New York Times Profiles Mailman School of Public Health Dean Rosenfield
The New York Times on Monday profiled Allan Rosenfield, the dean of the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, who for more than 40 years has "helped shape health care around the world, especially for women and people with HIV." Rosenfield is seen "as a hero" within "liberal circles" and the field of public health for his work -- which has included promoting condom use, needle-exchange programs for injection drug users and sex education and preventing mother-to-child HIV transmission, according to the Times. "Allan is one of a small number of people we can say has truly improved the world, especially for women," Thomas Frieden, New York City health commissioner, said. According to Rosenfield, the "great tragedy" that has persisted in public health since he started in the field is that "in the developing world, girls and women don't have the power to say no." Rosenfield is living with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and myasthenia gravis and has submitted his resignation as dean. He plans to stay in the position until a replacement is found and continue teaching and working towards making antiretroviral drugs to treat HIV/AIDS available in developing countries, the Times reports (Perez-Pena, New York Times, 6/12).
A webcast of a tribute to Rosenfield -- which includes remarks from former President Bill Clinton, actor Richard Gere and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan -- is available online at kaisernetwork.org.