Lifetime Achievement and Young Alumnus Achievement. Lester BresLow Lifetime Achievement
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ROBERT BLACK, M.D, M.P.H. ’76 Black is the Edgar Berman Professor and Chair of the Department of International Health and director of the Institute for International Programs at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He has been a leader in research and the development of evidence-based policy to reduce child deaths in the developing world resulting from infectious diseases and under-nutrition. Black received the 2010 Programme for Global Paediatric Research Award for Outstanding Contribution to Global Child Health in honor of his research achievements.
SAM DOWNING, M.B.A., M.P.H. ’71, F.A., C.H.E. Downing recently retired as president/CEO of Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System, an integrated network of health care programs, services and facilities on California’s central coast. He started at Salinas Valley Memorial in 1972 as an assistant administrator and had held the CEO position since 1985, overseeing a transition from a small rural hospital to a major health care system. Downing was also chairman for 17 years of Beta Healthcare Group, the largest provider of hospital malpractice coverage in California, and served as an adviser to the Clinton administration.
KATHRYN HALL-TRUJILLO, M.P.H. ’76 Hall-Trujillo is the founding director of Birthing Project USA, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the birth outcomes for women of color by providing practical support during pregnancy and for one year after the birth of their children. The Birthing Project model has been replicated in nearly 100 communities in the United States, Canada, Central America and Africa. Hall-Trujillo was previously founding director of the Center for Community Health & Well-Being, a holistic health and social service agency that houses a comprehensive women’s health care clinic, including substance abuse services.
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TONI YANCEY, M.D., M.P.H. ’91 Yancey, professor of health services and co-director of the UCLA Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Equity at the UCLA School of Public Health, serves on the board of the Partnership for a Healthier America, where she supports First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign. Her book Instant Recess: Building a Fit Nation 10 Minutes at a Time was recently published by the University of California Press. Yancey’s primary research interests are in chronic disease prevention, with a focus on organizational practice and policy change, and adolescent health promotion. She returned to academia full-time in 2001 after serving as director of public health for the city of Richmond, VA, and as director of chronic disease prevention and health promotion for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.
PETER LONG, M.P.H. ’08, PH.D. In July 2010, Long became president and CEO of Blue Shield of California Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Blue Shield of California. He previously held leadership roles at the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and The California Endowment. Long has extensive experience working on health policy issues at the state, national and global levels. Among his previous positions, he has served as executive director of the Indian Health Center of Santa Clara Valley in San Jose, CA, and as a legislative analyst for the National Progressive Primary Health Care Network in Cape Town, South Africa, during the country’s transition to democracy.
PREVIOUS INDUCTEES
Betsy Foxman, M.S.P.H. ’80, Ph.D. ’83 Ignacio Ferrey, M.P.H. ’04 Mark Gold, D.Env. ’94 Harold M. Goldstein, M.S.P.H. ’89, Dr.P.H. ’97 Raymond D. Goodman, M.D., M.P.H. ’72 Richard A. Goodman, M.D., J.D., M.P.H. ’83 Nancy Halpern Ibrahim, M.P.H. ’93 Nancy Hessol, M.S.P.H. ’82 Carolyn F. Katzin, M.S.P.H. ’88, C.N.S. Robert J. Kim-Farley, M.D., M.P.H. ’75 Kenneth W. Kizer, M.D., M.P.H. ’76 James W. LeDuc, Ph.D. ’77, M.S.P.H. ’72 Stanley Lemeshow, Ph.D. ’76 Rod Lew, M.P.H. ’88 Nicole Monastersky Maderas, M.P.H. ’03
Angela E. Oh, J.D., M.P.H. ’81 Jean Le Cerf Richardson, M.P.H. ’71, Dr.P.H. ’80 Keith S. Richman, M.D., M.P.H. ’83 Pauline M. Vaillancourt Rosenau, Ph.D., M.P.H. ’92 Jessie L. Sherrod, M.D., M.P.H. ’80 Irwin J. Shorr, M.P.H. ’72, M.P.S. Stephen M. Shortell, M.P.H. ’68, Ph.D. Shiing-Jer Twu, M.D., M.P.H., Ph.D. ’91 Barry R. Wallerstein, D.Env ’88 Kenneth B. Wells, M.D., M.P.H. ’80 Zunyou Wu, M.D., Ph.D. ’95, M.P.H. ’92 Michele Yehieli, M.P.H. ’89, Dr.P.H. ’95 Linda M. Yu Bien, M.S.P.H. ’79
Manal Aboelata, M.P.H. ’01 Ira R. Alpert, M.S.P.H. ’66 Wendy Arnold, M.P.H. ’82 Stanley P. Azen, Ph.D. ’69 Donna Bell Sanders, M.P.H. ’81 Lisa Bohmer, M.P.H. ’94 Diana M. Bonta´, R.N., M.P.H. ’75, Dr.P.H. ’92 Linda Burhansstipanov, Dr.P.H. ’74, M.P.H. ’72 Virginia A. Clark, Ph.D. ’63 Francine M. Coeytaux, M.P.H. ’82 Suzanne E. Dandoy, M.D., M.P.H. ’63 Paula Diehr, M.S. ’67, Ph.D. ’70 D. Peter Drotman, M.D., M.P.H. ’75
Please access information on 2012 nominations at www.ph.ucla.edu/alumni_hall.html or call (310) 825-6464.
UCLAPUBLIC HEALTH
ARTHUR SOUTHAM, M.D., M.B.A., M.P.H. ’84 As executive vice president of health plan operations for Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, Southam has national responsibility for marketing, sales, product development and administrative services. Before joining Kaiser in 2001, he served as CEO of Health Systems Design and CEO of two California health plans, HealthNet and CareAmerica. Southam serves on the National Commission on Prevention Priorities and was a member of the Institute of Medicine’s Committee on the Quality of Health Care in America, contributing to the widely cited publications To Err is Human and Crossing the Quality Chasm, on patient safety and how to improve the quality of U.S. health care.
hall of fame
Young ALumnus Achievement
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1961 1971 1981 8
Biostatistics • Breastfeeding • California Health Interview Survey • Cancer prevention and control • Children
preparedness and response • Educating practitioners • Effects of toxic chemicals • Environmental genomi
JFK was president. reform • Heal the Bay • Health education • Health policy research • Healthy Families • Helmets save lives
The Berlin Wall, symbol of the Cold War, was under construction. term care • Maternal health • Medicare • Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study • Nutrition • Pesticides and Parkinso
A gallon of gas cost 27 cents. • Roemer’s law • SARS • School junk food ban • Seatbelts • Seven healthy habits • Tobacco control • Tra
CELEBRATING It would be more than two years until the U.S. Surgeon General first warned smokers – then 50 percent of the nation – that their habit caused cancer and other harmful diseases. Medicare and Medicaid wouldn’t be established as safety nets for the elderly and poor for another four years. The two-martini lunch was an integral part of the business culture. Drivers and their passengers rarely
UCLAPUBLIC HEALTH
wore seatbelts; car seats for the purpose of protecting children wouldn’t be invented for another year. And in the fall of 1961, the UCLA School of Public Health was established with a faculty small enough to meet en masse in the lunchroom of the campus’ Home Economics Building (later renamed Campbell Hall), the school’s home base. The school – and the issues addressed by its faculty, students and alumni – have come a long way in the 50 years since. At the time of the school’s birth, much of the emphasis of public health was on sanitation and preventing the spread of communicable diseases. But in the early years of the school’s history the focus was broadening. Among other things, there was a realization that chronic conditions such as heart disease and cancer were becoming a greater concern for an aging society – and that public health could make a difference by promoting healthy behaviors and environments. A seminal study showing the longevity benefits of seven “healthy habits” by the school’s second dean, Dr. Lester Breslow, helped to fuel a concept that at the time seemed revolutionary, and today is taken for granted.
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1991 2001 2011 9
cover story
ren’s health • Clearing the air • Climate change • Closing the disparities gap • Combating obesity • Disaster
omics • Environmental justice • Eradicating smallpox • Family planning • Fighting HIV/AIDS • Health care
ves • International health • Immigrant health • Immunizations • Industrial hygiene • Instant recess • Long-
inson’s • Population health • Preparing scholars • Rapid surveys • Reproductive health • Restaurant grades
Training international leaders • Universal coverage • Violence prevention • Water quality • Worker safety •
FIFTY YEARS century later. Fifty years ago there was no such issue as global climate change, the field of environmental genomics didn’t exist, and few were talking about health disparities. Not that all of today’s major public health issues are so new. The fight for universal access to health care in the United States was underway well before the school was established; it continues to be a major struggle today, even as historic progress has been made – from Medicare/ Medicaid to the Children’s Health Insurance Program to the passage of the Affordable Care Act, the health care reform signed into law by President Obama in March 2010. Life is vastly different today than it was 50 years ago, and so are the issues that affect the health of populations. But one thing hasn’t changed. The UCLA School of Public Health was, is, and will continue to be a leader in building healthier futures through research, education and service.
UCLAPUBLIC HEALTH
The worldwide eradication of smallpox – one of public health’s greatest late-20th-century successes – was announced in 1977, and some began to wonder if infectious disease was a problem of the past. It wouldn’t take long for that notion to prove false: In 1981 a UCLA physician documented the first case of AIDS, and two years later the man who would become the school’s third dean, Dr. Roger Detels, helped to launch the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study, an ongoing cohort that has produced numerous critical insights and may ultimately lead to a vaccine. Now, in an era of increased travel and an interconnected world, emerging infectious diseases are as great a concern as ever. HIV/AIDS is one of many modern public health problems that weren’t on the radar when the school opened its doors. Obesity wouldn’t have registered as a major concern in 1961, but changes in eating habits, food availability and marketing, as well as more sedentary lifestyles, have conspired to make it a leading public health problem in the United States and many other countries a half-
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THE NEXT
What Will Be the Most Pressing Issues? As part of National Public Health Week, UCLA School of Public Health students were asked to identify the most pressing public health issues of the next 50 years and how they should be tackled.
An expert panel chose five finalists among the essays, one from each department. Each finalist won $1,000 and the opportunity to present their ideas
at a special event in April. The overall winner, biostatistics doctoral student
Adam King, received the first Lester Breslow Fellowship in the amount of $5,000. Following are excerpts from the winning students’ presentations.
50 MILESTONES 1. After 15 years as the southern branch of a University of California systemwide public health school, the UCLA School of Public Health is established as an independent school by the UC Regents on March 17, 1961.
1
2. Dr. Lenor S. (Steve) Goerke, head of the medical school’s Department of Preventive Medicine, is appointed the first dean. He oversees 57 faculty in seven divisions. The school offers undergraduate instruction leading to a B.S. degree as well as graduate programs leading to degrees of M.S., M.P.H., Ph.D. and Dr.P.H. 3. Dr. Lester Breslow, formerly the director of the California Department of Health Services, becomes the school's second dean in 1972; he serves until 1980. 4. The Public Health Alumni Association is founded in 1974, with alumnus Raymond Goodman serving as first president. The same year, the annual Lester Breslow Distinguished Lectureship is established by the Raymond and Betty Goodman Foundation. 5. Dr. Roger Detels, an epidemiologist on the school’s faculty, serves as the school's third dean from 1980 to 1985.
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6. Dr. Abdelmonem A. Afifi, a biostatistics professor at the school, is appointed the school's fourth dean in 1985 and goes on to serve 15 years. 7. Dr. Linda Rosenstock, then director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, is recruited to serve as the school's fifth dean in 2000. 4
8. Today, a dozen centers sponsored by or associated with the school promote interdisciplinary research among faculty and students: the Center for Adolescent Health Promotion; Center for Environmental Genomics; Center for Global and Immigrant Health; Center for Health Policy Research; Center for Healthier Children,
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Food Quality and Health: The ‘Wellness’ Dimension in Consumer Protection
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cover story
Patricia Cummings — Ph.D. Student, Department of Epidemiology By 2030, it is estimated that about 86% of U.S. adults will be overweight or obese. Total health care costs attributed to obesity are expected to double every decade. This epidemic has led to an increase in morbidity and mortality from costly chronic diseases such as heart disease, stroke, hypertension and diabetes. Many of these conditions are associated with lifestyle choices, one of which is unhealthy, uninformed food selection. Traditionally, food safety has been perceived in terms of preventing foodborne illness, pesticide contamination, or misuse of food additives, and not about the quality of food being served, particularly the types and portions of foods that can lead to dangerous weight gain and subsequent obesity. If food quality becomes a more accepted concept, merging it with the core function of food safety programs in public health departments may have a significant impact on curbing the obesity epidemic and preventing the onset of other diseases catalyzed by eating foods high in fat, sodium and calories. Policies that provide opportunities for consumers to become more informed at the point of purchase or that reduce unhealthy ingredients in meals will become necessary complements to other obesity prevention strategies. Addressing food quality within the context of protecting consumers from developing obesity-related diseases and promoting health will require significant investment of resources and implementation of innovative approaches at a more global level – meaning policy, system and/or environmental changes that are not restricted to protection measures for traditional hazards. This is the most pressing public health issue now and will be for the next 50 years if timely, drastic measures are not taken.
Families, and Communities; Center for Human Nutrition; Center for Metabolic Diseases Prevention; Center for Occupational and Environmental Health; Center for Public Health and Disasters; Division of Cancer Prevention & Control Research; Fred H. Bixby Center for Population and Reproductive Health; and UCLA Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Equity. The school is also involved in training environmental leaders through the Industrial Hygiene Program and the Environmental Science and Engineering Program. 9. Fifteen among the school’s faculty have earned the prestigious honor of election to membership in the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. 10. Three members of the school's faculty have served terms as president of the American Public Health Association. 11. The UCLA School of Public Health Alumni Hall of Fame, established in 2002, recognizes the contributions of some of the school’s most outstanding graduates. Forty-seven members have been inducted thus far. 12. Fifty years after the school’s founding, 9,280 individuals throughout the world hold degrees from one of its academic programs.
education
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13. In 1963, the first Ph.D. granted by the newly formed School of Public Health goes to Virginia A. Clark, in Biostatistics.
15. The Health Careers Opportunity Program lays the foundation for the school to become a national leader in training minority public health students.
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14. The Public Health Student Association, established in 1978, serves the academic and social needs of the school’s students; encourages and promotes community involvement; and stimulates interest in and advancement of the public health profession.
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Controlling Health Care Costs with Evidence-based Policies and Practices
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Adam King — Ph.D. Student, Department of Biostatistics One of the most salient issues in public discourse today is how to deal with spiraling health care costs in a time when the global economy is weak. Many governments and individuals around the world are struggling with record deficits and debts, and cutting health services and medical expenditures is viewed by some as a necessary evil. However, not only does such an economic Band-Aid leave people less healthy in the short term, it can also leave people in dramatically worse shape down the road when they don't receive preventive care. Austerity is not a long-term solution. We need to bring efficacy and efficiency to the forefront of the public discussion of health care. We need to build public support for evidence-based health policy. With this support, we can dramatically increase funding for rigorous health-related research, which will pay for itself many times over. Can a renewed focus on evidence-driven strategies really provide further benefits? The answer is “Yes.” Our knowledge of medicine and other determinants of health is nowhere near complete, and renewed efforts at improving that body of knowledge can lead to much more effective and efficient health policy. The truth is that many widespread practices have never been carefully vetted, and better alternatives may be one rigorous study away. The economic and political reality is that we have to find a way to do more with less or people are going to be less healthy. The way to meet the health care cost challenge is to ensure that every area of health policy and practice is based on the highest-quality evidence possible. If we can generate public support to fund this level of commitment to evidence-based health policy, we can survive these economic challenges without sacrificing the public's health.
16. Students of Color for Public Health is established in 2001 to encourage social support, career networking, and advocacy efforts for the school’s students and alumni of color. 17. More than 100 health professionals from China, Southeast Asia and India are trained at the M.S. and Ph.D. levels to become public health leaders in their home countries under the UCLA/Fogarty International Training and Research Program. Many of the graduates go on to become ministers of health or lead efforts to control HIV/AIDS. 18. The establishment of executive-style M.P.H. programs in the 1990s provides public health training for working health professionals. 19. Joint degree programs further expand opportunities for students. They include the J.D./M.P.H., M.B.A./M.P.H., M.D./M.P.H., and M.A./M.P.H. (in either African, Asian American, Islamic, or Latin American Studies).
discovery 20. The year Dr. Lester Breslow is named the school’s second dean, his landmark Alameda County study establishes a strong link between seven behaviors and health and longevity.
UCLAPUBLIC HEALTH
20
21. Faculty show that the level of cholesterol in normal diets, including diets containing eggs, does not raise serum cholesterol. 22. “Health Status of the American Male" establishes the safety of vasectomy as an effective birth-control procedure. 23. A genetic susceptibility to multiple sclerosis is revealed. 24. Discrimination is found to be associated with health status.
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The Inequitable Burden of Disease: Reducing Global Poverty Through Community Development
13
cover story
Philip Massey — Ph.D. Student, Department of Community Health Sciences As life expectancies around the world continue to climb, the prevalence of chronic disease is likely to increase. As pollutants and other harmful contaminants are released into the Earth and the atmosphere, negative consequences of global warming will become more apparent. What is less clear is if the burden of disease and environmental hazard will be equitable across nations, throughout regions, within communities or among neighbors. Despite the varying nature of the threat, one group persistently experiences a disproportionate exposure to negative consequences – the poor. One of the greatest innovations in our field over the past 50 years has been the way information is shared, in large part due to advancing technologies that are able to connect people and ideas instantly. The role of social media and mobile technology is expanding to untold populations, showing that the possibilities of information sharing are limitless. Public health has the opportunity to leverage this innovation in an effort to reduce global poverty. Communities and individuals themselves are best situated to drive development projects that benefit their neighborhoods and regions. These local entities, however, seldom have the opportunity to define and highlight their own priorities. As mobile and other technologies become more affordable and accessible to low-income populations around the world, it must be our directive to advance their use and purpose within communities. As public health professionals we are called to serve the underserved and eliminate inequality. Our passions and abilities lie in advocating for and empowering the global community to access and utilize resources that will facilitate the pursuit and attainment of health and prosperity.
25. Singleton children, widely presumed to grow up feeling isolated, are found to have a clear social advantage. 26. The health benefits and cost savings of helmet use among motorcycle riders are demonstrated. 27. In one of the first studies examining the quality of life for breast cancer survivors, women who have a mastectomy are found to express more difficulties with body image than women who have breast conservation surgery. 28. Chronic exposure to air pollutants is shown to compromise growth of respiratory capacity in children, and to cause irreversible changes in lung function in adults. 29. Exposure to higher levels of traffic-related air pollution is linked to increased risk for preterm births, low birth weight, pre-eclampsia and cardiac birth defects. 30. People living or working near major freeways are found to be at substantially increased risk for exposure to dangerous particles from motor vehicles.
30
31. During the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), death rates from SARS are found to double in cities with poor air quality. 32. Evidence suggests that green tea helps to prevent chronic gastritis. 33. Biological markers are identified that may predict diabetes in healthy people.
35. The association between television viewing and childhood obesity is linked to children’s exposure to junk food commercials. 36. More than 2.24 million low-income adults in California are found to be unable to afford to put food on the table; as a result, one in three of these adults experiences episodes of hunger.
32
UCLAPUBLIC HEALTH
34. Pesticide exposure is found to increase the risk of Parkinson’s disease.
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Bridging Science and Politics to Meet the Public Health Challenges of Climate Change
14
David C. Quiros — D.Env. Student, Environmental Science & Engineering Program When it comes to tackling urgent environmental concerns, policy and science are not always aligned. In the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments, the U.S. Congress ignored the best available science in its mandate for corn ethanol blending into gasoline; policymakers succumbed to exhortations of agricultural lobbyists. UCLA research has clearly spelled out the repercussions of exposure to smog and ultrafine particles; yet, there has been insufficient oversight to minimize exposure of these pollutants to pedestrians, cyclists and even motorists. Today, climate change is an impending public health threat. Fieldwork, modeling, speculation and political summits have informed world leaders and citizens alike of the causes and effects of greenhouse gas emissions. But policy remains substantially misaligned with adaptation and mitigation recommendations, and political contention takes effective policymaking into stalemate. Consequently, time will pass and perhaps more knowledge will be acquired, despite the current clear understanding of the risks of global climate change. I term the hesitation to seek more research when action is merited upon preexisting foundations the “knowledge disbenefit.” Researchers should be advocates of their work; policymakers should hearken to the best available science. Climate change will create major public health issues, but the failure to adapt to issues such as climate change is the biggest problem. In the next 50 years, we should not let our knowledge become a disbenefit for society.
impact 37. Following the Watts riots in 1965, faculty document the need for construction of a hospital to serve South-Central Los Angeles. The hospital becomes KingDrew Medical Center. 38. Faculty lead efforts to promote the benefits of breastfeeding on a global scale and are instrumental in developing the World Health Organization resolution Wellstart – an international breastfeeding training program for health professionals – along with the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative and the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action. 39. The ongoing Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study (with Johns Hopkins, Northwestern and Pittsburgh universities), the first and largest cohort study examining the natural history of AIDS, results in more than 1,200 papers since 1983 on the epidemiologic, immunologic, behavioral, clinical and treatment aspects of HIV/AIDS. Early in the epidemic, the study demonstrates how HIV-related immune deficiency is transmitted among homosexual men, a discovery that prevents millions of infections. 40. Faculty and their trainees lead international efforts to control the spread of HIV/AIDS, particularly in China, Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar, and other areas of Southeast Asia.
UCLAPUBLIC HEALTH
40
41. The first studies quantifying the number of Californians without health insurance shine a spotlight on a national problem. Faculty become active in helping to formulate policy options at the national, state, and local levels for dealing with the issue. 42. Playing leadership roles in California's successful campaign against tobacco use, faculty help to determine the allocation of funds from the Proposition 99 cigarette tax to researchers, local health departments, schools, community health agencies, and the media for tobacco control initiatives.
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Overcoming the World’s Health Challenges Through Development, Empowerment and Innovation
15
cover story
Eddy D. Palacios — M.P.H. Student, Department of Health Services The most pressing and urgent public health issue will be to deliver quality, effective and efficient care to the poor, underprivileged, uneducated, socially rejected and constantly exploited people of the world by establishing viable and self-sustainable infrastructure in their communities. Infrastructures must be tailored and able to support health care needs specific to the communities they serve. These interventions can range from access to clean water to prevent infectious disease to basic education and awareness of how to prevent sexually transmitted infections, to innovative approaches to manufacture and supply low-cost pharmaceuticals and essential technologies effectively. This also extends to building the capacity to support rudimentary but efficient health systems; a culture of health and prevention as well as social constructs that go beyond treating disease; and communities that value and are empowered to act on the importance of health and prevention. Most importantly, it is essential that these efforts are focused on people’s well being and on formulating innovative approaches through community interventions, changing risky behavior and building sound market structures and incentives for quality care. This must be done in a way that is culturally sensitive and considerate of local customs and values. Finally, efforts must take a holistic view of the problem and realize that building healthier communities is not sustainable unless we address the reasons people are poor, underprivileged, uneducated, socially rejected and exploited.
43. Faculty are instrumental in forging international tobacco control agreements. 44. Faculty pioneer the study of violence and its prevention in the United States as a public health issue – not solely as a criminal-justice issue. 45. The California Health Interview Survey, the largest state health survey in the United States and the first in the state to interview people from every county, is established as a collaboration involving the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research (based in the school), the California Department of Health Services, and the Public Health Institute. 46. Research on the exposures to and adverse health effects from major environmental toxic chemicals – including diesel exhaust, MTBE, lead, arsenic, chromium, cadmium, and pesticides – paves the way for policies protecting workers and the public from these and other toxic chemicals. 47 47. Working with the Greater West Hollywood Food Coalition, a volunteer organization serving food to the homeless and transient population in West Hollywood each week, public health students and their faculty adviser launch the Mobile Clinic Project at UCLA to provide much-needed health and social services to the population. The clinic, now going on 10 years, soon brings in medical, law, and undergraduate students.
49. Research on the use of fruit and vegetable vouchers among low-income pregnant women leads the U.S. Department of Agriculture to revise the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program to include monthly subsidies for fruits and vegetables. 50. The Oxford Textbook of Public Health (editions 1-5), edited by a member of the school’s faculty, becomes the definitive book on global public health.
50
UCLAPUBLIC HEALTH
48. Faculty forge a long-term relationship with the Los Angeles Unified School District as well as other districts to promote nutrition education and fruit and vegetable consumption in low-income schools.
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16 T HE
LAST
THREE DEANS HAVE BEEN MAJOR CONTRIBUTORS TO BOTH THE SCHOOL AND PUBLIC HEALTH .
paving the way: Lester Breslow Through a seven-decade career as one of public health’s leading figures, Dr. Lester Breslow has established a track record for being ahead of his time. So it’s not surprising that along the way, some of his most prescient ideas have been met with, shall we say, skepticism. After completing his service in World War II, Breslow approached California’s director of public health proposing to start a chronic disease program in the state. Even as a young local health officer in Minnesota, Breslow had harbored big ideas about where the field should be headed: He saw a population that was living longer and, as a result, beginning to suffer more from age-related chronic conditions such as heart disease, cancer and stroke. “There was a focus almost exclusively on communicable diseases when I started,” Breslow recalled a few days after his 96th birthday. “I felt public health needed a broader vision.” By the end of the war, he was also interested in studying the possible link between tobacco and chronic disease risk. California’s public health director wasn’t hearing any of it. “He said, ‘Why don’t you bring those crazy ideas back to Minnesota and try them there,’ ” Breslow says with a smile. Ultimately, Breslow got the job he sought and would end up in the position of the man who had dismissed his vision. But as he rose to the level of California’s top health official, he continued to encounter skeptics in high places. By the 1960s, Breslow was interested in studying whether lifestyle behaviors – from regular exercise and sleep to maintaining an optimal weight and not smoking or excessively drinking – influenced health and longevity. The response of the National Institutes of Health panel of scientists who reviewed his initial study proposal: “Unanimous rejection,” Breslow says, smiling again. “They and many others thought the idea was bizarre.” More often than not, Breslow’s “bizarre” ideas would become conventional wisdom. Three of his studies linking tobacco use to disease were later cited in the U.S. Surgeon General’s landmark 1964 report. His Alameda County studies – which found, among other things, that a 45-year-old male who followed six of seven healthy habits had a life expectancy 11 years longer than a peer who followed three or fewer – helped to usher in a new era of health promotion.
UCLAPUBLIC HEALTH
“There was a focus almost exclusively on communicable diseases when I started,” Breslow recalled a few days after his 96th birthday. “I felt public health needed a broader vision.” As California’s public health director Breslow had another idea that was ahead of its time – the concept that the organization of medical services has a major impact on the population’s health, and that it should be studied as a scientific discipline. Two other leading advocates of that idea, Milton and Ruth Roemer, were on the faculty at the UCLA School of Public Health; they were influential in bringing Breslow to the school, where he would serve as dean from 1972 to 1980, and as a dean emeritus ever since. Among Breslow’s most enduring legacies was to increase public health’s attention to chronic diseases. And yet, some six decades after California’s public health director suggested he take his “crazy” ideas back to Minnesota, Breslow was characteristically outlining a new, more ambitious vision for his profession. At age 89 in 2004, he was the featured speaker at the school’s annual lecture established in his name. Breslow proposed a new era focused more comprehensively on promoting health rather than on merely combating infectious or chronic diseases. By now, given his track record, skeptics were much harder to find.
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Roger Detels Asia, India and China, something has been particularly striking about the leaders of the programs to combat the epidemic in those regions: So many have trained at the UCLA School of Public Health under the tutelage of Dr. Roger Detels, professor of epidemiology and dean of the school from 1980 to 1985.
dean profiles
For just about as long as HIV/AIDS has been an issue in Southeast
17
Since Detels received federal funding to establish the UCLA/Fogarty AIDS International Training and Research Program in 1988, nearly 150 health professionals, most of them from developing Asian nations, have come to the school for master’s- and doctoral-level education. Trainees learn epidemiologic techniques and research methods that prepare them to return to leadership positions at home. And lead they have: Graduates have gone on to become ministers of health, to head AIDS and other disease surveillance programs, and to conduct critical research – often collaborating with Detels. Through his connections, Detels has consulted with numerous government and public health officials in these countries over the years – and his network of graduates in high places has served as an invaluable resource for UCLA faculty colleagues. It was in Asia that Detels, while training to become a physician, was first drawn to public health. As a third-year medical student he spent six months at the Naval Medical Research Unit in Taiwan. “That experience made me realize that approaching one patient at a time wasn’t the way to make the biggest impact on health,” he says.
“I’ve met amazing, highly committed individuals. To help them develop as trainees and then to see them walk into leadership positions in their home countries and make a difference has been fantastically rewarding.”
UCLAPUBLIC HEALTH
He joined the school’s faculty in 1971 and had been making important discoveries showing the longterm effects of exposure to Los Angeles air pollution and a genetic susceptibility to multiple sclerosis when, in 1981, a UCLA physician, Dr. Michael Gottlieb, wrote the first report of an immune deficiency disorder affecting gay men. “I realized this was a model I could study through a cohort approach because we knew who was at risk for getting the disease and it had a very high incidence,” Detels says. He began recruiting students from UCLA’s Gay and Lesbian Association as volunteers for a study in which they would anonymously respond to a series of questions and donate blood specimens. By 1983 Detels had enough data to successfully apply to the National Institutes of Health. UCLA and three other universities became the Multicenter AIDS Cohort (MACS), the first study to examine the natural history of AIDS. Twenty-eight years later, Detels continues to run the UCLA site; in that time MACS has followed more than 6,000 volunteer participants and published more than 1,200 papers, contributing pivotal insights on transmission, immune response, treatment, and genetic factors that, among other benefits, are integral to current efforts to develop a vaccine. Detels is also the senior editor of the Oxford Textbook of Public Health, considered the ultimate resource for public health. The fifth edition of the ambitious undertaking was released in 2009, and a sixth is in the works. While the first two volumes focused primarily on the developed world, Detels takes pride in having brought a global perspective to the most recent editions. Global health has been a major priority for the school over much of the last decade, and it could be argued that no one embodies that focus more than Detels and his international network of current and former students. When he isn’t visiting his former protégés for professional collaborations, Detels is in constant email contact. “It’s like having a large family,” he says. “I’ve met amazing, highly committed individuals. To help them develop as trainees and then to see them walk into leadership positions in their home countries and make a difference has been fantastically rewarding.”
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dean profiles
18
Abdelmonem A. Afifi As a leading biostatistician on the school’s faculty for all but four years of its existence, Dr. Abdelmonem A. Afifi has concerned himself with complex formulas – work that is essential to drawing sound conclusions from research data. But when it comes to Afifi’s legacy, the numbers fail to tell the whole story. If skill with the minutiae of biostatistics has fueled Afifi’s scholarly pursuits, it’s his interpersonal and leadership acumen that have served a broader constituency – whether it’s the scores of public health students he has mentored or the school he led during 15 years as dean. After graduating from Egypt’s Cairo University with a degree in mathematics, Afifi came to the United States on a Fulbright Scholarship to pursue his Master’s in Statistics at the University of Chicago and Ph.D. at UC Berkeley. As he finished his Ph.D. his adviser, Dr. Robert Elashoff, was getting married in Los Angeles and invited Afifi to the wedding. As it happened, Elashoff was marrying the daughter of Dr. Wilfrid Dixon, who founded the Division of Biostatistics at the new UCLA School of Public Health. Dixon invited Afifi – at the time still undecided on whether to return to Egypt – to present to the division. Afifi impressed to the point that he was offered a faculty position. It’s been 46 years and counting. From the beginning he was a prominent scholar. The first of a series of four papers he and Elashoff published based on Afifi’s dissertation was, for many years, among the most oft-cited papers on the subject of missing values – how to handle incomplete data, an inevitable problem when studying human subjects. In addition to his technical work, Afifi and his colleague Dr. Virginia Clark sought to make statistics accessible to a wider audience. Their 1984 textbook Computer-Aided Multivariate Analysis, aimed at nonstatisticians, would show great staying power: Afifi and Clark recently sent the fifth edition to the publisher. By the mid-1970s, Afifi’s focus was broadening. “I always wanted to know everyone,” he says. “When the school was small enough, I’d have parties and invite every faculty member to my home. Soon I became interested not just in socializing but in learning about their work.” Colleagues elected Afifi to the faculty executive committee, and by the mid-1980s as its chair. In 1985, he was asked to serve as acting dean during the search for a successor to Dr. Roger Detels; by 1987 he was chosen to guide the school, a position he held until 2000.
UCLAPUBLIC HEALTH
“I always wanted to know everyone. When the school was small enough, I’d have parties and invite every faculty member to my home. Soon I became interested not just in socializing but in learning about their work.” His goal was to take the school from “pretty good” to elite. “We already had a strong faculty, but we lacked the internal structure that goes with a major school,” Afifi says. So he organized the school into five departments (Biostatistics, Community Health Sciences, Environmental Health Sciences, Epidemiology and Health Services), each with its own staff. The move resulted in strengthened individual units – and a stronger whole. A second major challenge: Whereas once the school had relied on the state for most of its funding, amid substantial reductions Afifi realized that continued growth depended on faculty generating a portion of their own salary through grants, thus freeing up some state money to hire additional faculty. The result was the beginning of a more sustainable model that continues to be vital to the school’s growth. More than a decade later, Afifi finds reward in both the challenging research projects he takes on and in mentoring students. He’s been a member of more than 190 doctoral dissertation committees, chairing 29 of them, and former protégés span the globe. “I learn so much from working with these bright young minds,” he says. “It’s a constant reminder that this was the right path for me.”
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19
feature
PEACE CORPS be with them Not long after President John F. Kennedy established a corps of
A NOTHER
talented volunteers who would spend time in developing countries working
INSTITUTION
toward progress and peace, the organization began to make its mark on the UCLA School of Public Health.
TURNS
50 –
This year, both the school and the Peace Corps turn 50. That their anniversaries coincide is fitting, since so many of the school’s faculty and students were shaped – and, in many cases, inspired to pursue careers in public health – by their Peace Corps service. Among the first of the school’s future faculty to volunteer for the Peace Corps was DR. ROBERTA MALMGREN, currently a member of the school’s Department of Epidemiology faculty. Malmgren spent her two years of service (1963-65) in Tanzania teaching English, math, science, East African history and geography to seventh- and eighth-grade students. “I wanted to accomplish something that mattered,” Malmgren says. It was a life-changing experience. “The Peace Corps was a hard act to follow. It made me want to learn more about the world and to stay involved in work that makes a difference to other people. Public health was a natural because it’s so focused on improving conditions in the world.”
THIS YEAR
As a Peace Corps volunteer in the Philippines (1968-71), DR. DONALD MORISKY first served as a university chemistry/physics instructor, then directed an effort to integrate an inductive science class into the high school curriculum. Morisky ultimately stayed a year longer than he had originally planned to take part in a new role for Peace Corps volunteers – involvement in public health. After a month of training in family planning program activities, he was responsible for developing a follow-up assessment for women on oral contraceptives. Following the experience, Morisky went on to pursue a Ph.D. in public health, and to spend much of his career returning to the Philippines to conduct research.
Dr. Donald Morisky (left and center) rides a tricycle, then the most popular means of transportation in the Philippines, where Morisky served from 1968 to 1971. Right: Karen Parker lived in a small subsistencefarming village in Niger.
ONE THAT HAS INSPIRED MANY
SPH
FACULTY
AND STUDENTS TO GO INTO PUBLIC HEALTH .
UCLAPUBLIC HEALTH
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20 The Peace Corps experience made a lasting impression on DR. DEBORAH GLIK, professor of community health sciences, who served in Togo, West Africa from 1970 to 1973. As what was then called
UCLAPUBLIC HEALTH
Left: In Togo, West Africa, Dr. Deborah Glik worked with physicians, nurses, health assistants and teachers to educate the population on health issues. Glik (shown center top) served from 1970 to 1973. Right and center bottom: Dr. Jessica Gipson’s service in the Dominican Republic from 1999 to 2001 had a profound impact on the way she thinks about public health.
a “health girl” she worked with physicians, nurses, health assistants and teachers to educate the population on topics ranging from maternal and child health, reproductive health, nutrition and hygiene to parasites, malaria and injury prevention. “Living in Togo was a revelation for me – it showed me that what people think and do has a major impact on their health,” says Glik. She traveled all over western Africa, learned to cook and became enamored with the local culture while assisting Togolese health professionals in planning health projects, building coalitions, raising money for wells and latrines, and promoting community preventive health. Glik isn’t the only person at the school who served in Togo. DR. FRED ZIMMERMAN, professor and chair of health services, was an adviser aiding the development of the agriculture curriculum for middle schools from 1986 to 1988. PAIGE LAPEN, a student in the school’s M.P.H. for Health Professionals program, was in Togo from 2004 to 2006 as a Community Health and HIV/AIDS Prevention volunteer. Lapen, who had earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia, says her service is what inspired her to pursue her M.P.H. “It was an amazing experience that I would recommend to anyone,” she says. The Peace Corps experience pointed more than one faculty member in the direction of public health. DR. ANNE RIMOIN, assistant professor of epidemiology, says she never considered going into
science until her Peace Corps service. After earning her undergraduate degree in African history in 1992, Rimoin was placed in Benin, West Africa, where she spent two years as a coordinator for the guinea worm eradication program. “That’s how I became interested in epidemiology and public health,” Rimoin says. “It brought home to me the importance
of using basic epidemiologic methods to solve a problem.” Notes Rimoin, whose career is now dedicated to helping to build the capacity for surveillance of emerging infectious diseases in the Democratic Republic of Congo: “That’s essentially what I’ve been doing ever since.” DR. JESSICA GIPSON, assistant professor of community health sciences, says her Peace Corps experience as a community health extensionist in the Dominican Republic (1999-2001) had a profound impact on the way she thinks about public health and international development. Gipson designed, administered and analyzed a community health census to assess existing health beliefs and practices within more than 150 households of Elías Piña, a community on the Dominican-Haitian border; participated with a local non-governmental organization in the training, monitoring and evaluation of 15 female health promoters in an HIV/AIDS/ sexually transmitted infection education and prevention program; and played a key role in the development of a four-month course dedicated to improving self-esteem, gender awareness and knowledge of reproductive health and family planning. “Perhaps most important, I learned the importance of ‘confianza’ [trust] in the building of both personal and professional relationships, as well as the need to remain flexible, humble and open to new ways of thinking about and implementing communitydriven, collaborative public health programs and interventions,” Gipson says. DR. PAUL ROSENFELD, an environmental chemist who teaches courses at the school on risk of exposure to environmental contaminants, got his start
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nurses and physicians to educate community and student leaders about nutrition; HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections; and general health and wellness. After completing her M.B.A./M.P.H., Whitmore hopes to design and manage large-scale international development programs, building on her experience in southern Peru. As a Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala from 2008 to 2010, ASHLEY KISSINGER was part of Rural Home Preventive Health, which works in conjunction with the Ministry of Health of Guatemala to teach rural, indigenous families about preventive health and simple technologies to improve family health conditions, including improved wood-burning stoves, water systems and latrines. The experience was both challenging and rewarding. “I found that development and intervention are not for the easily discouraged, but for those who can celebrate small victories while still grasping a larger picture,” Kissinger says. Kissinger returned last July, inspired to pursue a career in public health. She is currently working toward her M.P.H. in the school’s Department of Environmental Health Sciences. Shortly after beginning the program, she met Malmgren. Although their Peace Corps experiences were on different continents and separated in time by nearly half a century, the bond was immediate. “I often meet volunteers when they come right out of the Peace Corps,” says Malmgren. “They’re one-third my age, but we have the same views and perspectives.”
Clockwise from left: Paige Lapen weighs babies at a nutritional meeting for mothers in Togo; Ashley Kissinger (third from left in the group) in Guatemala; Martha Whitmore in Peru; Whitmore in Peru; and Kissinger in Guatemala.
UCLAPUBLIC HEALTH
KAREN PARKER says her experience as a Peace Corps volunteer in Niger (2002-04) taught her to think about health in terms of communities rather than only individuals. Living in a small subsistencefarming village on the edge of the Sahara Desert, Parker served as a natural resource management volunteer, linking community members with government programs and development projects in larger regional centers. Today Parker is a doctoral student in the school’s Department of Community Health Sciences, where she can trade stories with one of the department’s faculty members. DR. MOIRA INKELAS was in Niger from 1987 to 1990, working on community agricultural projects and helping to support expansion of medical kits and training in rural areas. Fifty years after it began, “Peace Corps” can still be found in the biographies of many students and newer faculty. NEIL MARSHALL, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Health Services, was a maternal and child health officer in Malawi from 1994 to 1996. One of his peers in the department, ANDREW BARNES, worked on HIV/AIDS policy in Mali in 2000. ERIK MANN, an M.P.H. student in the Department of Community Health Sciences, taught HIV/AIDS to deaf students in a rural school in Kenya from 2005 to 2007; PREMA RAY, an M.P.H. student in the Department of Community Health Sciences, was an HIV/AIDS teacher-trainer and community outreach volunteer in Thailand from 2007 to 2009.
21 MARTHA WHITMORE was inspired by her experience as a Peace Corps volunteer in Peru (2007-09) to pursue a dual master’s degree in business and public health at UCLA. In the small agricultural community of Corire, Whitmore worked with local
feature
on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts, where he did his Peace Corps service from 1991 to 1993. While there, Rosenfeld taught environmental studies at the elementary and high school levels; built three anaerobic digesters converting organic waste to methane; and quantified the island’s plant and animal species for the World Wildlife Fund.
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22 T HE
STATE -
OF - THE - ART
G LOBAL B IO L AB
AT
UCLA
IMPROVES THE CAPACITY TO RESPOND TO THE WORLD ’ S DEADLIEST BIOLOGICAL THREATS .
PANDEMIC WATCH The Global Bio Lab at UCLA, six years in the making, officially opened May 20 and is now poised to serve as a first line of defense against the deadliest biological threats around the globe.
UCLAPUBLIC HEALTH
The lab, based in the School of Public Health, once fully operational will increase the rate at which infectious agents are submitted, tested and analyzed. This enhanced capacity will improve the nation’s ability to respond quickly to a bio-emergency such as a bioterrorist attack or flu pandemic. “In an era in which infectious diseases can spread faster than at any time in history, coupled with the possibility of a wide-scale bioterrorist attack, there is an urgent need to provide real-time, accurate, and comprehensive information at the first hint of a problem,” says Dr. Linda Rosenstock, dean of the UCLA School of Public Health. “The Global Bio Lab at UCLA provides a new tool in combating serious infectious diseases.” The facility has received $23 million in federal funding through the U.S. Department of Defense and another $9 million from the State of California Office of Homeland Security. “I encourage people to support what I believe will change the way our world addresses infectious disease and bioterror events,” says advisory board member Cindy Horn, a strong supporter of the lab from the beginning who
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feature
“Investments in UCLA’s Global Bio Lab are an investment in our nation – in our public health, homeland security, science, and innovation. We know that the security of our country starts with the health of our people, and this lab will enable us to respond quickly, immediately, and effectively to health emergencies, pandemics, and bioterrorist attacks.” — House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi
urges others to join the effort to raise private funds to support the lab. “This world-class resource will give public health professionals around the world a new weapon in this fight.” Infectious diseases are the leading cause of mortality and morbidity around the globe. The threat of a pandemic has been elevated in recent years not only by the threat of bioterrorism, but through increased travel and crowded living conditions, which can take a virus in a remote village and quickly transport it around the world, infecting millions of people. Quick detection of emerging infectious diseases is critical to halting and containing their
UCLAPUBLIC HEALTH
spread. But there has been a lack of global capacity to rapidly process suspicious viral and other microbial samples. First responders often wait days or weeks for lab analysis – more than enough time for deadly infections to travel the globe. The UCLA Global Bio Lab is a major step forward with its potential to implement near real-time global surveillance of infectious diseases by integrating high-throughput
laboratory testing and analysis with populationbased surveillance activities and basic infectious diseases research. Envisioned as part of a global network, its central focus will be to provide a worldwide collaborative network of researchers, public health workers, governments and the medical community with accurate and timely situational awareness. The lab will also provide critical cutting-edge training for the future public health workforce. The lab’s official opening was attended by dignitaries including House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Henry Waxman. “Investments in UCLA’s Global Bio Lab are an investment in our nation — in our public health, homeland security, science, and innovation,” Pelosi said. “We know that the security of our country starts with the health of our people, and this lab will enable us to respond quickly, immediately, and effectively to health emergencies, pandemics, and bioterrorist attacks.”
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research highlights Nurse Understaffing Linked to Increased Risk of Patient Mortality
For each nursing shift patients were exposed to that was substantially understaffed, patients’ overall mortality risk increased by 2 percent.
PATIENTS’ MORTALITY RISK RISES as the number of understaffed nursing shifts they are exposed to increases, according to a study by researchers from the UCLA School of Public Health, Mayo Clinic and Vanderbilt University. The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, additionally found that when nurses’ workloads increase during shifts because of high patient turnover, mortality risk also rises. The study was headed by Dr. Jack Needleman, professor of health services at the UCLA School of Public Health, who with his colleagues analyzed the records of nearly 198,000 admitted patients and 177,000 eight-hour nursing shifts across 43 patientcare units at a large tertiary U.S. academic medical center. As part of their comprehensive analysis, the researchers calculated the difference between the target nurse-staffing level and the actual nursestaffing level for each shift they examined. They found that for each shift patients were exposed to that was substantially understaffed – falling eight or more hours below the target level – patients’ overall mortality risk increased by 2 percent. Because the average patient in the study was exposed to three nursing shifts that fell below target levels, the mortality risk for these patients was about 6 percent higher than for patients on units that were always fully staffed. The study also found a higher mortality risk when nurses’ workloads increased because of high patient turnover in individual units. For each shift a patient experienced in which turnover – due to admissions, discharges and transfers – was substantially higher than usual, the risk of mortality was 4 percent higher. The average patient in the study was exposed to one high-turnover shift. Nearly a decade ago, research published by Needleman and his colleagues in the New England Journal of Medicine provided important early evidence that nurse staffing in hospitals was associated with patients’ clinical outcomes. “This study addresses the challenges to prior studies and finds that, indeed, nurse staffing is hugely important,” Needleman says. “Since the hospital we studied delivers high-quality care, has low mortality rates, has high nurse-staffing targets and meets its targets over 85 percent of the time, it’s unlikely the increased mortality we observe is due to general quality problems.”
UCLAPUBLIC HEALTH
Growing Influence of Food Marketing a Key Contributor to Rise in Obesity THE DRAMATIC INCREASE in U.S. obesity rates since 1980 is, to a great extent, the result of an unprecedented expansion in the scope, power and ubiquity of food marketing, according to an analysis by Dr. Frederick Zimmerman, professor and chair of the school’s Department of Health Services. Writing in the Annual Review of Public Health, Zimmerman noted that many have sought to explain the rise in obesity using “rational choice” arguments –
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citing, for example, a decline in food prices as a key factor in greater food consumption. But Zimmerman’s analysis concluded that such contentions don’t square with the facts of the current epidemic. “Neither prices, nor rates of physical activity, nor food subsidies have changed dramatically since 1980, when the obesity epidemic began to get into full swing,” Zimmerman says. “Instead, what has changed is the rapid expansion in the power and scope of food marketing.” Zimmerman found that, while television food advertising has remained relatively constant over the last three decades, all other forms of marketing have exploded. For example, product placement and food-company sponsorships of sporting events, once virtually nonexistent, have become multibilliondollar forms of food marketing – “all the more insidious for their subtlety,” Zimmerman says. Food advertising on the Internet and in-store displays have also emerged as key strategies. “Of course, it is almost always the least healthy foods that are so vigorously promoted – sugary beverages, salty snacks, candy, and other products that fatten wallets as they fatten us,” Zimmerman says. Food promotion is just one form of marketing, he noted in the analysis. Others include increased portion sizes and convenient placement of food at points of purchase. “There seems to be an unwritten rule that no checkout counter should be beyond arm’s reach of a candy bar,” Zimmerman observes. “It doesn’t have to be this way,” he adds, pointing out that many countries restrict advertising of sugary foods and beverages to children, and that soda or marketing of unhealthy food itself could be taxed. Concludes Zimmerman: “Only by reining in or countering marketing power can rationality be restored to the dietary choices of Americans.”
Convenient placement of candy and other unhealthy snacks at points of purchase is one of many forms of food marketing fueling the obesity problem.
UCLAPUBLIC HEALTH
CYSTICERCOSIS – an infection by the pork tapeworm Taenia solium that can cause severe neurological illness and death in humans – is generally viewed as a disease of developing countries or immigrants from areas where it is endemic. However, a review of more than 50 years of literature by two UCLA School of Public Health faculty members, along with colleagues at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, confirms that cysticercosis is acquired in the United States – and in many geographic areas. The study, whose authors include Drs. Frank Sorvillo and Shira Shafir of the school’s Department of Epidemiology, makes the case for implementing public health measures to control the disease, which has gained recent attention as an infection associated with poverty in the United States, and is a major cause of preventable epilepsy. Based on its epidemiology and global impact – 50 million people are infected worldwide – the International Task Force on Disease Eradication has included cysticercosis as one of six infectious diseases targeted for eradication. Publishing in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, Sorvillo (who is also with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health), Shafir and colleagues reviewed 78 cases of cysticercosis in the United States, reported from 12 states between 1954 and 2005. In 21 percent of the cases, household members or close personal contacts were the confirmed or presumed source of infection. Cysticercosis carriers are typically unaware of their infection; if hygiene is poor, transmission of the tapeworm eggs can easily occur among those in close contact. “Our review underscores that cysticercosis acquired in the United States can occur in many geographic regions of the country, and points to several compelling rationales for implementing public health efforts to control this disease,” says Shafir. “Cysticercosis is a preventable severe infection. Moreover, it is a fecal-oral transmitted disease, and a probable source of infection among contacts can fre-
research
Review of Cysticercosis in United States Makes the Case for Public Health Measures
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quently be found – principally among household members, who are major sources of eggs and therefore infection.” Sorvillo and Shafir are currently working with the L.A. County Department of Public Health to improve surveillance for cysticercosis in the county.
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Decline in Rate of Vaginal Birth After Cesarean Tied to Restrictive Policies
Vaginal births for women who have previously had a cesarean section have declined from a peak rate of 28 percent in 1996 to 8.5 percent in 2006. Access has declined across all hospital types.
DESPITE STUDIES CONSISTENTLY SHOWING HIGH RATES of success and low complication rates, vaginal births for women who have previously had a cesarean section have declined from a peak rate of 28 percent in 1996 to 8.5 percent in 2006, according to an analysis led by Dr. Kimberly Gregory, professor in UCLA’s schools of public health and medicine. Driving the downward trend, Gregory found, are concerns about patient safety and physician liability that have led to more restrictive hospital policies. Gregory reviewed the literature and analyzed the National Inpatient Sample Database to describe trends in vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC) access in the United States, along with factors associated with changing use. Her study was published in Seminars in Perinatology. For decades, VBAC has had a success rate of approximately 70 percent and a serious-complication rate of uterine rupture that is less than 1 percent. In 1981, the NIH Consensus Conference on Cesarean Childbirth called for increased VBAC to bring down the rate of cesareans performed. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) subsequently published a series of guidelines resulting in more liberal use of VBAC, which led to a dramatic increase over the next 15 years. That trend began to be reversed, Gregory concluded, after a widely reported 1997 publication by McMahon et al. highlighted long-known risks. In conjunction with well-publicized litigation settlements after uterine rupture, it led to revisions of the ACOG position, including guidelines that made VBAC more burdensome for physicians and hospitals, Gregory found. Her analysis indicates that VBAC access has declined across all hospital types, with women delivering in suburban, rural, private, and/or nonteaching hospitals having the least access. VBAC utilization is higher where there is a model of care that includes nurse midwives. “Women need to have access to nonbiased, evidence-based information to engage in a collaborative partnership of equals with midwives and obstetricians,” Gregory says, “and clinicians need a better set of tools to bring about more rapid dissemination and change in provider practices.”
UCLAPUBLIC HEALTH
Chemotherapy for Breast Cancer: Quality of Life Returns but Physical Symptoms Need More Attention WOMEN WHO UNDERGO CHEMOTHERAPY as part of their treatment for breast cancer show significant improvement in both their physical and psychosocial functioning within 12 months – with quality of life returning to its pre-treatment level, according to a study headed by Dr. Patricia Ganz, professor in the UCLA schools of public health and medicine and director of the Division of Cancer Prevention and Control Research at UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. But Ganz, reporting in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, also found that women who received chemotherapy experience more severe and persistent physical symptoms during the first year of recovery – symptoms that warrant more attention than they typically receive. Recurrence rates for breast cancer have been declining, in part because of improvements in adjuvant drug treatments. National guidelines call for women with
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invasive breast cancer larger than 1 centimeter to be offered chemotherapy. But such treatment can produce long-term cognitive, psychosocial and physical side effects that can be debilitating, and previous studies of long-term breast cancer survivors have found that women who received chemotherapy had poorer quality of life than those who didn’t. Ganz and colleagues previously conducted a randomized trial of a psychosocial intervention in 558 women who were enrolled in the study within a month after completing therapy. In the current report, they compared self-reported quality of life scores at study entry and then at two months, six months and 12 months later, according to whether or not women had received chemotherapy as part of their initial treatment. At study entry – four weeks after the end of initial treatment – the chemotherapy group reported significantly more severe physical symptoms, including musculoskeletal pain, vaginal problems, weight problems and nausea. In other quality of life measurements the two groups were similar, and both groups’ quality of life had improved significantly by the one-year mark, with no difference between the two groups. “This study finds that while quality of life returns to pre-treatment levels after adjuvant chemotherapy, breast cancer survivors have persistent symptoms from the treatment,” Ganz says. “These must be addressed as part of post-treatment survivorship care.”
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research
Climate Change Exacerbates World Hunger Concerns Projected Number of Malnourished Preschool Children in 2020 (in Thousands) Based on Two Scenarios for Producing Food Crops for Energy (Biofuel)
500 Modest expansion
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
Significant expansion
Source: International Food Policy Research Institute IMPACT projections
UCLAPUBLIC HEALTH
CLIMATE CHANGE, the use of food crops as a fuel source and rising food prices loom as three major challenges to the global problem of malnutrition and food insecurity – a problem that, despite international efforts, has worsened since 2005, according to an analysis co-authored by Dr. Cristina Tirado, an associate professor of community health sciences at the school, and published in Food Research International. The report, for which Tirado collaborated with colleagues at the International Food Policy Research Institute, the Food and N Amer Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and Oxfam America, noted that 1 billion people were suffering from hunger Sub-Sah Africa and malnutrition in 2009. Reductions in child malnutrition are proceeding too slowly to meet the Millennium Development Goal S Asia target of halving hunger by 2015, according to the analysis. According to the analysis, more frequent and intense M East/N Afr extreme weather events such as tropical cyclones, intense rainfall and droughts will reduce food production and increase L Amer/Carib water scarcity, especially in regions already vulnerable to food insecurity. A decline in output from the agricultural, forestry, Eur/C Asia livestock and fisheries sectors would adversely affect the poor, E Asia/Pac those dependent on subsistence agriculture and fisheries, and traditional societies. Probable migrations of people from rural 0 to urban areas would further strain health and food resources, the authors stated. Producing food crops for use as bioenergy to replace fossil fuels remains controversial; the report noted that conversion of land from food to fuel production has contributed to increasing food prices and will reduce availability of food crops. In addition, rising prices can compromise the quantity and nutritional value of food consumed by poor people, leading to malnutrition and subsequent health problems. “Climate change undermines current efforts to reduce under-nutrition, which remains a serious challenge to the social, economic and health dimensions of people’s livelihoods,” says Tirado. “Placing people, human rights and achievement of the Millennium Development Goals at the center of strategies to adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change can enhance the development of sustainable climate-resilient policies.”
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student profiles Messages of Health and Hope for the Underserved
“Simply by training youth who created and disseminated these messages, we saw a significant change, which really speaks to the power of the technology and the peermessaging approach. It’s something we need to understand and take advantage of in the next decade.”
UCLAPUBLIC HEALTH
— Philip Massey
PHILIP MASSEY GREW UP ACUTELY AWARE of the struggles that come with poverty. His mother, one of seven children from a rural Virginia household, was the only member of her family to graduate from high school – she went on to obtain a master’s degree. “None of my extended family members have health insurance, few have a steady paycheck, but all have families to support and mouths to feed,” Massey says. “From an early age I wondered why my life was so different from much of my family’s.” His parents also instilled in Massey a sense of service, regularly taking him to the local homeless shelter to cook meals. Even so, he wasn’t prepared for what he experienced during the three months he spent in Niger following his undergraduate education. Massey tutored children in reading and arithmetic and volunteered in the national hospital’s obstetric fistula ward. He encountered people living off of 1-2 dollars a day. “It opened my eyes to global disparities,” Massey says, “and, coupled with my community-focused upbringing, forged in me a passion to serve the underserved.” Now a doctoral student at the UCLA School of Public Health, Massey is interested in health communications and education – in particular, the use of new technologies to engage underserved adolescent populations in creating and disseminating tailored and appropriate health messages. As an M.P.H. student at the school he played an active role in a project involving two faculty members, Drs. Deborah Glik and Michael Prelip, and another student. Leveraging the rapid adoption of digital technology among youth through much of Africa, the project trained students in three urban high schools in the Republic of Senegal to use the new media to create messages on HIV/AIDS and other health issues for their peers. The project generated substantial interest – the student-created content was posted on a website and entered into a contest, with the winning entries becoming part of a national campaign – along with the desired health-behavior changes. “I was initially skeptical about the accessibility and effectiveness of using digital media technologies in West Africa,” Massey admits. “But simply by training a handful of youth who created and disseminated these messages, we saw a significant change in attitudes and knowledge, which really speaks to the power of the technology and the peer-messaging approach. It’s something we as public health professionals need to understand and take advantage of in the next decade.” Massey has continued to collaborate with Réseau Africain de l’Education pour la Santé (RAES), the non-governmental organization that helped to facilitate the Senegal project. He is currently working with its director to start a U.S.-based organization that would help to further the RAES mission in Africa, initially by connecting communities in African countries with the African diaspora in the United States. He is also working with Glik and Prelip to examine the effectiveness of an online social networking site aimed at teaching teens in a public insurance program in California how to use their coverage to better navigate the health care system. “I’ve received invaluable support from my mentors,” Massey says. “UCLA has been an ideal place for my interests, both because of its strong global presence and because Southern California is so diverse. Being here has allowed me to pursue my passion.”
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students
Doctoral Student Strives to Become a Voice for Migrant Workers and Other Exploited Groups
“Issues of social and economic status, violence, and whether you have a choice in your occupation or where you live all have an impact on health outcomes. As public health professionals we can’t ignore the factors that make people vulnerable to being exploited.” — Annie Fehrenbacher
UCLAPUBLIC HEALTH
WHILE IN HIGH SCHOOL, ANNIE FEHRENBACHER worked at Planned Parenthood as a peer educator. “It was my reaction to the information we were getting at school during a big push for abstinence-only education,” she says. “I felt we weren’t being informed about our own health.” Through that experience and volunteer work at rape crisis centers, Fehrenbacher learned how common sexual abuse was among teens. “The girls I was going to high school with knew I had information about health resources so they were disclosing things to me, and I began to realize that these abusive relationships were a huge problem that was almost accepted as the norm,” she says. It marked Fehrenbacher’s introduction to public health – and the beginning of her determination to make a difference in the health of exploited populations. The doctoral student’s current focus is on migrant workers, both in the United States and overseas. As an undergraduate at Johns Hopkins University she worked at a city jail in Baltimore, and was drawn to the issue of human trafficking. “It was fascinating to me how legal and social status affected migrants’ health outcomes,” she says. As Fehrenbacher began to delve further into the issue – looking at health-related responses to human trafficking both domestically and internationally – she learned of the ethical and methodological challenges to studying this hidden population. Estimates on the number of victims of trafficking vary widely, partly because it is so broadly defined. One of the reasons the UCLA School of Public Health was so attractive to Fehrenbacher for her graduate studies was its location in a region bustling with migrant-rights organizations, providing Fehrenbacher with valuable resources as she explores the problem. “In California it’s assumed that most migrants are voluntary, economic migrants,” she says. “I’m trying to blur the line between voluntary and involuntary migration because I think the popular emphasis on sympathizing with ‘involuntary’ migrants clouds our vision to the injustices suffered by other migrants.” For her M.P.H. field studies last summer, Fehrenbacher did an internship with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in which she participated in a project spearheaded by the CLEAN Carwash Campaign, an effort led by a coalition of advocacy groups to raise Los Angeles carwash workers’ standard of living, ensure basic workplace protections and address environmental and safety hazards. “Many of these workers are vulnerable because of their undocumented immigration status as well as language barriers,” Fehrenbacher notes. Through focus groups, she heard firsthand accounts of wage theft, unpaid overtime and health and safety violations. “We found that the workers had very little training or knowledge about the risks of some of the products they were using,” Fehrenbacher says. “Employers were required to provide information on the chemical hazards in their workplace, but the workers couldn’t read it because it only had to be given in English.” Through the campaign, educational materials were developed and distributed. Human trafficking and worker exploitation have long been concerns of human rights organizations, but Fehrenbacher notes that in recent years they have received more attention from people in public health. “Issues of social and economic status, violence, and whether you have a choice in your occupation or where you live all have an impact on health outcomes,” she says. “As public health professionals we can’t ignore the factors that make people vulnerable to being exploited.”
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2010-11 student awards
students
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Carpenter Memorial Fund Earl Ryan Burrell Epidemiology
Excellence in Abstract Submission Among New Investigators
Chancellor’s Prize
Kimberly Kiser Community Health Sciences
Michelle Creek Biostatistics Angela Li Ping Chow Epidemiology
Max Factor Family Foundation Internship Award
Charleen Hsuan Health Services
Rose Hennessy Community Health Sciences
Child and Family Health Program Summer Fellowship
Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship
Katrina Stearns Community Health Sciences
Dean’s Outstanding Student Award Stephanie Kovalchik Biostatistics Loan Pham Kim Community Health Sciences Andrew Tsiu Environmental Health Sciences
CAROLBETH KORN PRIZE — Andrew Barnes (with Carolbeth Korn) received the prestigious Carolbeth Korn Prize, given annually to the School of Public Health’s most outstanding student. 50th Anniversary SPH Student Awards Competition Adam King Biostatistics
Abdelmonem A. Afifi Student Fellowship Lauren Harrell Biostatistics
Philip Massey Community Health Sciences
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Fellowship
David Quiros Environmental Science and Engineering
Geoffrey Hoffman Charleen Hsuan Jeffrey McCullough Health Services
Patricia Cummings Epidemiology Eddy Palacios Health Services
American Association of University Women International Fellowship
Patience Afulani Rachel Etter Query Community Health Sciences
Judith Blake Award Jennifer Tsui Health Services
Celia and Joseph Blann Fellowship Michelle Ko Health Services
Patience Afulani Community Health Sciences
Parrisa Solaimani Molecular Toxicology
American Heart Association Pre-Doctoral Fellowship
Burroughs Wellcome Fund Interschool Training Program in Metabolic Diseases
Loan Kim Community Health Sciences
American Statistical Association SBSS Student Paper Award Trina R. Patel Biostatistics
UCLAPUBLIC HEALTH
Bixby/Drabkin Summer International Internship Award
Bixby Research Mentorship Program Patience Afulani Community Health Sciences
Sara Anita Chacko Kei Hang Katie Chan Brian Chen Epidemiology
California Wellness Fellowship Brent Langellier Epidemiology Anthony Duff Health Services
Canadian Studies Doctoral Student Research Award Nelida Duran Community Health Sciences
Max William Hadler Community Health Sciences
Rose and Sam Gilbert Award Emily Feher Community Health Sciences Rhonda Watkins Health Services
Raymond Goodman Scholarship
Brian Chen Epidemiology
Rachel Gutkin Heather Pines Epidemiology
Melanie Pitts Health Services
Graduate Opportunities Fellowship
Eleanor DeBenedictis Fellowship
Aresha Maree CardosoMartinez Brittaney Shans Community Health Sciences
Maria Pia Chaparro Lanfranco Nelida Duran Dana Hunnes Community Health Sciences
Dissertation Year Fellowship Sara Anita Chacko Brian Chen Sheena Geraldine Sullivan Epidemiology
Diversity Coordination Grant Diana Ly Biostatistics Deborah Dauda Tarah Griep Christine Mayola Myralyn Nartey Mienah Sharif Community Health Sciences Diana Flores Andrew Tsiu Environmental Health Sciences Teresa Chanlaw John Costumbrado Epidemiology
Najib Raymond Ussef Epidemiology Anthony Duff Health Services
Graduate Research Mentorship Program Award June Lim Philip Massey Angie Ontiano Minal Patel Joseph Perman Community Health Sciences Elani Streja Epidemiology Audrey Jones Deborah Ling Alice Villatoro Health Services
Graduate Summer Research Mentorship Fellowship Bethany Wexler Community Health Sciences
Health Services Alumni Association Award Samantha Wellerstein Health Services
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Robin Jeffries Biostatistics Elinam Dellor Christine Mayola Anne Sutkowi Community Health Sciences George Brogmus Environmental Health Sciences Courtney Coles Laura Nasuti Epidemiology Dhiya Basu Alice Villatoro Health Services
NIH/NCI Cancer Epidemiology Training Grant Erin Leigh Marcotte Erin Christine Peckham Heather Patrice Tarleton Caroline Avery Thompson Gina Maria Wallar Epidemiology
Ann G. Quealy Memorial Fellowship in Health Services Alvin Kwong Health Services
Lindsey Thompson Community Health Sciences
Judy Gek Khim Sng Epidemiology
Eugene Cota Robles Fellowship
James P. Keogh Memorial Scholarship Fund
Donna Imelda PadillaFrausto Community Health Sciences
Carolbeth Korn Prize Andrew Barnes Health Services
Dr. Ursula Mandel Fellowship Heidi Fischer Biostatistics Philip Massey Community Health Sciences Jennifer Tsui Health Services
Oluwatoyin Folasade Fafowora Epidemiology
Monica Salinas Internship Fund in Latino and Latin American Health Christina Batteate Brittany Judd Gildy Lopez Community Health Sciences Noreen Islam Epidemiology
Maternal and Child Public Health Nutrition Leadership Training Fellowship
Jacqueline Saracino California Dietetic Association Foundation Scholar
Feon Cheng Community Health Sciences
Christopher Viya Chau Community Health Sciences
NICHD CCPR Traineeship in Demography
Albert Schweitzer Fellowship
Malia Jones Community Health Sciences
Patience Afulani Community Health Sciences
NIEHS Training Grant in Molecular Toxicology
Charles F. Scott Award
Aaron Lulla Parrisa Solaimani Molecular Toxicology
NIGMS CCPR Traineeship in Biodemography
Suzanne Marie RyanIbarra Epidemiology Kimberly Kisler Community Health Sciences
Juneal Smith Fellowship Maria Pia Chaparro Lanfranco Community Health Sciences
Wayne Soohoo Memorial Scholarship Jessica Soldavini Community Health Sciences
Southern California Institute of Food Technologists Scholar Christopher Viya Chau Community Health Sciences
Southwest Region Public Health Training Center Award Stephanie Chen Allison Clement Deborah Dauda Hannah Bianca Diaz Valino Yassir Giron Amira Hasenbush Rose Hennessy Rebekah Mark Doris Ng Lauren Nicolas Charlotte Oduro Jonathan Pistotnik Elizabeth Ruppel Brittaney Shans Elena Vasti Tatianne Velo Community Health Sciences Uyen Ngo Randy Reyes Stephanie Vivanco Environmental Health Sciences
Farah Abdi Ridwa Ali Adbi Courtney Coles Sylvie Inkindi Alla Victoroff Epidemiology Abigail Rosenthal Health Services
SPH Non-Resident Tuition Fellowship Sheng Wu Biostatistics
Tellus Leadership Foundation Patience Afulani Community Health Sciences
Samuel J. Tibbits Fellowship Portia Jackson Health Services
CELIA AND JOSEPH BLANN FELLOWSHIP — Michelle Ko is presented the award by Dean Linda Rosenstock (left) and Dr. Ninez Ponce of the school’s faculty (right). UCLA/Fogarty AIDS International Training and Research Program Saipin Chotivichien Aritra Das Sanchita Mahapatra Tanmay Mahapatra Tiara Mahatmi Nisa Lichun Tian Dai Wan Weiming Zhu Epidemiology
Wilshire Foundation Internship Award Greg Flaxman Community Health Sciences
UCLA Child and Family Health Program Summer Fellowship Shayna Tasoff Community Health Sciences
UCLA Staff Assembly Professional Development Scholarship Elizabeth Evans Community Health Sciences
UCLAPUBLIC HEALTH
Uchechi Acholonu Bethany Wexler Community Health Sciences
ABOVE: Music provided by students from the awardwinning Harmony Project. Founded by SPH alum Dr. Margaret Martin, the organization promotes the healthy growth and development of children through the study, practice and performance of music.
Reproductive and Sexual Health Student Scholarship
Gertrude Huberty Warren Memorial Scholarship
Annie Fehrenbacher Community Health Sciences
student awards
HRSA Public Health Trainee Fellowship
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faculty honors
faculty
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bookshelf ...recent books by UCLA School of Public Health authors
Weighted Network Analysis: Applications in Genomics and Systems Biology by Steven Horvath. Springer. Presents state-of-the-art methods, software and applications surrounding weighted networks. The book is intended for students, faculty, and data analysts in many fields, including bioinformatics, computational biology, statistics, computer science, biology, genetics, applied mathematics, physics, and social science. Only a minimum knowledge of statistics is required. The Risks of Hazardous Waste by Paul E. Rosenfeld and Lydia Feng. Elsevier Publishing. Provides a background of the many aspects of hazardous waste, from its sources to its consequences, focusing on the risks posed to human health and the environment. Explains the legislation and regulations surrounding hazardous waste while providing case studies of mismanagement, highlighting deficiencies in science and regulation, and discussing measures to tackle society’s hazardous waste problems.
RON ANDERSEN was the 2011 recipient of the American Association for Dental Research Honorary Membership Award on the basis of significant contributions to dental research. RON BROOKMEYER was awarded the Presidential Citation of Cooper Union at the college’s 151st commencement. E. RICHARD BROWN has recently served on the Institute of Medicine Committee on a National Surveillance System for Cardiovascular and Select Chronic Diseases, and an Institute of Medicine Committee on Future Directions for the National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Reports. He received the Henrik L. Blum Award for Excellence in Health Policy from the American Public Health Association. JONATHAN FIELDING was appointed by President Obama to the Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion and Integrative and Public Health. JOHN FROINES received the California Air Resources Board’s Clean Air Award for 2010 in the category of Air Pollution Research. PATRICIA GANZ received the American Cancer Society Medal of Honor and the American Society of Preventive Oncology Distinguished Achievement Award. KIMBERLY GREGORY received the ACOG Mentor Award from the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. DIANA HILBERMAN is serving on the executive committee of the Association of University Programs in Health Administration. RICHARD JACKSON chairs the Committee on Health Impact Assessments of the Institute of Medicine; and the Policies and Practices Work Group of the National Conversation on Chemical Exposures, a joint project of the Centers for Disease Control
Instant Recess: Building a Fit Nation 10 Minutes at a Time by Toni Yancey. University of California Press. Physical activity in all levels of society continues to plummet. Drawing on solid scientific research, personal experience and her own poetry, Yancey calls for an approach that respects diversity and is grounded in the cultures of those most at risk. Instant Recess proposes regular 10-minute exercises that are easily incorporated into school, work, and community life.
new faculty WELCOME TO DR. TINA CUNNINGHAM Biostatistics
UCLAPUBLIC HEALTH
DR. PAMELA YEH Environmental Health Sciences
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news briefs
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news briefs
and Prevention and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Public Health Law Association.
MARK LITWIN received the 2011 Distinguished Service Award from the American Urological Association for his contributions to the establishment of the discipline of health services research in urology. MICHAEL LU was appointed by Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius to chair the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Infant Mortality. VICKIE MAYS was appointed by House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi to fill the House of Representatives seat on the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics. CHARLOTTE NEUMANN received the Nevien Scrimshaw Award for Distinguished Service to Nutrition at the African Nutritional Epidemiology Conference of the Kenya Medical Research Institute, in collaboration with the Council of the African Nutrition Society. The award is in recognition of her dedication to maternal and child health and nutrition and research in sub-Saharan Africa. LINDA ROSENSTOCK was appointed by President Obama to the Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion and Integrative and Public Health. She is chair of the Preventive Services for Women Committee of the Institute of Medicine and was awarded the James P. Keogh Award from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. CRISTINA TIRADO was appointed director of the Center for Public Health and Climate Change at the Public Health Institute in Oakland. She was also nominated as moderator of the United Nations Standing Committee on Nutrition’s Working Group on Climate Change and Nutrition. LEAH VRIESMAN was a 2010-11 U.S. Senior Fulbright Award recipient, conducting research and teaching health care management at the University of Applied Sciences in Neu Ulm, Germany.
In an era of health care reform, it is crucial for health leaders to have a place to gather, discuss and debate the way forward. That is the impetus behind The Health Forum at UCLA (SPH), a new series of regularly scheduled free public programs featuring health leaders discussing critical issues in the field. The entire first year is devoted to looking at issues related to health care reform, with the first four of the series conducted in partnership with Blue Shield Foundation of California. The inaugural event in May addressed how health care reform affects the safety net; in June a panel representing five major health care organizations gave firsthand accounts of electronic health record implementation. Go to www.ph.ucla.edu to see video of these events and to check the calendar for upcoming forums.
NEW ASSOCIATE DEAN — Dr. Haroutune Armenian is the school’s new associate dean for academic programs, effective July 1, following Dr. Hilary Godwin’s return to the Department of Environmental Health Sciences faculty. Armenian, a professor in the Department of Epidemiology, brings a wealth of academic administrative experience, having served as president of the American University of Armenia and director of the Master of Public Health Program at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Armenian was among the first to apply epidemiologic methods to study the effects of civil war at the population level during the 1980s in Lebanon, and to study the long-term effects of an earthquake in Armenia during the 1990s. His most recent research focuses on cancer within the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study and psychopathology as a determinant of physical illness. Armenian received his M.D. from the American University of Beirut School of Medicine, and his M.P.H. and Dr.P.H. from Johns Hopkins.
UCLAPUBLIC HEALTH
DR. NIKLAS KRAUSE has joined the faculty as director of the NIOSH Southern California Education and Research Center and professor in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences. Krause’s research focuses on the occupational epidemiology of musculoskeletal and cardiovascular diseases. He has been investigating the causes of work-related musculoskeletal injuries, and how to predict and prevent prolonged work disability after these injuries. Krause has worked with immigrant workers in the hospitality industry using a community-based participatory research approach, and is currently investigating the effects of occupational physical activity, long working hours and shift work on cardiovascular disease and mortality in a population-based, 20-year prospective cohort study of aging workers. Prior to coming to UCLA, Krause was associate professor in residence in the Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine of the Department of Medicine at UC San Francisco. He received his medical degree and a doctoral degree in orthopedic medicine from the University of Hamburg, Germany, and a doctorate in epidemiology from UC Berkeley.
health forum at UCLA (SPH)
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summer institute in women’s health and empowerment
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CONGRESSWOMAN KAREN BASS, representative for the 33rd congressional district and former California Assembly speaker, spoke at UCLA this spring about the impact of the proposed cuts to the nation’s health care system. Bass also addressed how cuts to federal programs and services may affect the research budgets of federal agencies and universities such as UCLA.
For the first time, the UCLA School of Public Health, in collaboration with the UC Global Health Institute’s Center of Expertise on Women’s Health and Empowerment, will host a Summer Institute in Women’s Health and Empowerment. The institute will provide graduate students interested in improving women’s health and well being globally with foundational knowledge and skills from several disciplines. Students will be given access to actual case studies and databases on women’s health, which they will analyze and use to develop presentations. Upon completion of the four-credit institute, students will have the skills to explain the scope, causes and consequences of women’s health disparities globally; describe and apply interdisciplinary empowerment frameworks to women’s health issues; use analytical tools to assess the main approaches that have been used to improve women’s health and empowerment; develop a policy advocacy strategy or program plan for advancing women’s health and empowerment; and identify career paths and resources, as well as interacting with potential mentors in this area. Current UC graduate students (from any discipline) or entering graduate students are eligible to apply, as are international students who have completed a bachelor’s degree elsewhere. To apply by July 28, visit www.summer.ucla.edu/institutes/womenshealth/overview.htm.
UCLAPUBLIC HEALTH
rosenstock, fielding receive presidential appointments In January President Obama announced the appointment of Dr. Linda Rosenstock, dean of the UCLA School of Public Health, and Dr. Jonathan Fielding, professor at the school and director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, to a 15-member Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion and Integrative and Public Health. “I am honored to serve on the advisory group,” said Rosenstock. “The work we do in public health – including prevention and health promotion – is an important component of the Affordable Health Care Act, and I believe the advisory group has a tremendous opportunity to help improve the health of America.” Created by the Affordable Care Act, the group will advise the National Prevention, Health Promotion and Public Health Council, the governmentwide body made up of cabinet secretaries and independent agency leads, on how best to bring prevention and wellness to the forefront of the nation’s efforts to promote health. “Our nation will be greatly served by the talent and expertise these individuals bring to their new roles,” said Obama. “I am grateful they have agreed to serve in this administration, and I look forward to working with them in the months and years ahead.”
INTERACT WITH US! You can learn about happenings at the school, participate in discussions on public health topics of the day or reconnect with former classmates and favorite faculty members through the school’s Facebook page, and follow UCLASPH on Twitter for important updates. In addition, alumni are invited to join the UCLA School of Public Health Alumni Network on the professional networking site Linkedin.
DID YOU KNOW? You are a lifetime member of the UCLA School of Public Health Alumni Association if you are a graduate of the UCLA School of Public Health and its executive programs. If you would like more information about the activities of the Public Health Alumni Association, please call (310) 825-6464 or email phaa@support.ucla.edu.
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honor roll 2010
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friends
THE UCLA SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH IS PLEASED TO HONOR our alumni, friends, students, staff and foundation and corporate partners whose generosity strengthens our School and keeps us at the forefront of public health education. This Honor Roll gratefully acknowledges gifts and private grants made to the School from January 1, 2010, to December 31, 2010. Although space limitations allow only the listing of donations of $100 or more, contributions of every amount are of great importance to the School and are deeply appreciated. CORPORATE AND FOUNDATION GIFTS AND GRANTS $1,000,000 A N D A B O V E THE CALIFORNIA ENDOWMENT AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY INC. $200,000 - $999,999 THE ROBERT WOOD JOHNSON FOUNDATION THE SUSAN G. KOMEN BREAST CANCER FOUNDATION THE CALIFORNIA WELLNESS FOUNDATION THE PEW CHARITABLE TRUSTS BREAST CANCER RESEARCH FOUNDATION PREVENTION INSTITUTE $50,000 - $199,999 FRED HUTCHINSON CANCER RESEARCH CENTER THE ADVANCEMENT PROJECT THE SCAN FOUNDATION NORTHEAST VALLEY HEALTH CORPORATION MAGEE-WOMENS HOSPITAL, RESEARCH INSTITUTE & FOUNDATION PUBLIC HEALTH FOUNDATION ENTERPRISES $25,000 - $49,999 LOS ANGELES BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE THE PHYSICIANS FOUNDATION NSABP FOUNDATION, INC. MH3 CORPORATION CEDARS-SINAI MEDICAL CENTER X PRIZE FOUNDATION NORTHERN CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH AND EDUCATION SEPULVEDA RESEARCH CORPORATION
$10,000 - $24,999 NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION WESTERN STATES AFFILIATE BLUE SHIELD OF CALIFORNIA RESEARCH & EDUCATION FOUNDATION OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE KAISER PERMANENTE OCHSNER CLINIC, LLC L.A. CARE HEALTH PLAN CALIFORNIA HEALTHCARE FOUNDATION PFIZER INC. U. S. PHARMACEUTICALS GROUP UNITED HEALTHCARE SERVICES, INC. CEDARS-SINAI MEDICAL CARE FOUNDATION SMART GROWTH AMERICA THE ENERGY FOUNDATION UCLA MEDICAL CENTER USTMAA FOUNDATION WILSHIRE HEALTH & COMMUNITY SERVICES, INC. $5,000 - $9,999 CALIFORNIA DENTAL FOUNDATION BLUE SHIELD OF CALIFORNIA SANTA MONICA BAY RESTORATION FOUNDATION ANTHEM BLUE CROSS ORANGE COUNTY ASIAN & PACIFIC ISLANDER COMMUNITY ALLIANCE PROVIDENCE HEALTH & SERVICES VALLEY PRESBYTERIAN HOSPITAL ZYNX HEALTH INCORPORATED
$1,000 - $4,999 PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS TRUSSELL TECHNOLOGIES, INC. ALVARADO HOSPITAL, LLC CHILDRENS HOSPITAL LOS ANGELES DAVITA INC. SPENCER STUART ACADEMYHEALTH SALINAS VALLEY MEMORIAL HOSPITAL SHOWTIME NETWORKS INC. COLE-BELIN EDUCATION FOUNDATION COPE HEALTH SOLUTIONS $100 - $999 PACIFIC BUSINESS GROUP ON HEALTH BP FABRIC OF AMERICA FUND ROLL GIVING & PARAMOUNT COMMUNITY GIVING CALIFORNIA ASSN OF HOSPITALS AND HEALTH SYSTEMS FOLEY & LARDNER LLP PHYSICIAN COMPLIANCE NETWORK, LLC GOOD SAMARITAN HOSPITAL R. AND L. DONNER TRUST BING ZHONG FANG D.M.D., INC. JOHANNA E. ZIMMERMAN LIVING TRUST
GIFTS FROM INDIVIDUALS AND FAMILY FOUNDATIONS $100,000 and Above ANONYMOUS SHIRLEY AND RALPH SHAPIRO $10,000 - $99,999 ROBERT DRABKIN LORRAINE AND JERRY FACTOR KARIN AND JONATHAN FIELDING JACQUELINE KOSECOFF AND ROBERT H. BROOK CHARLOTTE AND ALFRED NEUMANN ANDREA J. RAPKIN AND CURTIS ECKHERT LINDA ROSENSTOCK AND LEE BAILEY MONICA SALINAS SUZANNE AND STUART SCHWEITZER LESLIE F. VERMUT AND THOMAS WEINBERGER PAMELA K. AND FRED WASSERMAN
$1,000 - $2,499 SARAH ANDERSON AND MATTHEW KAGAN KIMBERLY BRADLEY RITA FLYNN AND RALPH FRERICHS DARYA FRIEDMAN HILARY AND PETER GODWIN ALISA GOLDSTEIN JOAN GUILFORD AND RICHARD JACKSON SUSAN HOLLANDER JENNIE AND RAYMOND JING KARLENE AND MASAO KOKETSU EDEN KUSMIERSKY AND CHRISTOPHER MARDESICH JOANNE AND MARC MOSER KENNETH RESSER JANICE AND BENEDICT SCHWEGLER VERONICA SCOTT SEAN SHAO GREGORY SINAIKO STEVEN SIM VINOD AND NANDINI SODHI DONNA TESI DIANNE TOMITA WENJIE WANG AND SUN GUOWEN JANET AND JERRY ZUCKER
UCLAPUBLIC HEALTH
$5,000 - $9,999 MARIANNE AND ABDELMONEM AFIFI JILL AND HUNG CHENG DEBRA CINCOTTA AND JAMES MCDERMOTT DAVID CLARK AND SAMUEL ELIAS CORNELIA DALY AND ARTHUR SOUTHAM JOANNE AND EDWARD DAUER LATIFEH AND FARHAD HAGIGI CORNELIA AND KENNETH LEE AMY AND RICHARD LIPELES SANDRA NAFTZGER AND JEFFREY DRITLEY LORI AND DANIEL PELLICCIONI EDWARD O’NEILL JODY AND THOMAS PRISELAC LYNDA AND STEWART RESNICK PATRICIA AND RICHARD SINAIKO TODD THEODORA LORRAINE TODD AND SANFORD CLIMAN NATHAN WOLFE
$2,500 - $4,999 JAMES AGRONICK SANDRA AND CHARLES ARONBERG LINDA BOLTON DEVRA AND LESTER BRESLOW CYNTHIA HARRELL HORN AND ALAN HORN JANET WELLS-KAHANE AND STEPHEN KAHANE VIRGINIA LI AND LEONARDO O. CHAIT LINDA MILLER KEVIN SMITH JANET AND THOMAS UNTERMAN CAROLE AND PAUL VIVIANO CYNTHIA SIKES YORKIN AND BUD YORKIN
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UCLAPUBLIC HEALTH
$500 - $999 CAROL AND THOMAS ADAMS MARSHA AND IRA ALPERT DIANE AND RONALD ANDERSEN ANNE-CHRISTINE AYCAGUER MATTHEW BERRY DIANA BONTA AND FRANK MATRICARDI LINDA BOURQUE KENT BRANDMEYER GAYLE AND NORMAN BRESLOW THERESA BYRD DONALD CHANG YVETTE CHEN KATE DESMOND AND TOM RICE PHYLLIS AND THOMAS FARVER RONALD FORGEY ROBIN FOX AND RONALD BROOKMEYER CAROLYN FULLER PATRICIA AND THOMAS GANZ KATHERINE GOTTFRIED LIV HAGSTROM AND MIGUEL BURCH DIANA AND JOE HILBERMAN BARBARA AND CORNELIUS HOPPER JOEY HORTON MELODYNE AND LEONARD KLEINMAN KAREN AND NORBERTO LASSNER JENNY LO AND KEVIN LIU LESTER MANTELL PAT AND MICHAEL MC GINNIS MIKA AND WILLIAM MEIERDING SUZANNE MELINE AND JOHN FRANCIS SARA OAKLEY AND ARDALAN HAGHIGHAT DELORES AND OLA OLAMBIWONNU VINETTE AND BEATTY RAMSAY JR. SUSAN RICE RICHARD SCHEITLER DANA SPRUTE SARAH STEIN AND FREDERICK ZIMMERMAN STELLA AND LESLIE STRICKE MARY TAYLOR PAUL TONKIN AYAKO UTSUMI HAZEL WALLACE LILI WANG AND ZHIYUAN LIU GRAEME WILLIAMS BERTINA YEN STANLEY YUEN KAREN ZOLLER AND DAVID TILLMAN $250 - $499 ELLEN AND PAUL ALKON SONA AND HAROUTUNE ARMENIAN WENDY ARNOLD SHARON ASHLEY
ROSHAN AND SHAROK BASTANI CHRISTY BEAUDIN JOAN AND LEONARD BEERMAN WARREN BENNETT JOY BLEVINS LISA BOHMER AND WORKU NIDA DEBORAH AND DANIEL BOLAR GERALD AND DIANA BOROK PATRICIA BOWIE AND CARLETTA WOODS CATHY ANN BRADISH MARIANNE AND E. RICHARD BROWN REBECCA CAMPBELL JUNA AND GLENN CHIANG FRANCINE COEYTAUX AND DAVID GLANZMAN LISA AND JEFFREY COHEN CLINTON COIL FLORA AND JERRY CORDETT KATHLEEN AND MARK COSTA NANCY AND MICHAEL COUSINEAU DONALD CRANE LYNN CREELMAN GRACE CROFTON JOEL ELLENZWEIG PATRICIA ENGLISH OLGA GARAY AND KERRY ENGLISH NELL FARR AND JOHN PHILP MARILYN GELLER JUANITA GONZALEZ AND YASSER AL-ANTABLY LAURIE GOODMAN AND DONALD SPETNER NINA HARAWA HARLAN HASHIMOTO MARJORIE AND JACK HUDES CYNTHIA IFTNER-TRAUM AND JEFFREY TRAUM VIRGINIA AND JONATHAN KAGAN BETH AND AVRAM KAPLAN HASMIK KEYRIBARIAN NANCY KINGSTON BARBARA KOMAS AND GARY SLOAN LAURIE AND GERALD KOMINSKI DEBORAH LEHMAN AND MARC WISHINGRAD ROD LEW JANE AND RICHARD LOPATT TAMARA AND HERBERT LUNDBLAD JON MARSHACK MARYSIA MEYLAN RUTH MICKEY KYLE MURPHY RACHEL AND JACK NEEDLEMAN VIDA NEGRETE ELIZABETH AND BENJAMIN NEUFELD JOYCE NILAND AND STANLEY AZEN NINEZ PONCE AND ROBERT NORDYKE
AMY PULIAFITO PACITA ROBERTS HECTOR RODRIGUEZ ERNIE RODRIGUEZ DOLORES AND TAL ROSS SUSAN ROSS AND ANDREW SOMMER NADINE SCHIFF-ROSEN AND FRED ROSEN JOLENE AND GEORGE SCHLATTER CARISSA AND JACK SCHLOSSER KAREN AND DANIEL SEARGEANT VANESSA SERNA CATHY SHERBOURNE JESSIE SHERROD LUCINA SIGUENZA ELIZABETH SLOSS AND JAMES KORELITZ MICHAEL SOLES RHONDA AND DAVID SOLOMON DIANE SOOHOO MARY STANLEY MILDRED STERZ IRMA STRANTZ LINDA SURAPRUIK GENEVIEVE AND CITRON TOY JANE VALENTINE AND THEODORE SWEETSER III JASVEER VIRK AND PAUL KAVANAGH STEVEN WALLACE FLORENCE AND SHEN WANG DAVID WEINBERG JUSTIN WELCH KYNNA WRIGHT DAYLE AND STEVEN WRIGHT JAMIE ZEE $100 - $249 ANITA ADDISON ROSHANAH AND RAVIN AGAH DIANE AND SUDHIR ANAND EILEEN BANGAOIL TALIA BARUTH PERLMAN HENRY BATTLE DANNI BAYLES-YEAGER AND MATT YEAGER CAITLIN BECK MARGARET AND ROBERT BECK PATRICIA BECKWITH LAVEEZA BHATTI AND XAVIER SWAMIKANNU JUDITH BJORKE JEANNE BLACK MARY BLACK SUSAN BLACKWELL KATHRYN BRAUDE KAREN BRECKENRIDGE LINDSAY AND WILLIAM BRESSMAN CLAIRE AND RALPH BRINDIS HELENE BROWN JULIE AND PETER BROWN MARIA AND HARRY BROWN SUZANNE AND WAYNE BUCK
TIMOTHY BURKE LUDMILA AND NAUM BURKOY JENNIFER AND JOSHUA BURNAM KATHLEEN CAPAROSO DAVID CARDENAS MARTHA AND RALPH CARMEL MARY AND MARTIN CARR SCOTT CARTER ANGELICA CASTANEDAJIMENEZ BARBARA KELLY CHAN HWAI-YIN CHANG AND CHENG-TAI CHEN RAYMOND CHAVIRA JOAN CHOW HUNG CHU ALEIN CHUN ADA CLARK VIRGINIA AND WELDEN CLARK J. DONELL AND RAPHAEL COHEN CHRISTINE COHN JODI COHN AND MARC HANKIN LORRAINE COLACION OLSON BRIDGET COLE SUSAN COLE AND PYSER EDELSACK DAVID CONNEY CAROLYN AND JOSEPH CRAVERO JULIE CRONER OLIVIA CROOKES HEIDI CROOKS PEGGY DA SILVA AND DAN HODAPP ANTHONY DEFRANCESCO ANN DELLINGER DARYL DICHEK PAULA DIEHR KATHLEEN DINSMORE RICHARD DONNER NANCY DOWNEY-JANKA ISABEL DUFF ELIZABETH EDGERTONGABRIELE ELLEN EISEMAN JOSHUA ELDER JULIE AND JOHN ELGINER MEREDITH AND SAM ELROD SUSIE FAN BING FANG MARAL FARSI CARLOS FELIX ROLLINGTON FERGUSON MYRNA AND RICHARD FILANC DANIEL FINK JEANNE FLORES NANCY FLOURNOY LOURDES AND ANDREW FORSTER LYNDSEY FOU ANA ISABEL AND EDWIN FRIENDLY III PAUL FU, JR. CONSTANCE FUNG AND HAWKIN WOO ANN GARBER-RIMOIN AND DAVID RIMOIN
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FIRST CENTURY SOCIETY
friends
UCLA’s distinguished First Century Society honors alumni, faculty, staff and friends who have chosen to benefit UCLA through a will, living trust, charitable remainder trust, charitable gift annuity, retirement plan, or other estate planning arrangement. The members share a strong common bond of generosity that ensures the university’s continued excellence well into the future. The School of Public Health gratefully acknowledges the philanthropic leadership and foresight of the following First Century Society members who have included the School of Public Health in their estate plans:
LESTER AND DEVRA BRESLOW • JOHN BROWNING • MARYAN G. BUNGA • ANNE AND JOHN COULSON ROBERT AND DIANA GHIRELLI • RAYMOND AND BETTY GOODMAN • JOANNE JUBELIER AND JAMES ZIDELL LAURIE AND GERALD KOMINSKI • DAVID KRASNOW • ANNE SULLIVAN REHER LIVIO AND JOSEPH LIVIO JEAN AND MAX MICKEY • JEANNETTE OREL • JOYCE PAGE • JEAN SANVILLE • PATRICIA AND RICHARD SINAIKO MARY ANN AND GURDON SMITH • DONNA AND WENDELL TRENT • SUEBELLE AND DAVID VERITY
SANDRA KLEIN AND DONALD MC CALLUM LESLIE AND JEFFREY KLONOFF JENNIFER AND FRANK KOZAKOWSKI DAVID KRASNOW BARBARA LANGLAND-ORBAN HELEN AND PAUL LAUGHLIN SARA LOURIE AND MARK LAXER GWENDOLYN LEAKE ISAACS LORRAINE AND NED LEAVITT, JR. JOON LEE ELAINE AND STANLEY LEMESHOW REBECKA LEVAN JOY LEWIS AND ROMAN BUNKER SARAH LLOYD-KOLKIN DEBRA LOTSTEIN AND BRUCE GREENSPAN JEN-MEI AND KUNG-JONG LUI ANN MAHONY ROBERTA MALMGREN JOANNE MARDESICH MARIE MARTINEZ TERESA AND ROBERT MATSUSHIMA WENDY MC GRAIL ANNETTE MCKNIGHT CAROLYN MENDEZ-LUCK HILDY MEYERS EVA AND ROSS MILLER CAROL MINN KAREN MITCHELL AND MICHAEL COLLINS RUTH MOHR AND DAVID OWENS EMILY AND JUAN MONTES ROBERT MURRAY CRAIG MYERS VAZRICK NAVASARTIAN IRINA NEMIROVSKY SARAH AND CONRAD NEWBERRY ANN AND JOHN NEWPORT NINA NIU-OK RONALD NORBY FELIX NUNEZ JØRN OLSEN
LYNN AND NEVILLE OSTRICK GENELLE AND FRANCIS PALMER DOROTHY PAYNES MARQUETTE PENNIMAN CATHERINE PERCY BARBARA AND RICHARD PERRINE ANGELA PINTO GAYLE AND DAVID PLECHA EILEEN PLOURDE EDWARD POSTLETHWAIT CATHERINE POWERS PAMELA AND WILLIAM PRESTON CAROLYN AND CARLOS PRIESTLEY CHRISTINA AND JOHN PROBST SHANE QUE HEE LAUREL AND ERIC RABJOHNS TERESA RACKAUCKAS VEENA RAGHAVAN KRISTIANA RAUBE CORI REIFMAN WILLIAM REINIS CRYSTAL REUL-CHEN JEAN LE CERF RICHARDSON RICHARD RIFENBARK III LUANNE ROHRBACH AND THOMAS SZAYNA JANE AND SHOLOM ROSEN NAOMI ROSEN AND BRYAN WEARE MARY ROTHERAM-BORUS LARA SALLEE EMMANUEL SANCHEZ CONNIE AND ROBERT SANCHIS ELISABETH AND ALAN SANDLER JANET AND DONN SARBAUM LESLIE AND KENNETH SATIN ALYSSA SCHABLOSKI EMMA SCHWARTZ SHIRA SHAFIR AND THEODORE KROEBER BARBARA AND ROBERT SHAW BHARTI AND HARSHAD SHETH GALE SHORNICK ROSE SIENGSUBCHARTI HELENE AND IRA SMITH JOHN SOHL
JUDITH AND GILBERT SOLOMON STELLA AND GUY SOO HOO FRANK SORVILLO TINA SOUALIAN AND HAROUT KEUROGHLIAN DENISE SPAULDING KATHY AND JOHN STEIN IRA STUDIN CONSTANCE SULLIVAN ANNETTE AND ROBERT SWEZEY PAULA TAVROW JEREMY TAYLOR MELINDA AND STEPHEN THIGPEN GREGORY TREROTOLA MARGARET TUOHY AND DEREK SHENDELL JANE TURNER AUTUMN VAN ORD AND ANTHONY LEHMAN SUEBELLE AND DAVID VERITY NAMITA VERMA ERICA AND TONY VICKERS LEAH VRIESMAN AND JONATHAN WEE LINDA AND ALBERT WANG YIE-CHIA AND BAO WANG ELOISE WATKINS EDITH AND CARL WEISSBURG CORDELL WELCOME KARINA AND MARK WIESENTHAL PAULA WILKINSON-KIRCHNER CHRISTINA WITSBERGER THERESA WOEHRLE DOROTHY AND STANLEY WOLPERT CAROL AND DANNY WONG FLORENCE WONG AND RICHARD SPOSTO BERHANE WUBSHET CHIERI YAMADA ELEANOR YOUNG HERMAN ZAMPETTI, JR. ELIZABETH ZAPLER AND JERRY SLAVONIA JOHANNA ZIMMERMAN
It is important to us that we acknowledge your gift properly. Every effort has been made to ensure the completeness and accuracy of this Honor Roll. Please let us know of any omissions or errors in listing your name or gift by calling (310) 825-6464.
UCLAPUBLIC HEALTH
ANABEL GARCIA CHERYL AND MICHAEL GATES DIANA AND ROBERT GHIRELLI REBECCA GOMEZ AND JOHN MC KEON RUTH AND DAVID GOMEZ MINDY GOODRICH FELICIA GORCYCA JANET GREEN JILL AND CHRISTOPHER GWALTNEY NANCY HALL NINA HALPER ANN HAMILTON SARAH AND MIKE HARLAN YVONNE AND ALVIA HEARNE, JR. JUAN HERRERA, JR. ELIZABETH AND ROBERT HERRICK GAIL HESSOL HORACE HINKSTON JUDITH HOPKINS HOWARD HORWITZ ELVIRA AND BRUCE HOWARD JANE HURD LETICIA IBARRA MARTIN IGUCHI JOHN IVIE BEDROS JAWHARJIAN BARBARA AND CLIFFORD JOHNSON HOWARD KAHN MARLENE KAMIENNY ROBERT KAPLAN DANIEL KASS JACQUELYN KASTER AND PAUL TORRENS CAROLYN KATZIN FRANCINE AND NEAL KAUFMAN CAROL KELLER DIANA KENNEDY AND SPENCER MAC NEIL HARVEY KERN JOHN KESSLER SYNDE KEYWELL MANSURUR KHAN ROSALYN AND STERLING KING JANET AND ALEXANDER KIRKPATRICK JOANN AND GORDON KLEIN
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UCLA
UCLA
PUBLIC HEALTH School of
Public Health
School of Public Health Box 951772 Los Angeles, California 90095-1772 www.ph.ucla.edu Address Service Requested
Commencement
2011
Los Angeles County Director of Health Services Dr. Mitchell H. Katz is the featured speaker at the school’s 2011 Commencement.
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