David Rosenbloom Named Co-Chair of New Public Health Advisory Team.

Boston Mayor-elect Martin J. Walsh has appointed David Rosenbloom as co-chair of a team advising the incoming Mayor and his administration on a variety of public health issues.

Rosenbloom, a professor and interim chair of health policy and management at Boston University School of Public Health, will join about two dozen prominent civic leaders tapped for their expertise in 11 diverse fields, including economic development, arts and culture, housing, education, and public safety. His co-chair on the public health team leader will be Dr. Paula Johnson, Executive Director of the Connors Center for Women’s Health and Gender Biology, and Chief of the Division of Women’s Health, Brigham & Women’s Hospital.

Rosenbloom is a former Boston Commissioner of Health and Hospitals, appointed to the post by Boston Mayor Kevin White in 1975. As commissioner, Rosenbloom was the city’s top public health officer and CEO of the city’s health delivery system, including Boston City Hospital (now Boston Medical Center), 22 neighborhood health centers, and the emergency medical system. After leaving public service, he was president of Health Data Institute, a company that pioneered the clinical analysis of medical claims data and developed managed care tools and techniques used nationally.

Rosenbloom joined the faculty of BUSPH in 1991 and for two decades served as the director of Join Together, a nationally prominent program at BUSPH that was funded primarily by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Join Together helped communities address substance abuse and gun violence issues through a multi-faceted, multi-organization approach.

For most of the 20 years that Join Together was at SPH, Rosenbloom maintained offices off campus because the program was too large to be accommodated on campus. Join Together’s online information services continue today in modified form under the direction of The Partnership at Drug Free.org in New York.

Rosenbloom has been involved in leading and working with several research activities at SPH, including directing the NIAAA funded Center on Alcohol Problems in Young People, and deploying a self-directed online intervention for alcohol-abusing combat veterans with PTSD.

Rosenbloom has conducted and published research in the fields of political science and substance abuse, including a book on the development of the professional campaign management industry, four national surveys on community anti-drug organizations and strategies, and numerous articles on substance abuse policy. He chaired a Special Committee on the Clinical Trial Network program for the National Institute on Drug Abuse National Advisory Council. Rosenbloom also serves as a director of Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Stop Handgun Violence and is Chairman of QuitNet.com, Inc.

Walsh will succeed outgoing Mayor Tom Menino in January 2014 as the first new Boston mayor in 20 years.