Woodrow Wilson Award 2010

2010 Recipients

Jeffrey Crowley, SPH '94
Jeffrey S. Crowley is a member of President Obama’s Domestic Policy Council (DPC) and has been the Director of the Office of National AIDS Policy (ONAP) since February 2009. He coordinates the federal government's efforts on HIV/AIDS policy and guides the administration's development of disability policy. Previously, Crowley was a senior scholar and researcher at the Institute for Health Policy at Georgetown University, where he focused on Medicare and Medicaid policy from 2000 to 2009. Prior to that time, he worked at the National Association of People with AIDS (NAPWA), beginning as a public policy intern in 1994, and finally serving as Deputy Executive Director for Programs in 2000. While at NAPWA, he helped implement several key initiatives including the National HIV Testing Day Campaign and the Ryan White National Youth Conference. Crowley has authored numerous reports and policy briefs, and he has testified before various Congressional committees on several occasions. His primary areas of expertise are Medicaid policy, including Medicaid prescription drug policies; Medicare policy; and consumer education and training. Prior to earning his Master of Public Health degree, Crowley served in the U.S. Peace Corps as a high school science teacher in Swaziland. Top

Tara O'Toole, SPH '88 (MPH)
Dr. Tara O'Toole has been the Undersecretary of Science and Technology at the Homeland Security Department since November, 2009. Her previous government experience includes four years in the Clinton Administration. After graduating with her MPH from the Bloomberg School of Public Health, Dr. O’Toole spent five years as a senior analyst and project director with the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment. From 1993 to 1997, she served as the Assistant Secretary for Environment, Safety and Health at the Department of Energy, where she advised then-Secretary Hazel O'Leary on environmental protection and health safety for workers in nuclear facilities. She also created the first management plan for highly-enriched uranium, plutonium and spent fuel and led a delegation to Russia to create a cooperative effort to study radiation exposure in the U.S. and Russia. From 1999 to 2003, she managed the Johns Hopkins Center for Civilian Biodefense Strategies, which aims to reduce the risks of biological attacks, epidemics, and other destabilizing events, and to improve the nation's resilience in the face of such events. For the last six years, she has served as the Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Center for Biosecurity at the University of Pittsburgh. Today she is best known as a nationally recognized expert on biodefense and the actions necessary to detect, deter and react to either a biological terrorist attack or a pandemic. Top

Clydette L. Powell, Med '76
Dr. Powell currently serves as a medical officer for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Her areas of focus include public health, nutrition and infectious disease. She is board-certified in pediatrics, child neurology and preventive medicine/public health and has extensive public health experience in developing countries. She focuses on global public health strategies for fragile states, strategies to combat tuberculosis and manage the TB interface with HIV/AIDS, and the public health implications of sex trafficking. Dr. Powell began her public health work in Africa in 1976 and has continued to work for public health solutions in many other parts of the world. She runs a part-time clinical practice in HIV/AIDS is at The Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D. C. In addition to her medical degree, she has a Master's In Public Health from the University of California (Los Angeles) School of Public Health. Prior to joining the USAID, Dr. Powell served as Deputy Commissioner for Health Policy and Health Care Delivery for the Virginia State Health Department. She holds a faculty appointment as Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the George Washington School of Medicine and is also a Trustee for the Christian Medical and Dental Associations. Top

Irma S. Rochlin, Nurs '45
Irma Rochlin went directly into the U. S. Army Nurse Corps after graduation, making the grade of Lieutenant, serving in Alabama and North Carolina. Rochlin became a political activist while living in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1969, when she volunteered to care for marchers participating in the People's Park demonstrations. In the 1970s, Rochlin moved to Florida where she served on the city planning and zoning boards; becoming the first chairperson of the county Commission on the Status of Women, the president and organizer of the Democratic Women's Club, and a member of the county Democratic Executive Committee. In 1984, she became a member of the Florida House of Representatives, where she worked on several health care initiatives, including funding for treatment of AIDS and multiple sclerosis, school based clinics, and women's centers. Rochlin spearheaded passage of a law allowing public health nurses to prescribe and dispense medication without the need for a physician visit. She estimates that the state saved $1,000,000 in the first year after the law changed. Currently in retirement, Rochlin is involved with causes related to Israel and the welfare of Jews worldwide. She recently traveled to the Ukraine with a humanitarian group aiming to assist Jewish women who have little opportunity for education or employment. Top

Susan B. Shurin, Med '71, HS '72
Susan Shurin is acting director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, after previously serving as deputy director of the National Institutes of Health's National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. One of her more significant achievements while at NHBLI has been to restructure and enhance the sickle cell disease research program. She is a consultant for the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and the Clinical Trials Evaluation Program of the National Cancer Institute and on the editorial boards of several specialty journals. Prior to joining the NIH, Shurin served as a pediatrician specializing in hematology-oncology and professor of pediatrics and oncology at Case Western Reserve University for nearly 30 years. For 16 years, she served as director of pediatric hematology/oncology at Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital. As vice president and secretary of the Corporation at Case Western Reserve University from 2002 to 2004, Shurin was the primary liaison between the university's president and the Board of Trustees. She has been active as an editorial reviewer for medical journals and as a member of NIH advisory bodies. Shurin has also been active in clinical research, including participation in the Children's Cancer Group, Children's Oncology Group, and multiple studies in sickle cell disease and homeostasis. Shurin has as unique combination of talents and experiences in academic medicine, university leadership and management of complex organizations. Her service to the federally funded NIH has and will continue to promote ongoing future research and better health care for many people. Top