Public Health Heroes Awards Ceremony

Between 1990 and 2002, Steven Schroeder was president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a national health care philanthropy. Under his leadership, the foundation took a bold step, broadening its grant-making focus to address a number of influences on health traditionally considered outside medical care. Most notable are the foundation-sponsored policy initiatives and research programs during the 1990s, which vaulted tobacco control onto the national agenda and supported substance abuse prevention and treatment through the Center for Tobacco Free Kids, the SmokeLess States policy initiative, and the Substance Abuse Policy Research Program.

Other programs now within the scope of the foundation encourage people to sustain their vitality as they grow older; help communities use architectural, transportation, and land use strategies to promote physical activity; establish care at the end of life; promote health insurance expansion for children and others; and develop future leaders in improving public health.

Schroeder served as an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer at the Centers for Disease Control and has held faculty appointments at Harvard, George Washington University, and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).

As founding medical director of university-sponsored HMOs at both George Washington and UCSF, he lay the groundwork for the newly emerging field of population health-oriented general medicine. At UCSF he also established a pioneering general internal medicine division that has become a leader in the area of prevention.

He currently chairs the American Legacy Foundation and the International Review Committee of the Ben Gurion School of Medicine. He serves on the editorial board of the New England Journal of Medicine and is a member of the Council of the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences.

Award Presenter

Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, M.D., M.B.A., became the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s president and CEO in January 2003. Previously, she was senior vice president and director of the foundation’s Health Care Group and held a variety of leadership roles at the University of Pennsylvania in the area of geriatrics. She also served in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as deputy administrator of the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research and has consulted to the White House on issues of health policy.

The Challenge: Smoking Cessation as National Public Health Policy

Tobacco use remains the leading preventable cause of death and disease in the United States, with more than 440,000 dying of tobacco-related illnesses each year. Estimates show that smoking causes more than $150 billion in annual health-related economic losses, including $82 billion in lost productivity and $75 billion in excess medical expenditures.

First documented in the 1950s as a leading cause of lung cancer, tobacco use has since been proven to increase the risk of cancer throughout the body and is linked to cardiovascular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, and osteoporosis.

Eighty percent of adult smokers started smoking before the age of 18. Every day, nearly 4,000 young people under the age of 18 try their first cigarette and the CDC estimates that more than 6.4 million children living today will die prematurely because of a decision to smoke made as adolescents. Intercepting these unwise choices now will prevent later deaths and disease from tobacco.

The School of Public Health Responds

Tobacco-related research by School of Public Health faculty has contributed much to the nation’s and the world’s understanding of tobacco’s impact on health. Faculty findings have proven definitively that second-hand smoke causes cancer; that Vitamin C supplements can reduce the damage of second-hand smoke exposure; and that passive and active maternal exposure to smoke can affect fertility and fetal and child growth and neurodevelopment.

Other School research has sought to identify successful approaches to smoking cessation by examining the cost-effectiveness of HMO and state Medicaid programs providing full coverage for nicotine replacement and other smoking cessation coverage.

Our faculty are sought out as advisers, contributing to a Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking and Women’s Health, developing a technique for measuring environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), and providing technical consultation on California tobacco tax legislation. Studies of ETS exposure on commercial airlines contributed to the banning of cigarette smoking on domestic flights, and studies of ETS in open workplaces showed 80–95 percent reductions in pollution exposures after restrictive legislation banned tobacco use.

The expertise of our faculty in this area is also valued globally. The School of Public Health hosts the Fogarty Center on International Tobacco and Health Research and Capacity Building Program, which has provided technical consultation on tobacco taxation and legislation to Taiwan and to the World Bank Global Tobacco Control Program in many countries. Recently a faculty expert on second-hand smoke has advised policymakers in Ireland, where a nationwide ban on smoking in workplaces, pubs, and restaurants will soon make history.

	2004 National Hero Steven A. Schroeder, M.D. Distinguished Professor of Health and Health Care, Department of Medicine and Director, Smoking Cessation Leadership Center University of California, San Francisco	Other 2004 Heroes International Larry Brilliant, M.D., M.P.H. Regional Dolores Huerta Organizational The East Bay's Health Departments
2004 National Hero - Steven A. Schroeder, M.D. Between 1990 and 2002, Steven Schroeder was president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a national health care philanthropy. Under his leadership, the foundation took a bold step, broadening its grant-making focus to address a number of influences on health traditionally considered outside medical care. Most notable are the foundation-sponsored policy initiatives and research programs during the 1990s, which vaulted tobacco control onto the national agenda and supported substance abuse prevention and treatment through the Center for Tobacco Free Kids, the SmokeLess States policy initiative, and the Substance Abuse Policy Research Program. Other programs now within the scope of the foundation encourage people to sustain their vitality as they grow older; help communities use architectural, transportation, and land use strategies to promote physical activity; establish care at the end of life; promote health insurance expansion for children and others; and develop future leaders in improving public health. Schroeder served as an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer at the Centers for Disease Control and has held faculty appointments at Harvard, George Washington University, and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). As founding medical director of university-sponsored HMOs at both George Washington and UCSF, he lay the groundwork for the newly emerging field of population health-oriented general medicine. At UCSF he also established a pioneering general internal medicine division that has become a leader in the area of prevention. He currently chairs the American Legacy Foundation and the International Review Committee of the Ben Gurion School of Medicine. He serves on the editorial board of the New England Journal of Medicine and is a member of the Council of the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences. Award Presenter Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, M.D., M.B.A., became the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s president and CEO in January 2003. Previously, she was senior vice president and director of the foundation’s Health Care Group and held a variety of leadership roles at the University of Pennsylvania in the area of geriatrics. She also served in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as deputy administrator of the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research and has consulted to the White House on issues of health policy. The Challenge: Smoking Cessation as National Public Health Policy Tobacco use remains the leading preventable cause of death and disease in the United States, with more than 440,000 dying of tobacco-related illnesses each year. Estimates show that smoking causes more than $150 billion in annual health-related economic losses, including $82 billion in lost productivity and $75 billion in excess medical expenditures. First documented in the 1950s as a leading cause of lung cancer, tobacco use has since been proven to increase the risk of cancer throughout the body and is linked to cardiovascular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, and osteoporosis. Eighty percent of adult smokers started smoking before the age of 18. Every day, nearly 4,000 young people under the age of 18 try their first cigarette and the CDC estimates that more than 6.4 million children living today will die prematurely because of a decision to smoke made as adolescents. Intercepting these unwise choices now will prevent later deaths and disease from tobacco. The School of Public Health Responds Tobacco-related research by School of Public Health faculty has contributed much to the nation’s and the world’s understanding of tobacco’s impact on health. Faculty findings have proven definitively that second-hand smoke causes cancer; that Vitamin C supplements can reduce the damage of second-hand smoke exposure; and that passive and active maternal exposure to smoke can affect fertility and fetal and child growth and neurodevelopment. Other School research has sought to identify successful approaches to smoking cessation by examining the cost-effectiveness of HMO and state Medicaid programs providing full coverage for nicotine replacement and other smoking cessation coverage. Our faculty are sought out as advisers, contributing to a Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking and Women’s Health, developing a technique for measuring environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), and providing technical consultation on California tobacco tax legislation. Studies of ETS exposure on commercial airlines contributed to the banning of cigarette smoking on domestic flights, and studies of ETS in open workplaces showed 80–95 percent reductions in pollution exposures after restrictive legislation banned tobacco use. The expertise of our faculty in this area is also valued globally. The School of Public Health hosts the Fogarty Center on International Tobacco and Health Research and Capacity Building Program, which has provided technical consultation on tobacco taxation and legislation to Taiwan and to the World Bank Global Tobacco Control Program in many countries. Recently a faculty expert on second-hand smoke has advised policymakers in Ireland, where a nationwide ban on smoking in workplaces, pubs, and restaurants will soon make history.