Archives & Special Collections, Columbia University Health Sciences Library Columbia University School of Public Health Office of the Dean Records JOSEPH L. MAILMAN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH. OFFICE OF THE DEAN. Records, 1945-2007 (bulk 1976-2007). 23.25 cubic feet (55 boxes). HISTORICAL NOTE: Columbia first established a school dedicated to the field of public health with the founding of the DeLamar Institute of Public Health by the University Trustees in May 1921, with Haven Emerson appointed as its Director. Instruction began in September 1922 and the granting of the Master of Science in Public Health degree was authorized by the Columbia University Trustees in 1926. The Institute was eventually renamed the School of Public Health on July 1, 1945. The name changed three more times: the School of Public Health and Administrative Medicine (July 1, 1955); the School of Public Health (circa 1973); and the Mailman School of Public Health (1998); in memory of the businessman Joseph L. Mailman, whose charitable foundation bestowed a $33 million gift to the School. With the renaming of the School in 1973, the curriculum broadened to include advanced and specialized studies through doctoral and dual-degree programs (MPH/MBA, MPH/MS in urban planning, MPH/MS in Social Work; MPH/MS in nursing; MPH/MD, MPH/DDS). The PhD programs in epidemiology and biostatistics were introduced, along with the Doctor of Public Health (Dr.P.H.), in addition to the established M.P.H. and M.S. degrees. At the time of these records, the School was organized into the following divisions: Biostatistics; Environmental Sciences; Epidemiology; Health Administration; Population and Family Health; and Tropical Medicine. Robert J. Weiss became the first full dean of the school in 1980; previously it had been directed by an associate dean of the medical faculty. After resigning in 1985, Allan Rosenfield served as long-running dean (1986-2008). Bernard Challenor (1978-1980) and Stephen Wotman (1985-1986) also served as acting deans. Until Dean Weiss, heads of the school held the titles “Assistant Dean for Public Health” or “Director.” Weiss was born in West New York, New Jersey on December 9, 1917. A psychiatrist and professor of psychiatry, professor of social medicine and Director of the Center for Community Health Systems, he received a BA degree from George Washington University (1947) and MD from the Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons (1951). He practiced psychiatry and returned to Columbia in 1975 as Professor of both Psychiatry and Social Medicine for the Community Health Systems. The Center for Community Health Systems was established in 1972 as an interdisciplinary and interdepartmental group from the Faculty of Medicine.[1] In 1980, Weiss was named Director of the Centers for Community Health--composed of the Center for Health Services Research and Collaborative Program in Oral Health with the School of Dental and Oral Surgery, and not to be confused with the Center for Community Health Systems. He was concurrently appointed Associate Dean for Public Health in the Faculty of Medicine and the DeLamar Professor of Public Health Practice (1980-1985). Weiss is credited with increasing enrollment and funded research at the school,[2] and the feasibility study which led to the merger of St. Luke’s and Roosevelt Hospitals in 1979. Allan Rosenfield, the son of Harold Rosenfield, a prominent obstetrician/gynecologist, was born on April 28, 1933 in Boston, Massachusetts. He received a BA (1955) in biochemistry from Harvard, and MD (1959) from the Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons. In 1962, following an internship and a one year surgical residency at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, Rosenfield served two years with the US Air Force in Korea and the Hamilton Air Force Hospital in California before undertaking special obstetrics/gynecology training at the Boston Hospital for Women. Starting in 1966, Rosenfield spent several years living abroad, including one year in Lagos, Nigeria, teaching obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Lagos Medical School, and six years in Thailand as a representative of the Population Council and medical adviser to the Thai Ministry of Public Health on maternal and child health and family planning issues. He returned to America in 1973 where he continued to work for the Population Council as the Director of the Child Health/Family Planning Program until 1975, when he joined Columbia University as Professor of Public Health and Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Director of the Center for Population and Family Health (CPFH). He was the first Director of the Center until 1986, when he became the Dean of the Mailman School of Public Health. Established in 1975 and funded in part by US AID, the CPFH had a multidisciplinary staff whose purpose was the “design, execution, and evaluation of the delivery of low-cost family planning and other basic health services to the vast rural village and burgeoning suburban slum populations of the developing world and, to the extent that similar needs exist, to the socially disadvantaged inner city populations of New York and the major metropolises of the economically ‘developed’ countries”; Not to be confused with the Division of Population and Family Health of the School of Public Health--their activities did overlap--the Center focused on international activities while the Division focused on teaching. CPFH was administratively managed under the International Institute for the Study of Human Reproduction. According to the Combined annual report of the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, December 31, 1978, IISHR consisted of two centers: the CPFH, directed by Allan Rosenfield; and the Center for Reproductive Sciences, directed by Dr. Georgiana Jagiello. The Center for Reproductive Sciences was comprised of an interdisciplinary group of P&S faculty and staff. Rosenfield sat on many committees and boards. He was president of the Association of Schools of Public Health (ASPH). He also served as Chair of the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) Program Board (circa 2005-2006). AmfAR was founded in 1985 through the merger of the AIDS Medical Foundation, headed by Mailman School Adjunct Professor Mathilde Krim, and the AIDS National Research Foundation, funded by American actors Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor. Rosenfield was known as a global leader in the promotion of reproductive healthcare and the prevention of HIV/AIDS. He was intrinsically involved in the development and publication of The FIGO Manual of Human Reproduction, the family planning manual developed to assist in obstetrical and gynecological education. The first iteration of the manual came out of FIGO’s Committee on Medical Aspects of Human Reproduction, headed by Howard C. Taylor, Jr., and the Population Council. In 1975 it was published as a series of lectures and slides in three volumes and distributed freely to medical schools in developing countries. Rosenfield was a student of Taylor and carried on the development of the Manual, resulting in the 1990 edition published with Mahmoud F. Fathalla as co-editor; with support from the Columbia University Center for Population and Family Health, the World Health Organization, and International Planned Parenthood Federation; and funded by the UN Population Fund, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation.[3] In 2006 the School of Public Health building on Columbia’s Washington Heights campus was named by the Columbia University Trustees for Dean Rosenfield. The building was formerly occupied by the New York State Psychiatric Institute. Dean Rosenfield retired in 2008 and died soon after on October 12th of that year after battling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Deans during this period: John H. Bryant 1971-1978 Bernard Challenor (Acting) 1978-1980 Robert J. Weiss 1980-1985 Stephen Wotman (Acting) 1985-1986 Allan Rosenfield 1986-2008 References: [1] From Combined annual report of the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, 1975. p.viii, 206. Available at https://archive.org/stream/combinedannualre00colu_5#page/n15/mode/1up/search/center+for+community+health+s ystems [2] “Weiss of Public Health to Retire” Columbia University Record, February 15, 1985, page 2 Biographical Files, Archives & Special Collections, Augustus C. Long Library. [3] From Combined annual report of the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, December 31, 1978. p.249- https://archive.org/stream/combinedannualre00colu_7#page/n314/mode/1up SCOPE & CONTENT: Correspondence, reports, minutes, agendas, correspondence, appointment books, class rosters and other records relating to students, memoranda, meeting minutes, budgets, television appearances recorded to videotape, programs, brochures, manuscripts, drafts, publications and other printed material document the operations of the School of Public Affairs Dean’s office, along with speeches, conference materials, articles, presentations, slides, and other materials from Dean Rosenfield’s professional career outside of his deanship. ARRANGEMENT / ORGANIZATION: Arranged into five series: I. Early General Records, 1945-1970. II. Subject Files, 1950-2007. III. Chronological Correspondence, 1986-2005. IV. Rosenfield Personal Papers, 1950-1992. V. Audiovisual, 1992-2006. SERIES I. EARLY GENERAL RECORDS, 1945-1970 BOX NUMBERS 1-2 Student transcripts, degree program applications for joint courses in architecture or nursing with the School of Public Health, Inter-American Affairs office records, and correspondence