Dr. Linda Rosenstock named chair of the Association of Schools of Public Health

Dean of the UCLA School of Public Health takes leadership role and emphasizes need to increase capacity for public health training to avert workforce crisis

Date: November 4, 2008

Contact:  Sarah Anderson (email)
Phone: (310) 267-0440

Linda Rosenstock, dean of the UCLA School of Public Health, has been named the new chair of the Association of Schools of Public Health (ASPH), which represents the nation's accredited public health schools. She began her term at the organization's annual meeting in October.

The ASPH represents the 40 schools of public health that have been accredited by the Council on Education for Public Health, an independent agency recognized by the Department of Education to accredit schools of public health located in the U.S., Puerto Rico and Mexico.  Based upon the belief that "you're only as healthy as the world you live in," ASPH works to develop solutions to the most pressing health concerns and provides access to the ongoing initiatives of the various institutions.

Dean Rosenstock is the dean of the UCLA School of Public Health, one of the nation's top ranked schools, with 700 graduate students and more than 200 faculty.  She holds appointments as Professor of Medicine and Environmental Health Sciences, and is a recognized authority in occupational and environmental health as well as broad areas of public health and science policy.

As chair of the ASPH Workforce Taskforce, Dean Rosenstock helped to identify the need to recruit and train an additional 250,000 public health professionals by the year 2020 in order to tackle the emergence of new infectious diseases, the threats posed by natural and man made disasters, and the impact of chronic disease on people’s health. The ASPH report concluded that the current workforce is inadequate to meet the health challenges facing the nation today and in the foreseeable future.

"As chair I am committed to advancing the mission of the Association of Schools of Public Health," said Rosenstock.  "And at this time, one of our main goals is to ensure that there will be a well-trained public health workforce ready to confront the health implications of tobacco use, heart disease, obesity and globally spreading infectious diseases on the growing U.S. and world population.  Now, more than ever, the work of the ASPH is critical to the world's health by advancing professional and graduate education, research and service in public health."

Prior to UCLA, Rosenstock served for nearly seven years as the director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), where she led a staff of 1,500 at the only federal agency with a mandate to undertake research and prevention activities in occupational safety and health.  During her tenure, Rosenstock was instrumental in creating the National Occupational Research Agenda, a framework for guiding occupational safety and health research.  She expanded the agency's responsibilities, staff size, and budget – doubling the Institute’s annual appropriations.  In recognition of her efforts, Rosenstock received the Presidential Distinguished Executive Rank Award, the highest executive service award in the government.  Internationally, Rosenstock has been active in teaching and research in occupational and environmental health. She has served as an advisor to the World Health Organization, taught in many developing countries, and conducted health effects studies in Latin America.  She is an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, president of the Society of Medical Administrators and a member of the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine.

She received her M.D. and M.P.H. from The Johns Hopkins University, and conducted her advanced training at the University of Washington where she was chief resident in primary care internal medicine and a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar.

"Dean Linda Rosenstock is an outstanding academic public health leader nationally, and internationally recognized for her accomplishments," said Dr. Harrison Spencer, president and CEO of ASPH.  "She is a critical thinker and a gifted communicator, and has the ability to develop and articulate an extraordinarily important vision for the 40 accredited schools of public health. At this time, when more than 50 countries face crippling work force shortages, and greater demands are being placed on the United States to help increase the number of public health professionals, Linda Rosenstock is the right person to lead our organization in making the case for increased funding and capacity building for the training of public health professionals," he said.

The schools that make up ASPH have a combined 9,600 faculty, 22,000 students and 7,300 graduates per year.  Established in 1953, the organization promotes the efforts of these schools to improve the health of every person through education, research and policy.

More information about the ASPH can be found at http://www.asph.org/index.cfm.

The UCLA School of Public Health is dedicated to enhancing the public's health by conducting innovative research, training future leaders and health professionals, translating research into policy and practice, and serving local, national and international communities.  For more information, see http://www.ph.ucla.edu/.