About Us

Susan P. Baker

In May 2010, Dean Linda P. Fried presented the 2010 Frank A. Calderone Prize in Public Health to a true pioneer: Susan P. Baker, professor of Health Policy and Management at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who helped create the science of injury prevention and, through scientific rigor and vision, has saved countless lives.

The power of Prof. Baker’s research and advocacy was affirmed in the warm formal responses of New York State’s two major public health officers, Commissioner Thomas Farley of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and Commissioner Richard Daines of the New York State Department of Health.

Is that Public Health?

As Prof. Baker noted in her lecture, when she first applied scientific methods to the dire statistics of motor vehicle passenger death and injury in the early 1970s, a senior colleague asked, “But is that public health?”

Today injury prevention in cars, including child safety seats and drunk driving laws, is core to public health, and we have Susan P. Baker to thank for compelling legislatures and public health authorities across the nation and internationally to take action. It is in part a testimony to Prof. Baker’s influence on automobile-safety practices that, even as vehicle miles driven have almost doubled since the mid-1970’s, motor vehicle-related deaths have continuously declined.

Commissioner Farley, a member of the Mailman School Board of Overseers and leader of New York City’s exceptional public health initiatives, noted in his remarks at the award ceremony that Professor Baker “has applied tried and true public health methods to preventing injuries.” Today, injury prevention is a central program for his department.

About the Recipient

An epidemiologist specializing in injury prevention, Professor Baker was the first director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy. She was instrumental in focusing public health attention on the prevention of injury, which prior to the late 1960s was neglected by most public health institutions. Her finding that infants were at especially high risk of being killed in car crashes contributed to passage of the child passenger protection laws. Much of her teaching and research is designed to influence legislators, administrators, media representatives and others whose decisions can determine the likelihood of injury for thousands of people.

See full text of Professor Baker's lecture.