2013 BUSPH Alumni Awards Announced.
Three Boston University School of Public Health alumni have been honored with the School’s 2013 Distinguished Alumni Awards and Young Alumni Award.
This year’s recipients are: Mahesh Maskey, D.Sc ’01, Nepal’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the People’s Republic of China; Christina Severin, MPH ’95, President and CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Care Organization; and Young Alumni recipient Conor Shapiro, MPH ’07, President and CEO of St. Boniface Health Foundation.
Since 1989, the Distinguished Alumni Award has recognized BUSPH graduates who have made outstanding contributions and exemplify dedication to the field of public health on a local, national, or global level. This year’s awards will be presented in Boston on Nov. 4, 2013 during the BUSPH reception at the Institute of Contemporary Art in conjunction with the American Public Health Association (APHA) Annual Meeting.
Dr. Mahesh Maskey is a physician, epidemiologist, and international health and human rights activist. Following a distinguished career at governmental and non-governmental health policy organizations in Nepal, Maskey was promoted to his current position, Nepal’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the People’s Republic of China. Maskey remains an active public health leader in Asia, serving as honorary chair of the Joint Asia Pacific Public Health Initiative and executive and founding chair of the Nepal Public Health Foundation.
Maskey has previously held influential roles in government that include chief advisor to the Honorable Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Health and Population in Nepal, and chair of the Health Policy Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Health and Population. During these years, Maskey was instrumental in health systems policy change in Nepal, including the passage of the Health Act, which assured free care in primary health care centers, and the inclusion of free care as a fundamental human right in the interim constitution of Nepal in 2009. Maskey also served as executive chair of the Nepal Health Research Council (Nepal’s version of the NIH) and of the Nepal Public Health Foundation. From 2004-2006, he was South Asia Regional vice president of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War and served as a member of the Advisory Council for Health Research for WHO in the South East Asia Region.
For his doctoral studies in epidemiology at BUSPH, Maskey was awarded a scholarship by the Boston University-Nepal Linkage Program. Under the guidance of Dr. Ken Rothman and Dr. Janet Lang, Maskey conducted his groundbreaking dissertation where he developed and field-tested a method of monitoring maternal death in Nepal and other developing countries where surveillance data was absent.
After completing his doctoral studies, Maskey returned to Nepal at a time of civil war. He was taken prisoner while traveling to India for a conference. Public health leaders around the world, including many in the BUSPH community, organized a successful letter-writing campaign which led to his release after several months.
Maskey holds a Doctor of Science in Epidemiology from BUSPH, a Bachelor of Medicine Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) from Darbhanga Medical College in India, and a Master of Public Health from University of Leeds in the United Kingdom. He is a published author and has written many political and health-related scientific articles.
Christina Severin is the president and CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Care Organization, a Boston-based accountable care organization.
Previously, Christina served as the president of Network Health, a Tufts Health Plan subsidiary that provides state-subsidized coverage to thousands of residents. During her 13 years with Network Health, she oversaw the health plan’s dramatic growth, led its strategic direction, and managed its bottom line.
Prior to becoming Network Health’s president, Severin served as vice president, chief operating officer and as director of quality. Before joining Network Health, she served as director of managed care for Health Services Partnership, practice panager at Codman Square Health Center, and director of community health center services at Boston City Hospital.
Severin concentrated in Health Services as an MPH student and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Economy from University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She has taught classes in health care administration and management at Boston University, Harvard University, and Northeastern University. Christina was named as a Boston Business Journal “40 under 40” honoree and was recently profiled in the “Women Up” feature for her superior leadership qualities.
Conor Shapiro is the president and CEO of St. Boniface Haiti Foundation, a nonprofit organization providing health care, education and community development programs in rural Haiti. His involvement with St. Boniface began in 2002 during a volunteer trip to Haiti as an undergraduate student, teaching English to children in the mountains of Fond-des-Blancs.
After graduating from Middlebury College in 2003, Shapiro moved to Haiti and spent the next seven years in Fonds-des-Blancs working with St. Boniface. He was promoted to program manager in 2009, then to director general of the hospital after earning his MPH at BUSPH, and eventually named president/CEO in 2011. Under his guidance, St. Boniface has become a model of successful, sustainable development in rural Haiti. Shapiro spearheaded the AIDS Relief program at St. Boniface and was instrumental in bringing a spinal cord injury treatment center to the hospital in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake.
Shapiro received his Master of Public Health concentrating in International Health and holds a Bachelor of Science from Middlebury College. He has been featured in many publications and has presented “The Risk of Empathy” at TEDx Middlebury in 2010. He continues to contribute to the BUSPH community through his partnership with the IH course, IH744: Program Design for Global Health.