The doctor is in…in the office, in the know, and in position to advance the health of the nation. A pediatrician by training, you have gone from treating individual patients to caring for ever larger segments of the public. In your more than sixteen years as director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health cardiovascular disease declined by sixty percent, strokes by more than forty percent. A restaurant rating system copied nationally dramatically reduced hospitalizations for food-borne illness. You organized the largest immunization effort against H1N1 in the country. And life expectancy in the most populous county in America rose for the first time beyond eighty. You have chaired the California Wellness Foundation—the largest in the country devoted to the promotion of health. You have also served in numerous national capacities, including as chair of the U.S. Community Preventive Services Task Force and the Partnership for Prevention. And, always taking the broad view, you have forcefully challenged us as a country to address the causes of disease that grow from our unequal social, educational, and economic systems. Yes, the doctor is in, and we are all the healthier for it.
In recognition of your distinguished achievement in public health, Williams College is proud to honor you with its Bicentennial Medal.
September 19, 2015