News Release

UM SPH recognizes degree candidates at 2007 graduation, as well as faculty and alumni honorees.

May 3, 2007 press release from the University of Michigan School of Public Health.

The April 27, 2007, graduation ceremony held in the historic Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor recognized 416 master's and doctoral degree candidates from the University of Michigan School of Public Health (including those graduating mid-year), as well as a group of faculty and alumni honorees. Kenneth E. Warner, dean of the school, presided.

"Our school is internationally known for its emphasis on teaching," Dean Warner told the assembled graduates, families, and friends. "We credit that emphasis, along with our groundbreaking research, for attracting the very best and the brightest of the nation's public health students. Today's graduates are no exception. They will carry on the school’s legacy of excellence in contributions to public health."

As he highlighted some of UM SPH's historic achievements, Dean Warner brought the legacy up-to-date, gesturing to a biostatistics faculty member seated behind him on the stage: "Indeed, it was reported in the news last night and today that a team led by our distinguished colleague, Professor Michael Boehnke, has discovered 10 genetic variations associated with type 2 diabetes. In the years to come, this UM SPH research may lead to a cure for this debilitating disease."

Speaking on behalf of the students

A tradition at SPH graduation is for students to address their fellow graduates and guests. Degree candidate Emily Courey said that public health work goes beyond charity and crisis intervention. "We can’t just address each emergency in a vacuum, while ignoring the underlying systems that create or fail to prevent these emergencies." She advocated "building working relationships across sectors with the business world, with political forces, with communities, with governments, and with our partners in the health professions."

Honorees and remarks

Degree candidate Jessica Hagen presented the Gene Feingold Diversity Award that honors the memory of the namesake Professor Emeritus who spent much of his life working to end poverty and racial discrimination. This year's recipients were:
--Richard Lichtenstein, professor of Health Management and Policy and longtime director of the Summer Enrichment Program for undergraduates who have been affected by health disparities or who have done academic work in the field.
--Harold "Woody" Neighbors, professor of Health Behavior and Health Education and director of the SPH-based Center for Research on Ethnicity, Culture, and Health.

Martin Philbert, senior associate dean for research, presented the 2006 Excellence in Research Award to Jeffrey Alexander, the Richard Carl Jelinek Professor of Health Management and Policy. An expert on organizations, government, and health care, he has published 17 scholarly papers with former or current students in the last four years alone.

Degree candidate Derrick Matthews presented the Excellence in Teaching Award to Barbara Israel, professor Health Behavior and Health Education and a national a leader in community-based participatory research. She is the principal investigator of the Detroit Community Academic Urban Research Center, which identifies and address social and physical environmental determinants that lead to health disparities. Matthews praised her for "involving real communities in her teaching, and not just textbooks."

Dean Warner presented the Distinguished Alumnus Award to Glenn Fosdick, M.H.S.A. '76, "a leader in the field of hospital administration." As president and CEO of the Nebraska Health System, he oversees hospitals in three states, including an acute-care teaching hospital in Omaha. After being a leader on the SPH Alumni Board of Governors for a half-decade, he now serves on the board SPH-based Griffith Leadership Center.

Dean Warner also introduced the 2007 graduation speaker, Michigan Department of Human Services Director Marianne Udow, M.H.S.A. '78. He saluted her as "a passionate advocate for improving the lives of the poor, with a special emphasis on children." In her address to graduates, Udow asked them to take a moment on this day dedicated to looking forward, and try "to look backward from a future point in your life." She made the case, hoping the students would come to agree, "that living a good life is not about status, prestige, titles, or money. It is about doing good with and for others."

Contact: Terri Mellow, director of communications
Phone: (734) 764-8094
E-mail: twm@umich.edu

2007 UM SPH graduation speaker Marianne Udow, M.H.S.A. '78 and current director of Michigan Department of Human Services.
Full text of Udow's remarks (PDF)

Emily Courey delivers remarks on behalf of the students.

Glenn Fosdick receives the 2007 Distinguished Alumni Award from Dean Warner.

More photos of 2007 graduates.

(Graduation photos by Kristin Homes/Ben Colman Photography)