Faculty & Staff

From the Dean

Dear friends and colleagues,

As winter's cold moves in and the holiday season shifts into full gear, I want to send my warmest wishes to you and your families. This is a season of giving, especially to those in greatest need. Here at the Mailman School that kind of commitment to others knows no season. I'm proud to be part of a School that gives 365 days a year to the high-needs community in which it dwells, and many other communities around the globe as well.

It is, of course, the essential role of public health to create and translate knowledge that improves the wellbeing of all, with particular attention to the most vulnerable among us. President Bollinger recently requested an analysis of our School's activities and programs within northern Manhattan, and it was inspiring to compile the range of work that you do. Our environmental scan ran to 40 items. Among the many ways we contribute to the community are these.
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New Faces

On Campus

What's behind the door of Room 1054?

A soon-to-be oasis with wifi, outlets to plug in laptops, tables, and a pantry. Get ready for February 2011, when 1054 will open its doors and provide students, faculty, and staff with a beautiful space for collaboration.

In the Neighborhood: Holiday Giving

Toy Drive: The Medical Center is sponsoring its 17th annual toy drive this season, which will benefit children and families throughout the Washington Heights/Inwood community. The drive needs unwrapped new toys for children ages 3-13. The gifts can be dropped off at the Hammer Health Sciences Center, 701 West 168th Street, 2nd Floor, Room 2-201 through December 23rd. In addition, there will be collections at various times on campus. For a schedule of donation opportunities, please go to www.cumc.columbia.edu/dept/gc. If these options don't work, you can make arrangements to have toys picked up from your location by contacting Clara Leon in the Office of Government & Community Affairs. You can reach Clara at (212) 305-9950 or at cnl7@columbia.edu. Also, you can make the holidays special for the children of the Columbia Head Start program by dropping off a new toy in the collection box in the Allan Rosenfield Building. (See instructions in the lobby.)

Clothing Drive: The Medical Center also has an arrangement with Wearable Collections, a clothing and textile donation organization. The bins are available on campus year round in the lobby at 656 West 169th Street. The organization accepts all used clothing including coats, shoes, hats and handbags and also accepts household items, such as curtains and bed linens. For more information on Wearable Collections and for a complete list of locations for drop-off, please go to www.wearablecollections.com.

Kudos

Here's a snapshot of promotions, honors, and achievements some of our faculty members have recently earned. If we overlooked you, please contact us.

Promoted

Wafaa El-Sadr, director of ICAP and professor of Epidemiology and Medicine, to full Professor with tenure.

Appointed/Elected

Richard Parker, professor of Sociomedical Sciences, was named to Columbia University's prestigious Committee on Global Thought. Professor Parker will be involved in the development of a Master's degree in conjunction with the School of Arts and Sciences, a research agenda, and a program with the Global Centers.

Awards

Bhaven Sampat, assistant professor of Health Policy and Management, was awarded a grant from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Public Health Law Research program to study legal and regulatory barriers to cheaper medications.

Miriam Laugesen, assistant professor of Health Policy and Management, received a Robert Wood Johnson Investigator Award in Health Policy Research for her work examining why Medicare payment reforms fell short of their original objectives to contain costs and equalize pay gaps between primary care physicians and specialists.

Junior Faculty K-Awards

The Greening of The School

Extending the Lifespan of Old Computers

Got an iPad on your holiday shopping list? Or a new PC? Or maybe you're planning a new year's upgrade of your office hardware. If you're wondering what to do with the old equipment, Norman Kleiman has the answer. For the past ten years, Dr. Kleiman, an associate research scientist in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences, has been leading a CUMC-wide effort to collect, unwanted computers and donate them for use by local and international non-profit groups—at the same time, preventing electronic waste from clogging our landfills.

The inspiration came ten years ago when the law firm where Dr. Kleiman's wife works donated their old computers to Columbia's Harkness Eye Institute. Dr. Kleiman took the idea to Columbia where countless working machines were getting thrown away. Read more >>>

Grand Rounds on the Future of Public Health (Jan. 19, 4 - 5:30 PM)

Teaching Innovation: The Engine of Science

How is it that with over $100 billion spent in the "war on cancer" over the past 30 years, research has yielded only modest advances? Why haven't scientists come up with an effective approach to the obesity epidemic and other persistent problems of our day? Is the lack of innovative thinking largely to blame?

These kinds of questions have led respected epidemiologist, recognized expert in women's health research, and dean of The University of Texas School of Public Health, Roberta B. Ness, MD, MPH, to study how innovative thinking is, or in many cases is not, being taught to students of health and the sciences.

At the upcoming Grand Rounds on the Future of Public Health, Dr. Ness will walk through a method that she developed for teaching innovative thinking, the key intellectual tool for leaping ahead of the status quo.

"Innovation is the engine of science," says Dr. Ness. "This is an undisputed fact. But, how do you teach this invaluable skill to students?"

The paradigm that Dr. Ness developed, currently being implemented at the Center for Innovation Generation that she directs at the UT School of Public Health, was based on two decades of teaching experience and a half a dozen or so years of research exploring what the world's literature reveals about how scientists have been thinking and teaching creative thinking. It challenges students to move beyond the fear of failure, overcome barriers to creativity, think outside the box, and employ the skills that lead to breakthroughs.

"I hope to incite this generation to be greater intellectual risk takers," says Dr. Ness, "and to embrace the idea that it is okay to think differently."

Come to the January 19, 2011, Grand Rounds on the Future of Public Health to hear more about the paradigm that Dr. Ness developed and to discuss methods for teaching students to be innovative.

Executive MPH Program Celebrates 20th Anniversary

In 1990, Columbia's School of Public Health opened the door to a new kind of educational program—one that was tailored to fit the busy schedules and experience of working professionals who wanted the additional training and credential of a Master's in Public Health.

Despite clear demand, few such programs existed, recalls Sheila Gorman, PhD, professor emeritus of the Department of Health Policy and Management, and founding director of the Executive MPH Program. Dr. Gorman consulted with administrators at the University of Michigan, which had such a program. And, she recalls, "I talked with people who were practitioners, hospital administrators and commissioners of health about what they thought of the idea and how to form this program." Read more >>>

Select Upcoming Events

Tues., Jan. 11 - School Assembly
12:00 - 1:00 pm; Hammer, Room 401

Wed., Jan. 19 - Teaching Innovation: The Engine of Science
Grand Rounds on the Future of Public Health
4:00 - 5:30 pm; Alumni Auditorium (650 W. 168th St.)

For more events and to notify the community about an upcoming event that you are organizing, visit the events calendar online.