UCLA
School of
PUBLIC HEALTH
SPRING 2000
Newsletter
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED: AFIFI’S 15 SUCCESSFUL YEARS AS DEAN
CHILDREN’S ADVOCATE ROB REINER CHOSEN TO DELIVER KEYNOTE AT SPH COMMENCEMENT working closely with the school’s Center for Healthier Children, Families and Communities, directed by Dr. Neal Halfon. Chancellor Albert Carnesale also announced that he would bestow the UCLA Medal upon Reiner at the June 18 ceremony. The UCLA Medal is the university’s highest honor, intended to recognize singularly important lifetime contributions to the university or to society.
DEAN’S MESSAGE It is with mixed emotions that I write my last message as dean of the UCLA School of Public Health. On a
1999-00 SPH GRADUATES
personal level, it has been a wonderful experience to play a role in the success of our school and to know
Rob Reiner
that we are contributing to a health-
A
ier society. But after 15 years in this position, I have achieved the goals I established for the school, and it is time for a new dean to take the helm. I would like to express my sincerest thanks to the entire constituency of our school — faculty, students, staff, alumni and our many friends in the community. The school’s strength lies in your remarkable talents, your commitment to the principles of public health and your dedication to seeing these principles through. Any success I have enjoyed
ctor, director and children’s advocate Rob Reiner has accepted an invitation to be the keynote speaker at the 2000 UCLA School of Public Health Commencement. Among Reiner’s many activities on behalf of children, he served as chair for the campaign of Proposition 10, the California Children and Families Initiative. The ballot measure — proposing a 50-cent-per-pack cigarette tax that would be used to create, on a countyby-county basis, a comprehensive, integrated program of early-childhood development services — was approved by voters in 1998 and is currently being implemented by the California Children and Families First State Commission. Reiner was appointed by Gov. Gray Davis to chair the commission, which is
BIOSTATISTICS M.P.H. M.S. Ph.D.
8 15 3
COMMUNITY HEALTH SCIENCES M.P.H. 71 M.P.H./H.P. 4 Dr.P.H. 2 Ph.D. 11 ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH SCIENCES M.P.H. M.S. Ph.D. D.Env.
7 9 5 3
EPIDEMIOLOGY M.P.H. M.S. Dr.P.H. Ph.D.
36 5 1 2
HEALTH SERVICES M.P.H. M.P.H./H.P. M.S. Ph.D.
37 20 7 5
SCHOOL TOTAL
251
is a reflection of that strength. Now I look forward to joining you as a loyal member of our school’s constituency. I pass along the reins secure in the knowledge that the UCLA School of Public Health will continue to soar to new heights.
Abdelmonem A. Afifi, Ph.D.
BELOVED LONG-TIME STAFFER SAM LUCAS IS MOURNED Sam Lucas, one of the school’s most beloved employees, died in April after a sudden illness. He was 46. Lucas served the school for 20 years, the last five as building manager. “Every UCLA School of Public Health student, staff and faculty member for the past 20 years knew Sam,” says Dorothy Breininger, executive assistant to the dean. Lucas was well known for his dedication to the school. “He would brave high winds in his Tshirt hanging signs announcing an event, then change his clothes and be at the event to greet guests, then stay until everyone left so that he
could clean up,” Breininger says. Lucas touched so many people that, when a school-wide e-mail was circulated announcing that he was hospitalized at UCLA Medical Center and needed blood, the response was overwhelming. “Within minutes, everyone from the facilities employees and electricians to the school’s faculty, students and staff was lined up at the blood donation center,” says Breininger. “It was a wonderful testimonial to how much Sam was loved.” A scholarship fund has been established in Sam Lucas’ honor. Donations can be made by contacting the Dean’s Office.
BRESLOW LECTURE FOCUSES ON ENVIRONMENT The 2000 Lester Breslow Distinguished Lecture, held March 8, featured a pair of speakers on “Air Pollution in Southern California: Seeking Answers to Critical Public Health Questions.” Dr. John Froines (left), professor of environmental health sciences at the UCLA School of Public Health, was joined by Dr. John Peters of USC (below right, with Dr. Lester Breslow) in addressing this important topic.
UCLA School of
PUBLIC HEALTH Newsletter
V OLUME 20, N UMBER 2 S PRING 2000 ALBERT CARNESALE, Ph.D. Chancellor
ABDELMONEM A. AFIFI, Ph.D. Dean
3 NEWS
E DITORIAL B OARD ABDELMONEM A. AFIFI, Ph.D. Dean
JUDITH M. SIEGEL, Ph.D. Associate Dean for Academic Programs
MICHAEL S. GOLDSTEIN, Ph.D. Associate Dean for Student Affairs
V. GALE WINTING Associate Dean for Administration
LAUREL WRUBLE Director of Development
JEFFREY LUCK, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Health Services
SCHOOL RANKS AMONG NATION’S ELITE The U.S.News & World Report 2001 survey of graduate schools guide is out, and the UCLA School of Public Health has received its highest ranking yet — tied for seventh.
THOMAS R. BELIN, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Biostatistics
JOYCE A. PAGE, M.S.P.H., J.D. Alumni Association President
JULIA LIOU President, Public Health Students Association
DAN PAGE Public Information Representative
DAN GORDON Editor and Writer
MARTHA WIDMANN Art Director
Photography: ASUCLA (p. 2: Afifi; p. 3: Breslow Lecture; p. 7: Berkanovic and Glik; p. 8: Bastani); Yvette Roman (cover; pp. 4-7: Afifi; p. 4: Winer; p. 9: Sorvillo; pp.10-11). Graphic on p. 3 reproduced with permission from U.S.News & World Report.
School of Public Health Home Page: www.ph.ucla.edu E-mail for Application Requests: app-request@admin.ph.ucla.edu The UCLA School of Public Health Newsletter is published by the UCLA School of Public Health for the alumni, faculty, students, staff and friends of the school. Copyright 2000 by The Regents of the University of California. Permission to reprint any portion must be obtained from the editor. Contact Editor, UCLA School of Public Health Newsletter, Box 951772, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1772. Phone: (310) 825-6381.
“HE WOULD HAVE BEEN AN APPROPRIATE SECRETARY OF STATE” — REFLE
4 COVER STORY Carolyn F. Katzin (M.S.P.H. ’88) Chair, Dean’s Advisory Board
When I came to UCLA from England in the mid1980s, Afifi was dean and, under his excellent leadership, I developed my loyalty and gratitude to the school. More recently, I have gotten to know him better and to appreciate his wise and gentle manner. I have found his leadership and vision to be exceptional. I particularly appreciate his ability to integrate new concepts of information and technology that affect all aspects of public health.
Mark Finucane Director, Los Angeles County Department of Health Services
Dean Afifi has been a strong advocate for public health and has helped to keep closer ties between the School of Public Health and the Department of Health Services, which benefited both organizations. He has done so with a strong community interest and good humor.
Joyce Page (M.S.P.H. ’74) President, UCLA School of Public Health Alumni Association
It has been my good fortune to have known Afifi through my involvement with the Alumni Association. Dean Afifi has been chief cheerleader and primary instigator for many of the alumni activities. With his gentle but persistent blend of pragmatism and charm he has supported the Alumni Association as it was trying to evolve in a new era of opportunities and competing demands. We will all miss him, but he is leaving a wonderful legacy in so many areas, not least of which is in alumni relations. We are all richer for his commitment, his advice, his sense of humor, and his constant support.
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n attempting to summarize Dr. Abdelmonem A. Afifi’s contributions as dean of the UCLA School of Public Health, it seems fitting to cite numbers — the biostatistics professor’s stock in trade before he took the school’s reins in 1985. As in: 15: the number of years Afifi will have served as dean, most in the school’s history, by the time he steps down July 1. 7: UCLA’s highest-ever ranking in the latest U.S. News & World Report survey of the best public health schools (see p. 3) — this coming just seven years after the school’s very existence was threatened. 7: the number of years for which the school was accredited in 1999, making UCLA the first school of public health to receive the maximum accreditation term since 1994. But even a biostatistician would have to admit that numbers alone often fail to tell the whole story, nor can a few pages in a newsletter sufficiently capture the considerable legacy of a universally liked and admired leader who answers to “Afifi.” Our best try relies on the observations of some of those who have worked closely with him over the years, and on an exit interview with the dean himself.
ECTIONS ON
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15 YEARS OF AFIFI
hen I became dean, the school was at the tail end of an era in which it solidified its academic standing,” Afifi reflects. Beginning in the 1960s, he explains, public health schools across the country, which were once concerned primarily with producing graduates who would staff the health departments, started to focus more on advancing knowledge and changing paradigms through research. By the mid-1980s many public health leaders, Afifi included, believed the pendulum had swung too far the other way, and that more attention needed to be paid to the practice of public health. “My tenure has been characterized by trying to find the right balance,” says Afifi, who has appointed more than half of the current faculty. “We continued to hire very solid academic people, but we have enough now who are interested in public health practice so that we have achieved a very good balance. That has helped us strengthen our connection with the general community, as well as becoming a resource for the practice community.” In addition, to a much greater extent than when Afifi’s tenure began, the practice community now refers not just to the local, state and federal health agencies, but also to the private sector; this, too, has had a major impact on the school’s curriculum. Had circumstances not intervened, Afifi’s most tangible accomplishment would have been his reorganization of the school from a single department with seven divisions to five departments reflective of the core areas of public health: Biostatistics, Community Health Sciences, Environmental Health Sciences, Epidemiology and Health Services. This restructuring, accompanied by a corresponding staff realignment, strengthened each individual unit — and, as a result, the school as a whole. But in June 1993, the campus proposed a restructuring of its own — one that included disestablishment of the School of Public Health. What followed was an unprecedented showing of support that continues to reverberate to this day, as faculty, students, staff, alumni and friends throughout the public health community banded together in a successful effort to save the school. Afifi’s leadership was instrumental as the school not only stayed afloat, but bounced back to a position where, by all measures, it is now stronger than ever. “We’re much more visible today than we were before 1993, both on and off campus,” Afifi observes. “We have been recognized by Chancellor [Albert] Carnesale as being a leader in two of the university’s priority areas: connection with the community and joint programs with other UCLA schools and departments. And nationally, wherever I go, I have found that people are much more aware of what we’re doing than they were in the past.”
Michael Eicher Vice Chancellor, External Affairs
It has been a real pleasure and, personally, a very rewarding experience to work with Afifi over the years. He is one of those rare individuals who seems to be constantly filled with zest and enthusiasm for the world around him. His warmth and personal generosity make everyone feel good. Few, if any, have been more supportive or engaged in the efforts to involve alumni and friends in the activities and important work of UCLA. I am proud to have had the opportunity to work so closely with him, and prouder still to call him a friend.
Patricia A. Ganz Professor of Health Services and Director, Division of Cancer Prevention and Control Research
Afifi has shown tremendous skill and leadership in bringing the school out of the challenging years after the Professional Schools Restructuring Initiative. His support of new programs and centers has capitalized on faculty expertise along with strategic university and community partnerships. He will be missed by all of us!
Ralph R. Frerichs Professor and Chair, Epidemiology
While most students know of Dean Afifi’s academic life — his sage words of advice as a dean and his excellent sessions as a teacher — they likely do not know of his other passion. Every year from December to March, I look down from my loftier perch and see the familiar shine of the dean’s dome, as he enjoys another season of UCLA basketball. He and his wife are great fans, appreciating the beauty of contests that are probabilistic in outcome, well described with statistics, and certainly filled with excitement.
Susan C. Scrimshaw Dean, University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health
Dean Afifi is a remarkable man who has done a remarkable job for the UCLA School of Public Health. During his tenure he established a sound budget, led the school through departmentalization and the defeat of the attempt to close it, created a stronger research presence, and recruited more than half of the current faculty. As his associate dean for six years, I received valuable mentoring. To this day, I often ask: “What would Afifi do?” In my close work with him as an administrator, I most admired his judgment, his vision and his fairness.
V. Gale Winting Associate Dean for Administration
During the past eight years, I have had the opportunity to learn a great deal from Afifi. First and foremost, I have learned that no matter how bad problems may appear, if you work hard and apply yourself, things tend to work themselves out. Faced with many fiscal and organizational challenges in the past few years, Afifi worked endless hours with faculty, students and staff to help address and solve the school’s problems. I am thankful to have had the opportunity to work with and learn from him during his tenure as dean.
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William G. Cumberland Professor and Chair, Biostatistics
It is clear that Afifi has had a profound effect on the School of Public Health. Its very existence and its present organization are a product of Afifi’s deanship. But this would be of little relevance to me if I hadn’t come to UCLA, and that is a direct result of my first encounter with Afifi 25 years ago, when I was being interviewed for the position of assistant professor of biostatistics. After meeting him (he was head of biostatistics at that time), I knew that UCLA was where I wanted to be. I have never stopped learning from Afifi; from the first grant we submitted, to my current responsibilities as department chair, he has always served as a model for me. The profound effect that matters most to me is the one Afifi has had on my life; I cannot imagine what it would have been like without his encouragement, guidance and friendship.
Arthur M. Winer Professor, Environmental Health Sciences and Environmental Science and Engineering Program
What I have valued most in my relationship with Dean Afifi is his integrity. During the entire nine years I served as director and chair of the school’s ESE program, Afifi never once failed to honor a commitment or make good on a promise of resources. His vision and support were critical to our rebuilding the program to its present international stature. That Afifi is also a warm and caring man was an added dimension of our interactions that I soon came to appreciate. Both his leadership and his friendship have enriched my life at UCLA over the past decade, and I wish him every success and satisfaction as he enters the next phase of his remarkable career.
ABDELMONEM A. AFIFI ENDOWED STUDENT FELLOWSHIP FUND The Dean’s Advisory Board of the UCLA School of Public Health has announced the establishment of the Abdelmonem A. Afifi Endowed Student Fellowship Fund, toward which it has raised nearly $100,000. Income from this fund will provide fellowships to UCLA School of Public Health students in perpetuity. The Dean’s Advisory Board presented this gift to Dean Afifi at the annual Dean’s Appreciation Dinner in April. Those wishing to honor Dean Afifi by contributing to this fund may contact the school’s Development Office at (310) 825-6464.
Gilbert Cates
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o much has happened to the public health landscape since 1985. “Back then, we as a field were still trying to be recognized as an important group in the health care arena,” Afifi says. “Today, everyone is mouthing the words ‘population-based paradigm.’ ” The major health issues of the past 15 years have only served to underscore the value of the public health approach. AIDS...cancer...health care financing...environmental toxins...the role of behavior...all issues in which public health plays a critical role. “We’ve entered the third wave of public health,” Afifi says. “The first was recognizing and controlling infectious diseases. The second, beginning in the middle of the 20th century, was more concerned with chronic diseases. Today we are seeing a greater focus on the role of behavior in health.” Looking ahead, Afifi predicts that fundamental changes in the area of health care financing will finally come to fruition within the next few years. “A new president will be coming in, and businesses are going to want to find a major solution,” he says. “I can’t predict what the change will be, but I do think there is an urge to get something done.” New issues are also emerging. With the Human Genome Project nearing completion, Afifi says, “public health will have to grapple with how to handle all of the ethical and health issues raised by this new information we will have about the role of individual genes.” Internationally, poorer countries already experiencing the “transitional double burden of disease” — growing rates of chronic illnesses on top of continuing problems with infectious diseases — are facing a third burden. “They’re asking themselves, ‘How can we worry about improving the environment when our main concern is to feed the population?’ ” Afifi says.
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s for his own future, Afifi, who will remain on the school’s faculty, will first take a sabbatical. “During that year I will spend a lot of time catching up with the literature, mainly in biostatistics but also in broader areas of public health,” he says. Afifi also plans to devote more time to personal pursuits, including photography and his studies of music theory and composition structure. Reflecting on the past 15 years, Afifi says certain moments always brought him great satisfaction: making a congratulatory call to an assistant professor who had just received tenure; being approached at a national meeting by a colleague who expressed admiration for the school; seeing the excited faces of incoming students at orientation; and seeing those same students at graduation ceremonies, knowing that the school had met their expectations. “I’ve devoted a big chunk of my life to serving this school,” Afifi says. “In 1985 I could have happily continued to teach and do research, but I felt in my bones that I needed to do something different. When I look back on the past 15 years, I know that it was all worth it.”
The 11-member Public Health Dean Search Committee has narrowed the field of nominees and begun the process of interviewing candidates to replace Dr. Abdelmonem A. Afifi as dean of the UCLA School of Public Health. At press time, it appeared that an interim dean would be appointed to serve until a permanent dean is in place. More details will appear in the next issue of this newsletter.
Producing Director, Geffen Playhouse Former Dean, UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television
Dean Afifi is the exemplar of a perfect dean. Afifi, as he prefers being called, is thoughtful, courteous and intelligent. He would have been an appropriate secretary of state. He is a man of great humor and infinite wisdom. I learned a great deal from Afifi during my time at UCLA and I will miss him.
Deborah Glik and Emil Berkanovic Director and Co-Director, Technical Assistance Group
Few know this, but Afifi directs a longitudinal research program of the health benefits of wine that makes use of the latest techniques of participant observation. For many years Afifi has presided over the UCLA School of Public Health steak night at the annual APHA meetings. Upon leading a band of beef eaters into a suitably seedy place, Afifi asks the staff’s opinion on which of their steaks has the most fat and then recommends everyone order it. This ritual marks the beginning of the oenological study he intends to conduct that evening. While it is probably too early to assess the benefits for Afifi’s physical health that have accrued from his years of oenological research, the psychological benefits are often evident. As each evening’s study progresses, one sees many indicators that his mental health has improved. These include an increasingly voracious appetite, progressively more effusive conversation, and disclosure of interesting insights into human nature gleaned from close observation of his colleagues, whom he is delighted to name. Other indicators include progressive relaxation of his grip on specific details and some confusion when the bill is due. We have experienced similar improvements in our own psychological well being as a result of the interventions Afifi has chosen to test on those evenings.
Lester Breslow Professor Emeritus, Health Services UCLA School of Public Health Dean, 1972-80
Afifi, I want to tell you how much I have admired your performance these past 15 years. Among many important accomplishments, two stand out in my mind. One has been getting the school on track with five departments and building the school with, and from, strength in all five. The second, of course, was steering the school through the critical early ’90s period. On that matter, your wisdom and patience were crucial. Now on to some other important issues, such as how to deal with missing data and other aspects of “retirement.”
Q & A: DR. FRANK SORVILLO ON THE FUTURE FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASES
8 FACULTY
Particularly in developed countries, attention has shifted somewhat from infectious diseases to other public health concerns. But the problem is still considerable, isn’t it? Definitely. Infections remain the leading cause of death worldwide. There are roughly 17 million infectious diseaserelated deaths each year, the majority in children and the majority entirely preventable. Over the past 20 years or so, probably more than 50 new infectious agents have been identified. We’re also seeing a resurgence of infectious diseases that had appeared to be under control. As the world’s population in-
creases and living space shrinks, people increasingly end up in areas inhabited by animals, and such exposure puts us at risk for new zoonotic infections. Where is progress being made, and where is more progress needed? Immunizations continue to be very important, and one of the problems continues to be under-utilization of effective vaccines. We need to develop vaccines for some of the important infections for which we don’t have vaccines. Clearly there have been developments in terms of antiviral therapies that we didn’t have a few years ago. There are new and
FACULTY UPDATES DEAN ABDELMONEM A. AFIFI was the keynote speaker at a national German conference sponsored by the School of Public Health in Bielefeld, Germany in March. The conference was devoted to empowering the patient. Afifi spoke on “Public Health as Community Empowerment.” DR. CAROL ANESHENSEL co-edited the Handbook on the Sociology of Mental Health with Jo C. Phelan (New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, 1999). She received a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to examine the impact of neighborhood on the mental health of adolescents using a national, longitudinal data set.
DR. LINDA BOURQUE and Center for Public Health and Disaster Relief colleagues Moira Inkelas, Laurie Loux, Mel Widawski and Loc Nguyen co-authored “Dimensionality and reliability of the civilian Mississippi scale for PTSD in a post-earthquake community” for the Journal of Traumatic Stress. Bourque also coauthored “Prevalence of assault and perception of risk of assault in urban public service employment settings” for the International Journal of Occupational Health 2000 with Southern California Injury Prevention Research Center colleagues Deborah Riopelle, Maggie Robbins, Kim Shoaf and Jess Kraus. DR. E. RICHARD BROWN is the principal investigator on three grants for the California Health Interview Survey: from the State of California, the National Cancer Institute, and the California Commission on Children and Families.
▲ DR. ROSHAN BASTANI (above, seated, second from right) received funding from the National Cancer Institute for “Asian American Network for Cancer Awareness, Research and Training.” The five-year project is designed to increase the capacity for conducting cancer prevention and control research among Asian populations in the Los Angeles area. Bastani will collaborate with approximately eight community-based organizations as well as UCLA’s Asian American Studies Center.
DRS. WILLIAM COMANOR and STUART SCHWEITZER are offering a new option for Ph.D. students in the Department of Health Services. The Research Program in Pharmaceutical Economics will coordinate a new cognate in Pharmaceutical Economics and Policy, enabling students to emphasize these issues as part of their doctoral studies. Both Comanor and Schweitzer have recently presented in the United States and abroad on topics related to pharmaceutical economics — Schweitzer at the National Governors’ Assn. meeting in San Diego and at a major managed care conference in Washington, D.C.; and Comanor at the International Health Economics Assn. meetings in Rotterdam, at Aventis Pharmaceuticals in Bridgewater, N.J., at a conference in Paris, and at a conference in Beijing organized by the Chinese Ministry of Health.
DR. WILLIAM CUMBERLAND has been elected fellow of the American Statistical Association, the highest honor that can be paid to an American statistician. DR. WILLIAM CUNNINGHAM was the first or second author on three recent publications resulting from the ongoing HIV Cost and Services Utilization Study: one on competing subsistence needs that act as barriers to receipt of HIV care; a second on the role of case-management in overcoming the need for supportive services such as health insurance benefits, employment, substance abuse and emotional counseling; and a third on the prevalence of domestic violence among HIV-positive persons in the United States. SUSAN B. EDELSTEIN won the 2000 Daniel E. Koshland Award in Social Welfare and was named Outstanding Practitioner of the Year by the National Association of Social Workers, California Chapter. DR. JONATHAN FIELDING received the Distinguished Service Award from the American College of Preventive Medicine. He chaired the Project Advisory Committee for the Partnership for Prevention’s “Priority Recommendation to the Congressional Prevention Coalition” and announced the release of the report, which outlined nine national policies that, if enacted by Congress, would prevent a minimum of 160,000 premature deaths each year. DRS. ERIC HURWITZ and HAL MORGENSTERN analyzed data from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and concluded that “DTP or tetanus vaccination appears to increase the risk of allergies and related respiratory symptoms in children and adolescents.” In the article, published in the February 2000 issue of the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, they noted that the public health benefits of these vaccines are well documented, but little is known about potential long-term risks. DR. SNEHENDU KAR authored a background paper titled “Women’s Health Development: Im-
effective therapies for influenza, combination therapy for HIV. But as we see effective antiviral therapy being developed we also see problems of antibiotic resistance for bacteria that we thought we had controlled previously. So we make progress in one area and we backtrack in others. What impact has biotechnology had? Does it have the power to make a significant dent in this problem?
Dr. Frank Sorvillo
peratives for Health and Welfare Systems” and presented an invited keynote address titled “Empowerment of Women for Health Promotion: A Multi-Dimensional Model,” both for the International Conference on Better Health and Welfare Systems: Women’s Perspectives, sponsored by the World Health Organization Health Development Center in Kobe, Japan last April. He presented and chaired a plenary session at the Second International Conference on Quality of Life in Cities in the 21st Century, held in Singapore. DR. GERALD KOMINSKI headed a joint effort between the UCLA School of Public Health and the L.A. County Department of Health Services to produce a recently released report, “Burden of Disease in Los Angeles County: A Study of the Patterns of Mortality and Morbidity in the County Population.” DR. JESS KRAUS has received funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the school’s Southern California Injury Prevention Research Center, of which Kraus is the founding director, to serve a third five-year period as one of 10 regional Centers for Excellence in Injury Research. DR. MARK LITWIN published a widely publicized paper in the Journal of Urology regarding quality of life after radioactive seed therapy for prostate cancer.
DR. CORINNE PEEK-ASA has received a fourth year of funding from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to continue one of the largest workplace violence prevention programs for small retail establishments ever undertaken. She was an invited participant at the National Workplace Violence Intervention
Sorvillo, M.P.H. ’78, Ph.D. ’94, formerly with the L.A. County DHS’ HIV Epidemiology Unit, is associate professor of epidemiology at the school.
9 FACULTY
Workshop in Washington, D.C. Among her recent publications are a chapter on injury control in the Oxford Textbook of Public Health and a report on GIS mapping of injuries in relation to earthquake intensity measures in Annals of Epidemiology.
appointed to the California Attorney General’s Task Force on Hospital Conversions. The task force will make recommendations to the attorney general about regulations governing the purchase, sale, or merger of not-for-profit hospitals in California.
RUTH ROEMER participated in the World Health Organization Consultation to Develop Tool Kits for Tobacco Control Legislation and Economic Interventions in Geneva, Switzerland in March.
DR. ROBERT O. VALDEZ recently released findings from two major studies on the Medicaid program. Findings from a Kaiser Family Foundation-sponsored national survey of parents of children who are eligible for Medicaid but not enrolled will inform efforts to insure the nation’s uninsured children. Future directions for improving the Medi-Cal program can be found in a MediCal Policy Institute-sponsored statewide survey of Medi-Cal beneficiaries’ views and experiences with the program.
DRS. STEVEN ROTTMAN and KIM SHOAF coauthored an entry entitled “Natural Disasters” in the upcoming Encyclopedia of Public Health, edited by Dr. Lester Breslow; and “Public health impact of disasters” for the Australian Journal of Emergency Management. They are also guest editing a special issue of Prehospital and Disaster Medicine (Fall 2000), which will feature papers from the Center for Public Health and Disaster Relief’s 1999 conference on public health and disasters. DR. JUDITH SIEGEL wrote “Victimization after a natural disaster: Social disorganization or community cohesion?” for the International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters.
DR. STEVEN WALLACE received a grant from the California Program on Access to Care to examine the access to health services by racial/ethnic minority elderly persons in HMOs. He will spend the next academic year in Chile studying access to care by the elderly at the U.N.’s Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean; and at Catholic University, funded by a Fulbright Scholarship and a sabbatical.
DR. SUSAN SORENSON published a policy forum, “Regulating firearms as a consumer product,” in the November 1999 issue of Science. Letters to the editor and Sorenson’s response were published in the February 2000 issue of the journal.
DR. ARTHUR WINER has been appointed to a National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council committee for a two-year study to evaluate the Federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Program.
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DR. MICHAEL LU received the Women’s Reproductive Health Career Development Fellowship from the National Institutes of Health, which is sponsoring Lu’s research in the prevention of preterm birth. He wrote “Eliminating public funding of prenatal care for undocumented immigrants in California: A cost-benefit analysis” for the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
We’ve made remarkable strides in term of our capacity to diagnose various infectious agents, though biotechnology still hasn’t been applied to some of the
“lesser” agents. Molecular fingerprinting can be very helpful in nailing down risk factors and environmental sources of infectious agents. But remember, 40 years ago we thought, given our great technology, we could control and in fact eliminate infectious diseases, and that has not been the case. So our hopes need to be tempered by a prudent understanding of the power of infectious agents.
DR. MEL SUFFET was the keynote speaker, and one of six panelists answering questions, at a four-hour American Water Works Assn. teleconference from the AT&T studios in Denver, titled “Taste and Odor in Drinking Water: Operational Tools and Techniques for Identification and Control.” The teleconference was beamed to more than 6,000 participants at more than 250 sites in all 50 states and all of the Canadian provinces. DR. PAUL TORRENS was appointed to the Board of Directors of Blue Shield of California, one of only two not-for-profit health insurance plans in the state, covering 2.3 million people. In March, he was
10 STUDENTS/ FRIENDS
PROMOTING PUBLIC HEALTH — To commemorate Public Health Week, the UCLA Public Health Students Association helped coordinate a series of activities on the UCLA campus, including an evening of yoga (above). The week included “Eat Smart Day” featuring recipes and advice on healthy eating; “Motivation and Stress Management Day,” including a presentation by Dr. Alan Nagamoto of Student Psychological Services; and fitness-focused themes such as “Elevator Boycott Day,” “Pick Up Some Weights,” and “Let’s Get Physical” — a run-walk-bikerollerblade-athon.
AWARD WINNER Que Dang, a second-year M.P.H. student in Community Health Sciences, received a Gloria Steinem Award (one of four given nationally) in New York on May 22 for her achievement in developing a program that addresses the health needs of low-income Southeast Asian women and girls throughout California.
CAMPAIGN UCLA UPDATE
REVAMPED STUDENT SERVICES OFFICE — Combining the functions of student services, career advising, and diversity outreach, the newly remodeled Student Services Office opened with the beginning of Spring Quarter. Students are now served in a reception and library area within the Student Services suite, rather than through a window in the busy first-floor corridor.
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aunched in May 1997 as the most ambitious private fund-raising effort in the history of public higher education, Campaign UCLA has reached its initial goal of $1.2 billion two years ahead of schedule. Chancellor Albert Carnesale recently celebrated this achievement with UCLA donors and fund-raising volunteers, and announced an increased Campaign UCLA goal of $1.6 billion, to be raised by June 30, 2002. The School of Public Health’s goal within Campaign UCLA will remain at $15 million. As of April 30, 2000, the school was 81 percent toward its goal.
ALUMNA LOOKS TO INSTILL HEALTHY HABITS IN MINORITY CHILDREN
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s a pediatrician, Andriette Ward (M.D., M.P.H. ’99) has seen for herself the problem of obesity in children, particularly minorities. An estimated 25 percent of school-age boys and girls in the United States are overweight. “It’s very difficult to develop healthier eating habits and levels of physical activity as an adult when you have a lifetime’s worth of bad habits to change,” she says. Ward also was convinced that even pediatricians’ best efforts at persuasion were falling on deaf ears. “It’s silly to think that any kind of behavioral modification is going to be successful if you’re seeing a patient no more than once a month for a 10-minute visit,” she contends. The desire to affect larger numbers of children than would be possible in clinical practice motivated Ward to pursue a research fellowship through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program at UCLA and, concurrently, an M.P.H. at the UCLA School of Public Health. Now, through the Division of Cancer Prevention and Control Research and the UCLA School of Public Health, Ward
11 ALUMNI Dr. Andriette Ward (far left) hopes to convince children of the rewards of healthy eating and physical activity before they develop bad habits.
is a co-investigator on a project that tests a more intensive behavioral intervention. “Community Steps to Minority Youth Fitness” will examine the impact of modifying students’ home and school environments. At two middle schools with predominantly African American and Mexican-American student bodies, the researchers are working with the school cafeterias, the
physical education faculty and parents to convince the students of the rewards of healthy eating and physical activity. Says Ward: “We think that because we’re introducing these kids to activities and behaviors that they can sustain for the rest of their lives, they will have a better chance of continuing with these healthy habits even after the intervention is over.”
APHA CAUCUS CHAIR CYNTHIA MOJICA AIMS TO ADVANCE LATINO HEALTH INTERESTS
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or as long as she can remember, Cynthia Mojica (M.P.H. ’95) has been interested in serving the Latino community. In the early ’90s, when she attended the school’s Public Health Leadership Conference as an undergraduate, Mojica decided that public health would provide the best avenue for fulfilling her career objectives. And by the end of the decade, Mojica was already positioned to make a difference: armed with an M.P.H. from UCLA and a national leadership role as chair of the American Public Health Association’s Latino Caucus. Mojica first attended the annual meeting of the APHA as a student in 1994, and became increasingly active with the caucus over the next several years. She served as secretary of the executive board last year, and was
Cynthia Mojica
elected to a two-year term as chair last November. “Our purpose is to advocate, both within and outside of
APHA, for the health interests of the Latino community,” she explains. Mojica has remained at UCLA since receiving her M.P.H., working as a project director on two cancer-control studies headed by Dr. Roshan Bastani, associate professor of health services. She will enroll in the Ph.D. program in the school’s Department of Health Services this fall, and plans to pursue an academic career that will enable her to make a contribution in identifying and eliminating health disparities, particularly affecting Latinos. While she prepares for an important new phase in her education, she continues to gain invaluable education in the field. “My involvement with the caucus is exposing me to a lot of the issues affecting Latino communities across the country, and I’m making great contacts,” Mojica says. “It’s a tremendous experience.”
Special Thanks Special thanks to the following School of Public Health alumni who took time this academic year to offer career advice to current and prospective students: SUSAN ACKERMAN ROSALIND ESSNER ROBIN FOMALONT MICHAEL GALPER CHRISTIAN GIANGRECO MARK GOLD POPPY INSIXIENGMAY JONATHAN KEI CYNTHIA LANDES CHRIS MARDESICH ROSA PECHERSKY KEN RESSER DAN STONE MARC STRASSBURG BILLIE WEISS
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