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As the United Nations convenes a high-level meeting to review the progress it has made on the fight against HIV/AIDS, it seems fitting that Columbia will convene a distinguished group of public health and policy experts to pay tribute to Allan Rosenfield, dean of Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health.
After a 40-year career in advancing the health and human rights of people worldwide through innovative programs in reproductive health, maternal mortality and the treatment of HIV-infected adults and children, Rosenfield recently asked University President Lee C. Bollinger to commence the search for his successor. When he steps down as dean, he will remain on the school faculty as a professor of public health and obstetrics and gynecology.
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Allan Rosenfield |
Bollinger hosted a gala dinner in Rosenfield’s honor on June 7 and, the following day, a World Leaders Forum (WLF) symposium on some of the key public health challenges to which the Mailman school dean has dedicated his professional life. Perhaps not surprisingly given Rosenfield’s broad impact on both the university and the public health field, attendees at both events jockeyed for space with standing-room-only crowds.
Leading the tributes offered during the dinner were UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan; Richard Gere, founder of Healing the Divide and an active campaigner for AIDS awareness in India; and Phyllis Mailman, widow of Joseph L. Mailman, for whom the Mailman School of Public Health is named. Rosenfield’s brother, Jim, added a personal video tribute.
The symposium, “Taking a Stand: Challenges and Controversies in Reproductive Health, Maternal Mortality and HIV/AIDS,” features a series of focused panel discussions with international public health experts and policy leaders, including former President Bill Clinton.
Other participants include: Rosenfield’s Mailman School colleagues Wafaa El-Sadr and Lynn Freedman (El-Sadr directs the International Center for AIDS Care and Treatment Programs, while Freedman directs the Averting Maternal Death and Disability Program); Seth Berkley, who heads the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative; William Foege, former executive director of the Carter Center and the epidemiologist who spearheaded the campaign to eliminate smallpox in the 1970s (now a fellow at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation); Stephen Lewis, the UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa; ABC News political commentator Cokie Roberts; former president of Ireland and UN human rights leader Mary Robinson, now president of the Ethical Globalization Initiative and a part-time professor at Columbia; and Jeffrey Sachs, director of Columbia’s Earth Institute and special advisor to Kofi Annan on the UN’s Millennium Development Goals.
An obstetrician-gynecologist, Rosenfield is renowned for his work on women’s reproductive health and human rights, innovative family planning studies, strategies to address the tragedy of maternal deaths in poor countries, and the HIV/AIDS pandemic, both domestically and globally.
His pioneering work ranges from training non-medical personnel in prescribing contraceptives to averting maternal mortality and morbidity from pregnancy-related complications, to treating and caring for HIV-infected women and children in economically underdeveloped communities.
Rosenfield was among the first to draw attention to the health crisis in the developing world, where many women continue to die from pregnancy-related complications. He established the pioneering Averting Maternal Death and Disability program, supporting more than 85 projects in 50 countries to improve obstetric care for pregnant women.
Under Rosenfield’s leadership, the Mailman School grew from a small institution to the second largest school at Columbia and the third largest school of public health in the nation. In 2004, it received the largest federal grant ever awarded to Columbia to build on Rosenfield’s previous work in HIV/AIDS and provide comprehensive HIV care and treatment in a number of countries in sub-Saharan Africa. In just two years, the program has reached more than 100,000 HIV-positive people worldwide.
In addition to these global initiatives, Rosenfield has long spearheaded efforts closer to home that address health problems in northern Manhattan. For instance, the Mailman School now operates five clinics based in junior and senior high schools in Washington Heights, enrolling 7,000 students and providing more than 41,000 visits each year.
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