Research & Service

Wafaa El-Sadr, MD, MPH, must have one of the world’s most wonderfully colorful caps, given all the feathers it’s been garnering recently. Just a few weeks ago, the professor of epidemiology and medicine and global director of the International Center for AIDS Care and Treatment Programs (ICAP) at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health hosted former President Bill Clinton as a participant in her Center’s extremely successful World’s AIDS Day symposium. Fresh off this momentous achievement, Dr. El-Sadr has been recognized by the bimonthly Utne Reader as one of 50 visionaries changing the world.

The article, “50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World,” appears in the publication’s most recent issue and describes Dr. El-Sadr’s achievement as follows:

“When Wafaa El-Sadr first encountered people suffering from AIDS in 1982, there were fewer than 5,000 known cases of the disease. In just a few years, the annual rate of infection would hit 130,000. If there was a ground floor for the epidemic, El-Sadr was on it.” 

The list of 50 visionaries comprises individuals from around the world working in a broad spectrum of fields. Others individuals whose leading edge work is recognized in the article include the Dalai Lama, urban planner and Bogota Mayor Enrique Penalosa, and experimental poet Christian Bok, among others.

To learn more, please visit “50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World.”

Additional Honors

Just a few of the wide array of additional honors recently bestowed upon Dr. El-Sadr include the following: 

• In its June issue, Scientific American Magazine named Wafaa El-Sadr to its first annual “Scientific American 10 honor roll.” The award recognizes ten individuals for innovations that benefit humanity. Dr. El-Sadr was cited for pioneering a comprehensive, family-based model for HIV care that has been adopted worldwide.
• Dr. El-Sadr’s earned a place in Rolling Stone Magazine’s list of the Top 100 Agents of Change in America,
• She was named a 2008 MacArthur Fellow “Genius” by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.