American epidemiologist
Kelly J. Henning is an epidemiologist and medical doctor currently leading the public health program of Bloomberg Philanthropies. She has led the program since it began in 2007. She was the first person to serve as director of epidemiology for the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Henning said of working in public health "I have the opportunity to help improve the health and lives of millions of people. That's what really speaks to me."
Career.
Henning received her MD from Tufts University School of Medicine and completed internal medicine training at the University of Pennsylvania where she also served as an associate professor of infectious diseases and hospital epidemiology. She completed her epidemiology training at the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention Epidemic Intelligence Service in 1988.
Henning served as the first director of the epidemiology division of New York City's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene from 2003 to 2006. Since 2007, she has led the public health program of Bloomberg Philanthropies, the foundation established by former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg. Priorities for the program include devoting $1 billion to curbing tobacco use in poorer countries, reducing the number of preventable traffic injuries and deaths around the world, and helping countries to improve public health data collection with the goal of addressing public health problems."
Henning characterized the work on curbing tobacco use as focused on "demand reduction." She described this as "smoke-free public places, advertising bans, availability of cessation services, pack warnings, and other ways of educating the public, and perhaps most importantly raising taxes on tobacco because price is one of the key drivers to helping people quit and not start using tobacco."
On the wider work with Bloomberg Philanthropies on noncommunicable diseases, Henning told NPR: "Cancer, heart attacks, stroke, chronic lung disease: this is a group of diseases that cause more than 40 million deaths a year."
Henning has contributed to more than 30 peer-reviewed research publications and presented at more than 11 national scientific meetings. She has been invited to deliver more than 28 lectures or lead discussions on a range of topics including bioterrorism, pandemic flu and smallpox.
References.
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