50 Years, Countless Champions.
50 Years, Countless Champions
Since 1976, the BUSPH community has hosted many influential, instructive, and impactful public health advocates.
Here, we feature 50 who stand out.
Our Champions of public health represent a half-century of transformative leadership across five defining categories of public health excellence.
The Builders established BUSPH’s institutional foundation, creating academic programs and disciplines that shaped the field.
Our Discovery to Impact honorees advanced public health knowledge through groundbreaking research—from the Framingham Heart Study to environmental toxicology—converting evidence into solutions.
The Public Health in Action cohort translated this knowledge into real-world change, leading government agencies, pioneering community initiatives, and advancing health policy from neighborhoods to national government.
Our Health Without Borders Champions extended BUSPH’s influence globally, demonstrating that health improvement requires cross-border partnership, leadership, and humility.
Finally, the Expanding the Possible group—through philanthropy, healthcare leadership, and business innovation—invested in BUSPH’s future and amplified the School’s reach.
Collectively, these 50 individuals embody our core mission: To improve the health and well-being of populations worldwide, particularly the underserved, through excellence and innovation in education, research, and practice. Their careers demonstrate how BUSPH graduates and faculty don’t simply study public health—they embody it by leading institutions, shaping policy, and improving lives. They represent our enduring commitment to evidence-based action, rigorous scholarship, and social impact.
Health Without Borders: Transforming Global Health
BUSPH has a particularly deep history in global health, and this group’s influence extends across countries, health systems, governments, and international organizations.
Bill Bicknell, MD, MPH — Founder and chair emeritus, Department of International Health
Dr. William J. Bicknell was an iconoclastic public health advocate who dedicated his five-decade career to improving healthcare access for vulnerable populations globally. He was founder and chair emeritus of the Department of International Health at BUSPH but beyond academia, his extensive career included serving as the Massachusetts Commissioner of Public Health and the first medical director of the U.S. Job Corps. He worked directly in over 60 countries, notably co-founding the Lesotho-Boston Health Alliance to sustainably strengthen local healthcare systems. After a long battle with cancer, Bicknell passed away in 2012 at the age of 75, leaving behind an endowed annual lectureship at BUSPH to continue inspiring original thinkers.
Joel Lamstein, SM/SCM — Co-founder, John Snow, Inc.
Joel Lamstein co-founded Boston-based global public health consulting firm John Snow, Inc. in 1978 after studying management at the MIT Sloan School. JSI eventually grew from a small startup into a massive organization with thousands of employees operating across more than 100 countries to manage health logistics, slow disease spread, and build robust community healthcare systems. Lamstein retired from JSI in 2021 after 43 years at the helm. In honor of Lamstein’s retirement, his three children established the Joel H. Lamstein Endowed Scholarship Fund at SPH to provide annual need-based awards to SPH students who have an interest in global health, as well as a preference for living or working in a low-income country.
Muka Chikuba-McLeod, MD, MPH, MSc — President and CEO, JSI Research & Training Institute
Dr. Muka Chikuba-McLeod (SPH’98) is a medical doctor and global health leader who serves as the President and CEO of JSI Research & Training Institute. She began her medical career on the frontlines of the HIV epidemic in Zambia for seven years before pivoting to large-scale international public health. To strengthen her strategic expertise, she earned an MPH from SPH. Over more than two decades at JSI, she successfully directed multiple transformative initiatives, including serving as the chief of party for the USAID SAFE program. In recognition of her exceptional impact and leadership, she was honored with the SPH Distinguished Alumni Award in 2023.
Sarah Degnan Kambou, PhD, MPH — Former president and CEO, International Center for Research on Women
Sarah Degnan Kambou (SPH’84,04) is a global development expert who earned both her Master of Public Health and doctorate in international health policy from SPH. Early in her career, she co-founded the Center for International Health at SPH before spending over a decade managing operations for CARE in sub-Saharan Africa. She later served as president and CEO of the International Center for Research on Women, championing gender equity and social justice initiatives. Her global impact earned appointments to President Obama’s Global Development Council and as an advisor to the Clinton Global Initiative. In recognition of her contributions to public health and women’s rights, she was honored with the SPH Distinguished Alumni Award.
Carol Karutu, PhD, MPH — Vice President of Programs, The END Fund
Carol Karutu (SPH’05,’15) is an SPH Alumni Award winner who earned her MPH and PhD in global heath from SPH. She is Vice President of Programs at The END Fund, a collaborative fund dedicated to ending six neglected tropical diseases that affect more than 1.4 billion people. She previously served as Chief of Party for a USAID-funded project in Uganda that provided technical, financial and managerial oversight across 30 districts and in over 600 health facilities. She has served as project director for multiple initiatives targeting HIV and AIDS, maternal child health, and family planning for international and local non-governmental organizations in Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and South Sudan.
Francisco Songane, MD, MPH — Former Minister of Health, Mozambique
Songane (SPH’92), a Mozambican medical doctor and global health leader, is an obstetrician and gynecologist by training, but paused his medical career to earn his MPH. He served as the Minister of Health for Mozambique from 2000 to 2005, during which he successfully directed a partnership approach to prevent disease outbreaks during major regional floods. Beyond his ministerial duties, he introduced critical advancements into Mozambique’s healthcare infrastructure, including launching a national health strategy and rolling out a nationwide Hepatitis B vaccine. His global health experience also features prominent leadership positions, notably serving as the Founding Director of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health hosted at the WHO.
Mahesh Maskey, MBBS, MPH, DSc — Founding chair, Nepal Public Health Foundation
Mahesh Kumar Maskey (SPH’01) is a renowned public health expert and an alumnus of SPH, where he earned his Doctor of Science in epidemiology in 2001. He was honored with a SPH Distinguished Alumni Award in 2017 and the Boston University Distinguished Alumni Award in 2017. He is the founding chair and executive chief of the Nepal Public Health Foundation, an organization he established to drive meaningful public health action and policy formulation across Nepal. Maskey successfully designed Nepal’s universal free basic healthcare services and served as Executive Chair of the Nepal Health Research Council. He also served as Nepal’s ambassador to the People’s Republic of China from 2012 to 2016.
Ikushi Onozaki, MD, MPH — Global tuberculosis control; formerly WHO
Onozaki (SPH’97) is a prominent Japanese physician and globally recognized tuberculosis (TB) expert who dedicated his career to improving disease control in high-burden nations. After earning his medical degree in Japan, his three-year experience managing TB in Nepal inspired him to pivot toward public health with an MPH in international health. Onozaki served as the Director of the Department of International Cooperation at Japan’s Research Institute of Tuberculosis before transitioning to the World Health Organization as a Medical Officer. For seven years, he led the prevalence survey group of the WHO Global Task Force on TB Impact Measurement, significantly expanding diagnostic capacity across Asia and Africa.
Ali Noorani, MPH — President and CEO, Barr Foundation; immigrant and refugee health
Noorani (SPH’99) used his MPH in environmental health and epidemiology & biostatistics as a launchpad into a career of public service, first as the director of public health for both the Codman Square Health Center and Dorchester House, then as executive director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition. He served as president and chief executive officer of the National Immigration Forum then led the U.S. Democracy Program at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation before joining the Barr Foundation as president and CEO in December 2025.
Kathryn Brinsfield, MD, MPH — Biosecurity and biodefense; Draper
Kathryn Brinsfield (SPH’01) is a physician and biosecurity expert who serves as Vice President and General Manager of Biotechnology Systems at Draper. She earned an MPH from SPH in 2001, anchoring a lifelong commitment to wellness and defense. At Draper, she guides advanced research programs aimed at counteracting global biological threats. She joined Draper from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) where she held multiple positions focused on biological weapons and technology, biosurveillance, and counterproliferation. She also served as Director of Medical Preparedness Policy on the White House National Security Council. Before her corporate and governmental career, she spent thirteen years as an emergency medicine physician at Boston City Hospital.
Public Health in Action: Leading Change in Communities and Government
Alumni and faculty who translated public health into policy, government leadership, advocacy, community action, and direct improvements in people’s lives.
Barbara Ferrer, PhD, MPH, MEd — Director, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health
Ferrer earned a master’s from SPH, establishing her foundational expertise in community wellness. She built upon this academic foundation by completing a PhD in Social Welfare from Brandeis University. Her early administrative career advanced through senior roles at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, where she managed state-level initiatives. She later achieved national recognition for reducing local health disparities during her tenure as the Executive Director of the Boston Public Health Commission. Today, she uses her decades of expertise to serve as the Director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, where she oversees health services for over 10 million residents.
Howard Koh, MD, MPH — Former Assistant Secretary for Health, U.S. HHS
Koh (SPH’95) trained as a physician before earning his MPH and went on to serve as a professor of dermatology, medicine, and public health at BU. From 1997 to 2003, Koh served as the Commissioner of Public Health for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, spearheading major initiatives in tobacco control and cancer screening. In 2009 he was nominated by President Obama to serve as the Assistant Secretary for Health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He is currently the Harvey V. Fineberg Professor of the Practice of Public Health Leadership at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Harvard Kennedy School.
Mary Jane England, MD — First commissioner, Massachusetts Department of Social Services
Dr. Mary Jane England is an accomplished psychiatrist, academic leader, and the former president of Regis College from 2001-2011. After earning her medical degree from the Boston University School of Medicine in 1964, she dedicated her early career to community psychiatry and child welfare advocacy. In 1979, she made history by serving as the first commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Social Services. Throughout her distinguished career, she also led prominent organizations as president of the American Psychiatric Association and championed integrated mental health delivery systems nationwide.
Amy Zapata, MPH — Director, Bureau of Family Health, Louisiana Department of Health
Amy Zapata (SPH’97) earned her MPH with concentration in social and behavioral science with a focus on health promotion and disease prevention. She currently leads the Bureau of Family Health within the Louisiana Department of Health where she oversees the state’s supportive services, health education and communications, training and policy development. Prior to her current role, Zapata was the surveillance program manager of the HIV/AIDS program, where she managed a department responsible for statewide HIV monitoring including case and data management. She also previously served as an appointed member of Louisiana’s Early Childhood Advisory Council along with roles on several behavioral health planning and domestic violence commissions.
Sarah Sabshon, MPH — Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy, Office of Governor Maura Healey
Sarah Sabshon (SPH’15) earned her MPH in health policy and management from SPH and used her training to help propel her career helping craft health-related policy. She has served as a research analyst, chief of staff to a state representative, and health policy advisor to two successive House Speakers. Following her legislative work, she transitioned to executive leadership by serving as the policy director for Maura Healey’s gubernatorial campaign. She currently serves as the Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Cabinet Affairs for Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey. In this role, she leverages her public health background to shape state policy across housing, education, reproductive freedom, and healthcare infrastructure.
Thea James, MD, MPH, MBA — Vice President of Mission, Boston Medical Center
Dr. Thea James is an emergency medicine physician who serves as the vice president of mission and associate chief medical officer at Boston Medical Center. As an alumna of SPH, she blends clinical practice with systemic public health strategies to improve community health outcomes. She is a professor of emergency medicine at BU’s Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine and is co-founder and director of the Violence Intervention Advocacy Program at BMC, an initiative that provides trauma-informed support and services to victims of violence. Beyond her local impact, she has extensive disaster response experience, serving as a supervising medical officer during global crises like the 2010 earthquake in Haiti.
Roseann Bongiovanni, MPH — Executive director, GreenRoots
Roseann Bongiovanni (SPH’01) is an environmental justice leader who earned her Master of Public Health from SPH en route to a career of public health advocacy for marginalized frontline communities. She is a lifelong resident of Chelsea, Mass. and served as a City Councilor for eight years. She currently serves as the Executive Director of GreenRoots, a resident-led grassroots organization dedicated to improving environmental quality and public health. She has maintained a deep connection with her alma mater, frequently partnering with BUSPH researchers on community-engaged initiatives like the Chelsea and East Boston Heat Study (C-HEAT) and localized COVID-19 response efforts.
Nashira Baril, MPH — Founder, Neighborhood Birth Center
Nashira Baril (SPH’06) earned her Master of Public Health in maternal and child health. As the daughter and great-granddaughter of midwives, she has dedicated over two decades to designing public health strategies that advance racial equity and birth justice. In 2015, she founded Boston’s Neighborhood Birth Center, an effort to create the city’s first independent, freestanding community birth facility. She has also worked as a program director with the Boston Public Health Commission to research racial inequity in breast and cervical cancer, and other facets of maternal health.
Karen Daley, PhD, MPH — Past president, American Nurses Association
Daley (SPH’88) was a senior staff nurse at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston for 25 years before shifting her focus to public health. A workplace needle stick in 1998 left Daley infected with both HIV and Hepatitis C, helping transform her into a nationally recognized advocate for legislation mandating the use of safer needle devices in healthcare settings. Daley is a past president of the Massachusetts Association of Registered Nurses and the Massachusetts Center for Nursing and has served on the boards of ANA, the American Nurses Credentialing Center, the American Nurses Foundation and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.
David Jones, PhD — Health justice scholar; founding editor-in-chief, Public Health Post
Jones was a beloved Associate Professor in the Department of Health Law, Policy and Management who dedicated his academic career to investigating health justice, structural racism, and the social determinants of health across the United States. Beyond his classroom instruction, he served as the founding editor-in-chief of the Public Health Post, a daily population health publication written by SPH students and leading public health experts. Tragically, his promising life and career were cut short at the age of 40 when he passed away in a pedestrian infrastructure accident in September 2021. Jones’s final, unfinished manuscript was posthumously finalized and published as Ripples of Hope in the Mississippi Delta: Charting the Health Equity Policy Agenda. Released by the University of North Carolina Press, the book is a culmination of four years of immersive on-the-ground research examining the structural forces that shape stark health inequities in the region.
Discovery to Impact: Advancing Public Health Knowledge
This group represents the researchers, scholars, scientists, and innovators whose work has changed what we know about health and how we respond to public health challenges.
L. Adrienne Cupples, PhD — Biostatistics; co-principal investigator, Framingham Heart Study
L. Adrienne Cupples earned her masters and doctorate in statistics from Boston University while raising two daughters, then began a long career as a professor of biostatistics and epidemiology. As a widely cited researcher, Cupples had more than 600 publications in major journals and was a key researcher on the Framingham Heart Study for more than 35 years, serving eventually as the co-principal investigator of the landmark study. Beyond cardiovascular health, her statistical methodologies advanced research into the genetic risks of major conditions, including Huntington’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease. Cupples died in 2022 at age 77.
Roberta “Bobbi” White, PhD — Environmental neurotoxicology; Gulf War Illness research
Dr. Roberta F. White is an emeritus professor of Environmental Health at SPH whose pioneering research focused on how exposure to industrial pollutants affects brain function. Originally trained as a clinical psychologist, she integrated public health, behavioral neuroscience, and epidemiology to trace the central nervous system effects of occupational toxins like lead, solvents, and methylmercury. Her global impact includes co-authoring the World Health Organization criteria for diagnosing solvent encephalopathy internationally. From 2008 to 2015, Dr. White also served as the Scientific Director of the Congressionally mandated Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Illness and frequently testified before Congress on veterans’ environmental health risks.
Richard Clapp, DSc, MPH — Environmental epidemiology; Camp Lejeune contamination
Richard “Dick” Clapp (SPH’89) is a professor emeritus of environmental health who joined the University’s full-time faculty in 1993. His primary research focused on environmental and occupational causes of cancer, most notably in a landmark case of widespread contamination at Camp Lejeune. Clapp found that water contamination at Camp Lejeune represented some of the highest recorded levels of drinking water pollution in U.S. history. He served as founding Director of the Massachusetts Cancer Registry from 1980 to 1989 and co-chaired Greater Boston Physicians for Social Responsibility. He retired from full-time teaching in 2010 but continues to share his expertise as an adjunct professor and guest lecturer across Boston-area universities.
George Annas, JD, MPH — Health law and bioethics; “father of patient rights”
Annas, a highly influential legal scholar, ethicist, and pioneer in the field of health law, spent more than four decades teaching health law and bioethics at BUSPH. Often referred to as the “father of patient rights,” his work fiercely prioritized individual liberty, patient autonomy, and the protection of vulnerable people. Over more than 50 years of scholarship, he was an incisive commentator on several important seismic shifts in health law, including several landmark “right to die” cases that upheld a patient’s right to withdraw from medical treatment, whether that patient is competent or not. He served as director of the Center for Health Law, Ethics & Human Rights at BU and authored or edited more than 20 books and nearly 400 articles in his field. Following a prolific academic career across BU’s schools of public health, law, and medicine, he passed away in May 2025 at the age of 79.
Richard Saitz, MD, MPH — Addiction medicine; chair, Community Health Sciences
Dr. Richard Saitz was an internationally recognized general internist, primary care physician, and addiction medicine specialist until his death from cancer in 2022. He dedicated much of his career to BU, serving concurrently as a Professor of Medicine and the Chair of the Department of Community Health Sciences at SPH. His landmark clinical trials fundamentally transformed medical protocols for treating alcohol withdrawal syndrome, and he directed Boston Medical Center’s Clinical Addiction Research and Education (CARE) Unit for more than a decade. Dr. Saitz further shaped his field through top-tier editorial leadership, serving as an associate editor for the Journal of the American Medical Association and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Addiction Medicine.
David Rosenbloom, PhD — Health policy; founder of Join Together and QuitNet
Rosenbloom, an emeritus professor at BUSPH, established a career spanning more than 50 years across public, private, not-for-profit and academic health sectors. His research focused heavily on health policy, community-based anti-drug strategies, and substance use disorders. He was the founder and director of Join Together, a program to help communities develop effective strategies to address addiction and gun violence. He served as principal investigator for pioneering digital intervention platforms like QuitNet, which helped individuals stop smoking, and VetChange, which addresses unhealthy drinking among combat veterans. He served as the Commissioner of Health and Hospitals for the City of Boston and later as the president of the Health Data Institute.
Ramita Tandon, MPH — Chief Biopharma Officer, Walgreens; clinical trial innovation
Ramita Tandon (SPH’88) serves as the Chief Biopharma Officer at Walgreens, where she leads the company’s unified solutions for life science partners, including clinical trials, commercial patient support and healthcare data and analytics. She earned her master’s degree from SPH on her way to establishing a 25-year career in patient-centered health care. In her current role at Walgreens, she directs the company’s strategy to decentralize clinical trials, optimize biopharma portfolios, and to bridge the gap between clinical development and commercialization.
Ralph Hingson, ScD, MPH — Alcohol policy research; director of epidemiology, NIAAA
Ralph W. Hingson was a faculty member at BU for more than three decades beginning in 1973. He was founding faculty of SPH where he chaired the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences and subsequently served as Associate Dean for Research until 2004. His research significantly influenced national policy on drunk driving legislation and substance abuse prevention helping stimulate federal incentives that led all states to adopt a minimum legal drinking age of 21, laws making it illegal for people under 21 to drive with measurable blood alcohol content, and the 0.08% blood alcohol limit for adult drivers.
Alexander Ortega, PhD, MPH — Health services research; dean, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa
Ortega (SPH’94) is Dean and Professor in the Thompson School of Social Work & Public Health at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. After his MPH training at SPH, he earned his PhD from the University of Michigan and became a nationally recognized health services researcher and health care policy scholar whose work is focused on health equity. His research has improved understanding of the complex health risks and outcomes for Latino and other minoritized populations in the United States.Prior to joining the University of Hawaiʻi, Ortega held senior academic and leadership positions at UCLA, Drexel University, and Yale University.
Ashish Joshi, PhD, MBBS, MPH — Public health informatics; dean, University of Memphis
Joshi (SPH’04) used his MPH in epidemiology and biostatistics to help launch a career blending entrepreneurship and academia. His work combines data-driven innovative approaches to advance excellence in public health education, and research, and practice. He developed public health informatics programs at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, then became an associate professor of population health informatics at the City University of New York (CUNY), with research conducted around the world. He served as professor and senior associate dean for student and academic affairs at CUNY for four years before being named dean and a Distinguished University Professor of the School of Public Health of the University of Memphis.
The Builders: Shaping BUSPH and the Field
These are the people who built the Boston University School of Public Health, established its academic foundation, led departments and programs, or helped define BUSPH as an institution.
Norman Scotch, PhD — First leader of SPH, founding faculty
Norman A. Scotch was a distinguished medical anthropologist and academic who was one of the key founders of SPH. After serving in the U.S. Army, he used the G.I. Bill to earn his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Boston University before completing a PhD in anthropology at Northwestern University. He initially joined the BU medical faculty as chair of the Department of Socio-Medical Sciences and Community Medicine, where he became a vital catalyst for establishing a dedicated public health program in 1976. Scotch successfully guided the institution through its official accreditation process, leading to its designation as an independent, standalone school in 1979. Throughout his leadership, he championed a practice-based curriculum, pioneered flexible part-time education models for working professionals, and emphasized an enduring commitment to excellence in classroom teaching.
Robert Meenan, MD, MPH, MBA — Dean, 1992–2014
Dr. Robert F. Meenan is a physician, academic leader, and rheumatologist who served as Dean of SPH for 22 years. Before transitioning into administrative leadership, Dr. Meenan built a distinguished medical career as a professor of medicine, chief of the Division of Rheumatology at the BU School of Medicine, and director of the Arthritis Clinic at Boston City Hospital. During his time as from 1992 to 2014, he expanded student enrollment, increased research funding, oversaw the physical consolidation of the school into the iconic Talbot Building, and elevated SPH’s national ranking to 11th in the country. Beyond his academic roles, he has contributed extensively to public health policy by serving on national advisory boards for the CDC and the Arthritis Foundation, while also serving as the President of the Mary Christie Foundation.
Sandro Galea, MD, MPH, DrPH — Dean, 2015–2024
Dr. Sandro Galea is a physician, epidemiologist, and author who led SPH as dean and Robert A. Knox Professor for a decade. He currently serves as the inaugural dean of the School of Public Health at Washington University in St. Louis. His research explores social epidemiology, mental health, and the consequences of mass trauma. Recognized as one of the most widely cited scholars in the social sciences, Galea is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and also contributes frequently to public discourse on population health and health policy.
Leonard Glantz, JD — Founding Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
Leonard H. Glantz is an emeritus professor in the Department of Health Law, Policy & Management at SPH and earned his undergraduate and law degrees from Boston University before beginning his public health teaching career at BU in 1974. Over a distinguished career spanning more than 40 years, he also served as the School’s very first Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, a leadership role he held for 25 years. As a widely published scholar, Professor Glantz has focused his research heavily on constitutional health interventions, human subject regulation, privacy, and the rights of children. His exceptional impact in the classroom earned him the prestigious Norman A. Scotch Award for Excellence in Teaching, the highest teaching honor at SPH, presented annually to an individual who has made outstanding and sustained contributions to the School’s education program.
Ted Colton , ScD — Founding chair, Epidemiology & Biostatistics
Theodore Colton, a pioneering biostatistician and epidemiologist, is a professor emeritus at SPH. He earned his Doctor of Science in biostatistics from the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health and previously held academic appointments at Harvard Medical School and Dartmouth Medical School. From 1980 to 1999, he served as the founding chair of the SPH Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, where he established the school’s very first doctoral degree track, in epidemiology. He authored the foundational textbook Statistics in Medicine and co-edited the comprehensive Encyclopedia of Biostatistics. Colton is also recognized as a founding editor of the prominent peer-reviewed journal Statistics in Medicine and has served on the editorial board of the New England Journal of Medicine.
David Ozonoff, MD, MPH — Inaugural chair, Environmental Health
For more than three decades, David Ozonoff merged a love of mathematics with a love of public health and retired from active academic work at SPH as professor emeritus and chair emeritus of environmental health. He originally joined the School as the inaugural chair of the Department of Environmental Health, serving in that leadership role for 25 years. His core research areas were the community health effects of toxic exposures, particularly around hazardous waste sites. His academic work also focused on the mathematical foundations of epidemiology and the application of scientific evidence in court. Throughout his career, he has also served as co-editor-in-chief of the online journal Environmental Health and the director of the BU Superfund Research Program, a multidisciplinary effort funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to understand basic scientific problems connected with the federal Superfund Program.
Judith Bernstein, PhD, MSN — Emeritus professor, longtime Community Health Sciences leader
Judith Bernstein is an emeritus professor of Community Health Sciences at BUSPH and Emeritus Professor of Emergency Medicine at Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine. As both a nurse and public health professional for the past 60 years, she has worked with both inner-city and rural communities to develop comprehensive, equitable and integrated approaches to women’s health. Dr. Bernstein holds an MSN in psychiatric nursing and a doctorate in health policy, is certified in reproductive endocrinology and infertility, and is the 1995 recipient of the prestigious National NCC award. Her research focused on innovative intervention strategies, notably pioneering patient-centered programs that integrate peer-led public health screenings directly into emergency department settings.
Ralph D’Agostino, PhD — 58 years at BU, Framingham Heart Study data analysis
Ralph B. D’Agostino Sr. was a renowned statistician and educator who dedicated 58 years of his academic career to Boston University. After earning his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from BU, he completed his PhD in statistics at Harvard University before becoming a professor of mathematics, statistics, and public health at Boston University. He was twice the chair of BU’s Department of Mathematics and Statistics, and successfully co-directed the Department of Biostatistics’ joint MA/PhD program for more than 30 years. D’Agostino achieved global prominence through his three decades as the director of data analysis for the landmark Framingham Heart Study, where his development of cardiovascular risk prediction models saved lives worldwide. An incredibly prolific researcher and award-winning teacher, he authored over 700 peer-reviewed papers and mentored generations of students until his passing in 2023.
Alan Jette, PhD, MPH — Former dean, BU Sargent College; Health & Disability Research Institute
Jette, a physical therapist and public health leader, served as dean of Boston University’s Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences and professor of Health Policy and Management at BUSPH, where he directed the Health & Disability Research Institute. An international expert in functional outcomes, Jette developed widely used assessment tools, including the Late-Life Function and Disability Instrument, the Activity Measure for Post-Acute Care, and the Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory, revolutionizing how patient disability and recovery are measured globally. He also chaired the Institute of Medicine’s landmark panel on disability in America. Elected to the National Academy of Medicine, Jette also served as Editor-in-Chief of Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation Journal.
Dzidra Knecht — First Associate Dean for Administration; staff award namesake
Knecht served as the first Associate Dean for Administration at SPH. She dedicated 30 years of service to Boston University, spending 20 of those years shaping the administrative foundation of SPH. Following her impactful career, Knecht officially retired from her university leadership role in September of 2002. To honor her legacy of citizenship and exceptional accomplishment, the school established the annual Dzidra J. Knecht Staff Award for Distinguished Service. This accolade remains the highest school honor presented to SPH staff members who make outstanding, sustained contributions to their departments.