Your parents report that you were calmly reassuring even as a child. This steadiness amid storm has characterized much of your work, even literally when you assumed leadership of the Centers for Disease Control’s Office for Terrorism Preparedness and Emergency Response two hours before Hurricane Katrina made landfall. Later, as the CDC’s acting director, you led the country’s handling of the H1N1 flu epidemic with a balance of decisive medical action and the prescription, for those susceptible to inflated fears, of a chill pill. You continued to fight fear with facts in your role as chief health and medical editor for ABC News where you educated the public about medical science and exposed all manner of quackery and fear mongering. You walked the Ebola wards of Liberia, and were the only journalist embedded with a CDC team in Uganda. You won two Peabody Awards and, perhaps a higher honor, an appearance on The Colbert Report. The enormous trust that the public put in you grew in large part from your non-anxious presence, your ability to explain complicated issues, and your willingness to admit when you did not know the answer. You now serve as president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the nation’s largest funder devoted exclusively to healthcare, where you continue in new ways your lifelong devotion to developing in our nation a culture of health.
In recognition of your distinguished achievement in public health, Williams
College is proud to honor you with its Bicentennial Medal.
September 16, 2017