UCLA SPH Milestones

2. After 15 years as the southern branch of a University of California system-wide public health school, the UCLA School of Public Health is established as an independent school by the UC Regents on March 17, 1961.

3. Lenor S. (Steve) Goerke, head of the medical school's Department of Preventive Medicine, is named first dean of the newly independent School of Public Health.

4. Following the Watts riots in 1965, Dr. Milton Roemer serves as health consultant to the McCone Commission and documents the need for construction of a hospital to serve the people of South-Central Los Angeles. The hospital becomes King-Drew Medical Center, which today serves 1.2 million people.

5. The Danfa Comprehensive Rural Health and Family Planning Project is launched under the leadership of Dr. Alfred Neumann, providing collaborative activities between the University of Ghana Medical School and the UCLA School of Public Health. The project results in sustained national health programs for the African nation and the establishment of the University of Ghana School of Public Health.

6. Using data from the Alameda County Human Population Laboratory, Dr. Lester Breslow publishes a paper showing a clear link between healthy habits and a longer, healthier life. Breslow's study demonstrates that simple health practices such as eating breakfast, maintaining a moderate weight, eating regular meals, using alcohol in moderation (if at all), exercising moderately, getting enough sleep, and not smoking are linked to living a longer life and greater freedom from disability.

7. Dr. Lester Breslow is named the School's second dean in 1972, and serves until 1980.

8. The School of Public Health Alumni Association is founded by alumnus Ray Goodman in 1974. The same year, Goodman creates the annual Breslow Lecture Series. Later, two other alumni associations are established within the School: the Health Policy and Management Alumni Association and the Environmental Science and Engineering Alumni Society.

9. The Fred H. Bixby Chair in Population, Family and Inter-national Health is established in 1975 as the School's first endowed chair. Dr. Judith Blake is appointed as the first chair holder.

10. Research by Dr. Roslyn Alfin-Slater demonstrates that the level of cholesterol in normal diets, including diets containing eggs, does not raise serum cholesterol. The result has since been confirmed in population-based epidemiological studies.

11. Faculty members Derrick and Patrice Jelliffe lead efforts to promote the benefits of breastfeeding on a global scale. With colleagues, they are instrumental in developing the International Code of Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes and the subsequent 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.

12. Dr. Roger Detels is named the School's third dean, serving from 1980 to 1985.

13. Early in the AIDS epidemic, a team headed by Detels demonstrates how HIV-related immune deficiency is transmitted among homosexual men, a discovery that has prevented millions of infections. UCLA School of Public Health faculty go on to lead international efforts to control the spread of the disease, particularly in China, Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar, and other areas of Southeast Asia.

14. Research by Dr. Lawrence Ash and his students leads to the development of a small rodent model for the study of lymphatic filariasis, which serves as a major catalyst for the expansion of work on a disease now targeted for eradication.

15. The Health Careers Opportunity Program is established, laying the foundation for the School to become a leader in training minority students among schools of public health in the continental United States.

16. In "Health Status of the American Male," a group of faculty led by Dr. Frank J. Massey Jr. establishes, among other findings, the safety of vasectomy as an effective birth-control procedure.

17. Dr. Abdelmonem A. Afifi is appointed the school's fourth dean in 1985, and goes on to serve a record 15 years.

18. The School is reorganized, going from seven divisions (Biostatistics, Epidemiology, Health Administration, Occupational Health, Health Education, Environmental Health, and Public Health Nutrition) to five departments (Biostatistics, Community Health Sciences, Environmental Health Sciences, Epidemiology and Health Services).

19. Research by Drs. E. Richard Brown, Robert Valdez and Hal Morgenstern documents the nature and extent of the problem of people lacking health insurance in California. Responding to requests from governmental leaders, faculty also are active in helping formulate policy options at the national, state, and local levels for dealing with the issue.

20. Faculty show that chronic exposure to air pollutants is associated with compromised growth of respiratory capacity in children, and with irreversible changes in lung function in adults.

21. Faculty demonstrate a genetic susceptibility to multiple sclerosis, and determine that individuals who develop MS are more likely to have childhood virus infections after the age of 10, at which time the immune system has undergone changes associated with puberty and adolescence.

22. The UCLA Environmental Science and Engineering Pro-gram moves administratively into the School of Public Health, giving the School its first interdisciplinary degree program.

23. The Dean's Advisory Board is established in 1988 for the purpose of increasing private support on behalf of the School. Alumni Ira Alpert, Carolbeth Korn, Joel Kovner, Samuel Tibbitts, and Fred Wasserman are founding members.

24. Research by Dr. Judith Blake challenges the presumption that an only child grows up feeling isolated. Rather, only children are found to have a clear social advantage - deflating notions that they are more isolated, less involved in extracurricular activities, and less liked.

25. Research by Dr. Jess Kraus documents the health benefits and cost savings of helmet use among motorcycle riders.

26. In one of the first studies examining the impact of surgical treatment for breast cancer on quality of life, Dr. Patricia Ganz and colleagues find that during the year after surgery, women who have had a mastectomy or breast conservation surgery (lumpectomy) recover from their treatment at the same rate and report no differences in mood or quality of life. How-ever, as might be expected, there are more difficulties with clothing and body image among those who had a mastectomy.

27. Playing leadership roles in California's successful campaign against tobacco use, faculty are instrumental in determining the allocation of Proposition 99 funds from the tax on cigarettes for tobacco control to researchers, local health departments, schools, community health agencies, and the media.

28. Dr. Susan Sorenson is among a small group of researchers pioneering the study of violence as a public health issue in the United States - not solely as a criminal-justice issue.

29. Investing in Health: World Development Report 1993 is published, with Dr. Dean Jamison as a lead author.

30. The School survives proposed elimination in 1994 and maintains its position as an independent school of public health, working in partnership with UCLA's medical, dental, nursing, and public policy schools.

31. Executive-style M.P.H. for Health Professionals programs are developed in the departments of Health Services (1995) and Community Health Sciences (1997).

32. At the request of the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, the School's faculty conduct a review of public health services in the county and make recommendations to the director for improvements.

33. Faculty, sponsored by Samuel J. and Audrey Tibbitts, write Changing the U.S. Health Care System: Key Issues in Health Services Policy and Management, edited by Drs. Ronald Andersen, Thomas Rice and Gerald Kominski. The second edition of the book, published by Jossey-Bass, is released in 2001.

34. The California Health Interview Survey, the largest state health survey in the United States and the first in California 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.

35. Faculty, including Drs. John Froines, Michael Collins and Wendie Robbins, conduct critical research on the exposures to and adverse health effects of major environmental toxic chemicals including diesel exhaust, MTBE, lead, arsenic, chromium, cadmium and pesticides. Faculty also play important roles in translating scientific research findings into policy for protecting workers and the public from these and other toxic chemicals.

36. The Molecular Toxicology Interdepartmental Ph.D. Program is established to train students, many of whom are in the School of Public Health, in the molecular mechanisms of toxicological injury.

37. Dr. Linda Rosenstock, director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), becomes the School's fifth dean on November 1, 2000.

38. As the School celebrates 40 years as an independent entity, more than a dozen centers sponsored by or associated with the School promote interdisciplinary research among faculty and students: Center for Health Policy Research; Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention; Center for Health Services Management; Center for Healthier Children, Families, and Communities; Center for Human Nutrition; Center for Occupational and Environmental Health; Center for Public Health and Disaster Relief; Division of Cancer Prevention and Control Research (part of UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center); Pollution Prevention Education and Research Center; Southern California Environmental Health Sciences Center; Southern California Injury Prevention Research Center; Southern California NIOSH Education and Research Center; and Southern California Particle Center and Supersite.

39. Nine among the School's faculty have been elected members of the Institute of Medicine: Ron Andersen, Lester Breslow, Robert Brook, Thomas Coates, Jared Diamond, Jonathan Fielding, Gail Harrison, Bob Kaplan, Linda Rosenstock.

40. Three members of the School's faculty have served terms as president of the American Public Health Association: Lester Breslow, Ruth Roemer, and E. Richard Brown.