UCLA PUBLICHEALTH SPRING 2000 - UCLA School of Public Health

UCLA
School
PUBLIC
of
HEALTH
SPRING
Newsletter
UCLA
2000
MISSION
ACCOMPLISHED:
AFIFI’S 15
SUCCESSFUL YEARS
AS DEAN

CHILDREN’S ADVOCATE ROB REINER CHOSEN
TO DELIVER KEYNOTE AT SPH COMMENCEMENT
DEAN’S MESSAGE
It is with mixed emotions that I
write my last message as dean of the
UCLA School of Public Health. On a
personal level, it has been a wonderful
experience to play a role in the
success of our school and to know
that we are contributing to a healthier
society. But after 15 years in this
position, I have achieved the goals I
established for the school, and it is
time for a new dean to take the helm.
I would like to express my sincerest
thanks to the entire constituency
of our school — faculty, students,
staff, alumni and our many friends
in the community. The school’s
strength lies in your remarkable
talents, your commitment to the
principles of public health and your
dedication to seeing these principles
through. Any success I have enjoyed
is a reflection of that strength.
Now I look forward to joining you
as a loyal member of our school’s
constituency. I pass along the reins
secure in the knowledge that the
UCLA School of Public Health will
continue to soar to new heights.
Abdelmonem A. Afifi, Ph.D.
Rob Reiner
Actor, director and children’s advocate
Rob Reiner has accepted
an invitation to be the keynote
speaker at the 2000 UCLA School
of Public Health Commencement.
Among Reiner’s many activities on
behalf of children, he served as chair
for the campaign of Proposition 10, the
California Children and Families Initiative.
The ballot measure — proposing a
50-cent-per-pack cigarette tax that
would be used to create, on a countyby-county
basis, a comprehensive, integrated
program of early-childhood development
services — was approved by
voters in 1998 and is currently being implemented
by the California Children
and Families First State Commission.
Reiner was appointed by Gov. Gray
Davis to chair the commission, which is
BELOVED LONG-TIME STAFFER SAM LUCAS IS MOURNED
Sam Lucas, one of the school’s most beloved employees,
died in April after a sudden illness. He
was 46.
Lucas served the school for 20 years, the last
five as building manager. “Every UCLA School of
Public Health student, staff and faculty member
for the past 20 years knew Sam,” says Dorothy
Breininger, executive assistant to the dean.
Lucas was well known for his dedication to
the school. “He would brave high winds in his T-
shirt hanging signs announcing an event, then
change his clothes and be at the event to greet
guests, then stay until everyone left so that he
working closely with the school’s Center
for Healthier Children, Families
and Communities, directed by Dr. Neal
Halfon.
Chancellor Albert Carnesale also
announced that he would bestow the
UCLA Medal upon Reiner at the June
18 ceremony. The UCLA Medal is the
university’s highest honor, intended
to recognize singularly important lifetime
contributions to the university or
to society.
1999-00 SPH GRADUATES
BIOSTATISTICS
M.P.H. 8
M.S. 15
Ph.D. 3
COMMUNITY HEALTH SCIENCES
M.P.H. 71
M.P.H./H.P. 4
Dr.P.H. 2
Ph.D. 11
ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH
SCIENCES
M.P.H. 7
M.S. 9
Ph.D. 5
D.Env. 3
EPIDEMIOLOGY
M.P.H. 36
M.S. 5
Dr.P.H. 1
Ph.D. 2
HEALTH SERVICES
M.P.H. 37
M.P.H./H.P. 20
M.S. 7
Ph.D. 5
SCHOOL TOTAL 251
could clean up,” Breininger says. Lucas touched
so many people that, when a school-wide e-mail
was circulated announcing that he was hospitalized
at UCLA Medical Center and needed blood,
the response was overwhelming. “Within minutes,
everyone from the facilities employees and
electricians to the school’s faculty, students and
staff was lined up at the blood donation center,”
says Breininger. “It was a wonderful testimonial to
how much Sam was loved.”
A scholarship fund has been established in
Sam Lucas’ honor. Donations can be made by
contacting the Dean’s Office.

BRESLOW LECTURE FOCUSES ON ENVIRONMENT
The 2000 Lester Breslow Distinguished Lecture, held March
8, featured a pair of speakers on “Air Pollution in Southern
California: Seeking Answers to Critical Public Health Questions.”
Dr. John Froines (left), professor of environmental
health sciences at the UCLA School of Public Health, was
joined by Dr. John Peters of USC (below right, with Dr. Lester
Breslow) in addressing this important topic.
UCLA
School of
PUBLIC HEALTH
VOLUME 20, NUMBER 2
SPRING 2000
ALBERT CARNESALE, Ph.D.
Chancellor
Newsletter
ABDELMONEM A. AFIFI, Ph.D.
Dean
3
NEWS
SCHOOL RANKS AMONG NATION’S ELITE
The U.S.News & World Report
2001 survey of graduate schools guide is out,
and the UCLA School of Public Health
has received its highest ranking yet
— tied for seventh.
EDITORIAL BOARD
ABDELMONEM A. AFIFI, Ph.D.
Dean
JUDITH M. SIEGEL, Ph.D.
Associate Dean for Academic Programs
MICHAEL S. GOLDSTEIN, Ph.D.
Associate Dean for Student Affairs
V. GALE WINTING
Associate Dean for Administration
LAUREL WRUBLE
Director of Development
JEFFREY LUCK, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Health Services
THOMAS R. BELIN, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Biostatistics
JOYCE A. PAGE, M.S.P.H., J.D.
Alumni Association President
JULIA LIOU
President,
Public Health Students Association
DAN PAGE
Public Information Representative
DAN GORDON
Editor and Writer
MARTHA WIDMANN
Art Director
Photography:
ASUCLA (p. 2: Afifi; p. 3: Breslow Lecture;
p. 7: Berkanovic and Glik; p. 8: Bastani); Yvette
Roman (cover; pp. 4-7: Afifi; p. 4: Winer; p. 9:
Sorvillo; pp.10-11). Graphic on p. 3 reproduced
with permission from U.S.News & World
Report.
School of Public Health Home Page:
www.ph.ucla.edu
E-mail for Application Requests:
app-request@admin.ph.ucla.edu
The UCLA School of Public Health Newsletter is
published by the UCLA School of Public Health
for the alumni, faculty, students, staff and
friends of the school. Copyright 2000 by The Regents
of the University of California. Permission
to reprint any portion must be obtained from the
editor. Contact Editor, UCLA School of Public
Health Newsletter, Box 951772, Los Angeles, CA
90095-1772. Phone: (310) 825-6381.

“HE WOULD HAVE BEEN AN APPROPRIATE SECRETARY OF STATE” — REFLE
4
COVER STORY
Carolyn F. Katzin (M.S.P.H. ’88)
Chair, Dean’s Advisory Board
When I came to UCLA from England in the mid-
1980s, Afifi was dean and, under his excellent
leadership, I developed my loyalty and gratitude to
the school. More recently, I have gotten to know
him better and to appreciate his wise and gentle
manner. I have found his leadership and vision to
be exceptional. I particularly appreciate his ability
to integrate new concepts of information and technology
that affect all aspects of public health.
Mark Finucane
Director, Los Angeles County
Department of Health Services
Dean Afifi has been a strong advocate for public
health and has helped to keep closer ties between
the School of Public Health and the Department
of Health Services, which benefited both organizations.
He has done so with a strong community
interest and good humor.
Joyce Page (M.S.P.H. ’74)
President, UCLA School of Public Health
Alumni Association
It has been my good fortune to have known Afifi
through my involvement with the Alumni Association.
Dean Afifi has been chief cheerleader and
primary instigator for many of the alumni activities.
With his gentle but persistent blend of pragmatism
and charm he has supported the Alumni Association
as it was trying to evolve in a new era of opportunities
and competing demands. We will all miss
him, but he is leaving a wonderful legacy in so many
areas, not least of which is in alumni relations. We
are all richer for his commitment, his advice, his
sense of humor, and his constant support.
In attempting to summarize Dr. Abdelmonem A. Afifi’s
contributions as dean of the UCLA School of Public
Health, it seems fitting to cite numbers — the biostatistics
professor’s stock in trade before he took the
school’s reins in 1985. As in:
15: the number of years Afifi will have served as dean,
most in the school’s history, by the time he steps down
July 1.
7: UCLA’s highest-ever ranking in the latest U.S. News
& World Report survey of the best public health schools
(see p. 3) — this coming just seven years after the
school’s very existence was threatened.
7: the number of years for which the school was accredited
in 1999, making UCLA the first school of public
health to receive the maximum accreditation term since
1994.
But even a biostatistician would have to admit that
numbers alone often fail to tell the whole story, nor can
a few pages in a newsletter sufficiently capture the considerable
legacy of a universally liked and admired
leader who answers to “Afifi.” Our best try relies on the
observations of some of those who have worked closely
with him over the years, and on an exit interview with the
dean himself.

CTIONS ON 15 YEARS OF AFIFI
When I became dean, the school was at the tail end of
an era in which it solidified its academic standing,”
Afifi reflects. Beginning in the 1960s, he explains,
public health schools across the country, which
were once concerned primarily with producing graduates
who would staff the health departments, started to focus
more on advancing knowledge and changing paradigms
through research. By the mid-1980s many public health leaders,
Afifi included, believed the pendulum had swung too far
the other way, and that more attention needed to be paid to
the practice of public health.
“My tenure has been characterized by trying to find the
right balance,” says Afifi, who has appointed more than half
of the current faculty. “We continued to hire very solid academic
people, but we have enough now who are interested in
public health practice so that we have achieved a very good
balance. That has helped us strengthen our connection with
the general community, as well as becoming a resource for the
practice community.” In addition, to a much greater extent
than when Afifi’s tenure began, the practice community now
refers not just to the local, state and federal health agencies,
but also to the private sector; this, too, has had a major impact
on the school’s curriculum.
Had circumstances not intervened, Afifi’s most tangible
accomplishment would have been his reorganization of the
school from a single department with seven divisions to five
departments reflective of the core areas of public health: Biostatistics,
Community Health Sciences, Environmental
Health Sciences, Epidemiology and Health Services. This restructuring,
accompanied by a corresponding staff realignment,
strengthened each individual unit — and, as a result,
the school as a whole.
But in June 1993, the campus proposed a restructuring of
its own — one that included disestablishment of the School of
Public Health. What followed was an unprecedented showing
of support that continues to reverberate to this day, as faculty,
students, staff, alumni and friends throughout the public
health community banded together in a successful
effort to save the school. Afifi’s leadership was instrumental
as the school not only stayed afloat, but bounced back to a
position where, by all measures, it is now stronger than ever.
“We’re much more visible today than we were before
1993, both on and off campus,” Afifi observes. “We have
been recognized by Chancellor [Albert] Carnesale as being a
leader in two of the university’s priority areas: connection
with the community and joint programs with other UCLA
schools and departments. And nationally, wherever I go, I
have found that people are much more aware of what we’re
doing than they were in the past.”
Michael Eicher
Vice Chancellor, External Affairs
It has been a real pleasure and, personally, a very
rewarding experience to work with Afifi over the
years. He is one of those rare individuals who
seems to be constantly filled with zest and enthusiasm
for the world around him. His warmth and
personal generosity make everyone feel good.
Few, if any, have been more supportive or engaged
in the efforts to involve alumni and friends in the
activities and important work of UCLA. I am proud
to have had the opportunity to work so closely with
him, and prouder still to call him a friend.
Patricia A. Ganz
Professor of Health Services and
Director, Division of Cancer Prevention
and Control Research
Afifi has shown tremendous skill and leadership in
bringing the school out of the challenging years
after the Professional Schools Restructuring Initiative.
His support of new programs and centers has
capitalized on faculty expertise along with strategic
university and community partnerships. He will be
missed by all of us!
Ralph R. Frerichs
Professor and Chair, Epidemiology
While most students know of Dean Afifi’s academic
life — his sage words of advice as a dean and
his excellent sessions as a teacher — they likely
do not know of his other passion. Every year from
December to March, I look down from my loftier
perch and see the familiar shine of the dean’s
dome, as he enjoys another season of UCLA basketball.
He and his wife are great fans, appreciating
the beauty of contests that are probabilistic in outcome,
well described with statistics, and certainly
filled with excitement.
Susan C. Scrimshaw
Dean, University of Illinois at Chicago
School of Public Health
Dean Afifi is a remarkable man who has done a remarkable
job for the UCLA School of Public Health.
During his tenure he established a sound budget,
led the school through departmentalization and the
defeat of the attempt to close it, created a stronger
research presence, and recruited more than half of
the current faculty. As his associate dean for six
years, I received valuable mentoring. To this day, I
often ask: “What would Afifi do?” In my close work
with him as an administrator, I most admired his
judgment, his vision and his fairness.

V. Gale Winting
Associate Dean for Administration
During the past eight years, I have had the opportunity
to learn a great deal from Afifi. First and foremost,
I have learned that no matter how bad problems
may appear, if you work hard and apply
yourself, things tend to work themselves out.
Faced with many fiscal and organizational challenges
in the past few years, Afifi worked endless
hours with faculty, students and staff to help address
and solve the school’s problems. I am thankful
to have had the opportunity to work with and
learn from him during his tenure as dean.
6
COVER STORY
William G. Cumberland
Professor and Chair, Biostatistics
It is clear that Afifi has had a profound effect on the
School of Public Health. Its very existence and its
present organization are a product of Afifi’s deanship.
But this would be of little relevance to me if I
hadn’t come to UCLA, and that is a direct result of
my first encounter with Afifi 25 years ago, when I
was being interviewed for the position of assistant
professor of biostatistics. After meeting him (he
was head of biostatistics at that time), I knew that
UCLA was where I wanted to be. I have never
stopped learning from Afifi; from the first grant
we submitted, to my current responsibilities as
department chair, he has always served as a model
for me. The profound effect that matters most to
me is the one Afifi has had on my life; I cannot
imagine what it would have been like without his
encouragement, guidance and friendship.
Arthur M. Winer
Professor, Environmental Health Sciences and
Environmental Science and Engineering Program
What I have valued most in my relationship with
Dean Afifi is his integrity. During the entire nine
years I served as director and chair of the school’s
ESE program, Afifi never once failed to honor a
commitment or make good on a promise of resources.
His vision and support were critical to our
rebuilding the program to its present international
stature. That Afifi is also a warm and caring man
was an added dimension of our interactions that I
soon came to appreciate. Both his leadership and
his friendship have enriched my life at UCLA over
the past decade, and I wish him every success and
satisfaction as he enters the next phase of his remarkable
career.
ABDELMONEM A. AFIFI
ENDOWED STUDENT
FELLOWSHIP FUND
The Dean’s Advisory Board of the
UCLA School of Public Health has
announced the establishment of the
Abdelmonem A. Afifi Endowed
Student Fellowship Fund, toward
which it has raised nearly $100,000.
Income from this fund will provide
fellowships to UCLA School of Public
Health students in perpetuity.
The Dean’s Advisory Board
presented this gift to Dean Afifi at
the annual Dean’s Appreciation Dinner
in April. Those wishing to honor
Dean Afifi by contributing to this
fund may contact the school’s Development
Office at (310) 825-6464.

So much has happened to the public health landscape
since 1985. “Back then, we as a field were still trying to
be recognized as an important group in the health care
arena,” Afifi says. “Today, everyone is mouthing the
words ‘population-based paradigm.’ ” The major health issues
of the past 15 years have only served to underscore the
value of the public health approach. AIDS...cancer...health
care financing...environmental toxins...the role of behavior...all
issues in which public health plays a critical role.
“We’ve entered the third wave of public health,” Afifi
says. “The first was recognizing and controlling infectious
diseases. The second, beginning in the middle of the 20th century,
was more concerned with chronic diseases. Today we
are seeing a greater focus on the role of behavior in health.”
Looking ahead, Afifi predicts that fundamental changes in
the area of health care financing will finally come to fruition
within the next few years. “A new president will be coming in,
and businesses are going to want to find a major solution,” he
says. “I can’t predict what the change will be, but I do think
there is an urge to get something done.” New issues are also
emerging. With the Human Genome Project nearing completion,
Afifi says, “public health will have to grapple with how
to handle all of the ethical and health issues raised by this new
information we will have about the role of individual genes.”
Internationally, poorer countries already experiencing the
“transitional double burden of disease” — growing rates of
chronic illnesses on top of continuing problems with infectious
diseases — are facing a third burden. “They’re asking
themselves, ‘How can we worry about improving the environment
when our main concern is to feed the population?’ ”
Afifi says.
As for his own future, Afifi, who will remain on the
school’s faculty, will first take a sabbatical. “During
that year I will spend a lot of time catching up with the
literature, mainly in biostatistics but also in broader
areas of public health,” he says. Afifi also plans to devote
more time to personal pursuits, including photography and
his studies of music theory and composition structure.
Reflecting on the past 15 years, Afifi says certain moments
always brought him great satisfaction: making a congratulatory
call to an assistant professor who had just received
tenure; being approached at a national meeting by a colleague
who expressed admiration for the school; seeing the
excited faces of incoming students at orientation; and seeing
those same students at graduation ceremonies, knowing that
the school had met their expectations.
“I’ve devoted a big chunk of my life to serving this school,”
Afifi says. “In 1985 I could have happily continued to teach
and do research, but I felt in my bones that I needed to do
something different. When I look back on the past 15 years, I
know that it was all worth it.”
The 11-member Public Health Dean Search Committee has narrowed
the field of nominees and begun the process of interviewing candidates
to replace Dr. Abdelmonem A. Afifi as dean of the UCLA School of
Public Health. At press time, it appeared that an interim dean would be
appointed to serve until a permanent dean is in place. More details will
appear in the next issue of this newsletter.
Gilbert Cates
Producing Director, Geffen Playhouse
Former Dean, UCLA School of Theater,
Film and Television
Dean Afifi is the exemplar of a perfect dean. Afifi,
as he prefers being called, is thoughtful, courteous
and intelligent. He would have been an appropriate
secretary of state. He is a man of great humor and
infinite wisdom. I learned a great deal from Afifi
during my time at UCLA and I will miss him.
Deborah Glik and Emil Berkanovic
Director and Co-Director,
Technical Assistance Group
Few know this, but Afifi directs a longitudinal research
program of the health benefits of wine that
makes use of the latest techniques of participant
observation. For many years Afifi has presided over
the UCLA School of Public Health steak night at the
annual APHA meetings. Upon leading a band of beef
eaters into a suitably seedy place, Afifi asks the
staff’s opinion on which of their steaks has the most
fat and then recommends everyone order it. This
ritual marks the beginning of the oenological study
he intends to conduct that evening.
While it is probably too early to assess the benefits
for Afifi’s physical health that have accrued from
his years of oenological research, the psychological
benefits are often evident. As each evening’s study
progresses, one sees many indicators that his mental
health has improved. These include an increasingly
voracious appetite, progressively more effusive
conversation, and disclosure of interesting
insights into human nature gleaned from close observation
of his colleagues, whom he is delighted to
name. Other indicators include progressive relaxation
of his grip on specific details and some confusion
when the bill is due. We have experienced similar
improvements in our own psychological well
being as a result of the interventions Afifi has chosen
to test on those evenings.
Lester Breslow
Professor Emeritus, Health Services
UCLA School of Public Health Dean, 1972-80
Afifi, I want to tell you how much I have admired
your performance these past 15 years. Among
many important accomplishments, two stand out
in my mind. One has been getting the school on
track with five departments and building the school
with, and from, strength in all five. The second, of
course, was steering the school through the critical
early ’90s period. On that matter, your wisdom and
patience were crucial. Now on to some other important
issues, such as how to deal with missing
data and other aspects of “retirement.”

8
FACULTY
Q & A:
DR. FRANK
SORVILLO
ON THE FUTURE
FOR
INFECTIOUS
DISEASES
Particularly in developed countries,
attention has shifted somewhat from
infectious diseases to other public
health concerns. But the problem is
still considerable, isn’t it?
Definitely. Infections remain the leading
cause of death worldwide. There are
roughly 17 million infectious diseaserelated
deaths each year, the majority
in children and the majority entirely
preventable. Over the past 20 years or
so, probably more than 50 new infectious
agents have been identified. We’re
also seeing a resurgence of infectious
diseases that had appeared to be under
control. As the world’s population increases
and living space shrinks, people
increasingly end up in areas inhabited
by animals, and such exposure puts us
at risk for new zoonotic infections.
Where is progress being made, and
where is more progress needed?
Immunizations continue to be very important,
and one of the problems continues
to be under-utilization of effective
vaccines. We need to develop vaccines
for some of the important infections for
which we don’t have vaccines. Clearly
there have been developments in terms
of antiviral therapies that we didn’t
have a few years ago. There are new and
FACULTY UPDATES
DEAN ABDELMONEM A. AFIFI was the keynote
speaker at a national German conference sponsored
by the School of Public Health in Bielefeld,
Germany in March. The conference was devoted
to empowering the patient. Afifi spoke on “Public
Health as Community Empowerment.”
DR. CAROL ANESHENSEL co-edited the Handbook
on the Sociology of Mental Health with Jo C.
Phelan (New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers,
1999). She received a grant from the National
Institute of Mental Health to examine
the impact of neighborhood on the mental health of
adolescents using a national, longitudinal data set.
▲ DR. ROSHAN BASTANI (above, seated, second
from right) received funding from the National
Cancer Institute for “Asian American Network
for Cancer Awareness, Research and
Training.” The five-year project is designed to increase
the capacity for conducting cancer prevention
and control research among Asian populations
in the Los Angeles area. Bastani will
collaborate with approximately eight community-based
organizations as well as UCLA’s Asian
American Studies Center.
DR. LINDA BOURQUE and Center for Public
Health and Disaster Relief colleagues Moira
Inkelas, Laurie Loux, Mel Widawski and Loc
Nguyen co-authored “Dimensionality and reliability
of the civilian Mississippi scale for PTSD
in a post-earthquake community” for the Journal
of Traumatic Stress. Bourque also coauthored
“Prevalence of assault and perception
of risk of assault in urban public service employment
settings” for the International Journal of
Occupational Health 2000 with Southern California
Injury Prevention Research Center colleagues
Deborah Riopelle, Maggie Robbins,
Kim Shoaf and Jess Kraus.
DR. E. RICHARD BROWN is
the principal investigator on
three grants for the California
Health Interview Survey: from
the State of California, the National
Cancer Institute, and the
California Commission on
Children and Families.
DRS. WILLIAM COMANOR
and STUART SCHWEITZER
are offering a new option for
Ph.D. students in the Department
of Health Services. The
Research Program in Pharmaceutical
Economics will coordinate
a new cognate in Pharmaceutical
Economics and
Policy, enabling students to
emphasize these issues as
part of their doctoral studies.
Both Comanor and Schweitzer have recently presented
in the United States and abroad on topics
related to pharmaceutical economics —
Schweitzer at the National Governors’ Assn.
meeting in San Diego and at a major managed
care conference in Washington, D.C.; and Comanor
at the International Health Economics
Assn. meetings in Rotterdam, at Aventis Pharmaceuticals
in Bridgewater, N.J., at a conference
in Paris, and at a conference in Beijing organized
by the Chinese Ministry of Health.
DR. WILLIAM CUMBERLAND has been elected
fellow of the American Statistical Association, the
highest honor that can be paid to an American
statistician.
DR. WILLIAM CUNNINGHAM was the first or
second author on three recent publications
resulting from the ongoing HIV Cost and Services
Utilization Study: one on competing subsistence
needs that act as barriers to receipt of HIV care;
a second on the role of case-management in
overcoming the need for supportive services
such as health insurance benefits, employment,
substance abuse and emotional counseling; and a
third on the prevalence of domestic violence
among HIV-positive persons in the United States.
SUSAN B. EDELSTEIN won the 2000 Daniel E.
Koshland Award in Social Welfare and was named
Outstanding Practitioner of the Year by the National
Association of Social Workers, California
Chapter.
DR. JONATHAN FIELDING received the Distinguished
Service Award from the American
College of Preventive Medicine. He chaired the
Project Advisory Committee for the Partnership
for Prevention’s “Priority Recommendation to the
Congressional Prevention Coalition” and
announced the release of the report, which outlined
nine national policies that, if enacted by
Congress, would prevent a minimum of 160,000
premature deaths each year.
DRS. ERIC HURWITZ and HAL MORGENSTERN
analyzed data from the Third National Health and
Nutrition Examination Survey and concluded that
“DTP or tetanus vaccination appears to increase
the risk of allergies and related respiratory symptoms
in children and adolescents.” In the article,
published in the February 2000 issue of the Journal
of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics,
they noted that the public health benefits of
these vaccines are well documented, but little is
known about potential long-term risks.
DR. SNEHENDU KAR authored a background
paper titled “Women’s Health Development: Im-

Dr. Frank Sorvillo
effective therapies for influenza, combination
therapy for HIV. But as we see
effective antiviral therapy being developed
we also see problems of antibiotic
resistance for bacteria that we thought
we had controlled previously. So we
make progress in one area and we backtrack
in others.
What impact has biotechnology had?
Does it have the power to make a significant
dent in this problem?
We’ve made remarkable strides in term
of our capacity to diagnose various infectious
agents, though biotechnology still
hasn’t been applied to some of the
“lesser” agents. Molecular fingerprinting
can be very helpful in nailing down
risk factors and environmental sources
of infectious agents. But remember, 40
years ago we thought, given our great
technology, we could control and in fact
eliminate infectious diseases, and that
has not been the case. So our hopes need
to be tempered by a prudent understanding
of the power of infectious agents.
Sorvillo, M.P.H. ’78, Ph.D. ’94, formerly
with the L.A. County DHS’ HIV
Epidemiology Unit, is associate professor
of epidemiology at the school.
9
FACULTY
peratives for Health and Welfare Systems” and
presented an invited keynote address titled “Empowerment
of Women for Health Promotion: A
Multi-Dimensional Model,” both for the International
Conference on Better Health and Welfare
Systems: Women’s Perspectives, sponsored by
the World Health Organization Health Development
Center in Kobe, Japan last April. He presented
and chaired a plenary session at the Second
International Conference on Quality of Life in
Cities in the 21st Century, held in Singapore.
DR. GERALD KOMINSKI headed a joint effort
between the UCLA School of Public Health and
the L.A. County Department of Health Services
to produce a recently released report, “Burden
of Disease in Los Angeles County: A Study of the
Patterns of Mortality and Morbidity in the
County Population.”
DR. JESS KRAUS has received funding from the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the
school’s Southern California Injury Prevention Research
Center, of which Kraus is the founding director,
to serve a third five-year period as one of 10
regional Centers for Excellence in Injury Research.
DR. MARK LITWIN published a widely publicized
paper in the Journal of Urology regarding
quality of life after radioactive seed therapy for
prostate cancer.
DR. MICHAEL LU received the Women’s Reproductive
Health Career Development Fellowship
from the National Institutes of Health, which is
sponsoring Lu’s research in the prevention of preterm
birth. He wrote “Eliminating public funding of
prenatal care for undocumented immigrants in
California: A cost-benefit analysis” for the American
Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
DR. CORINNE PEEK-ASA has received a fourth
year of funding from the National Institute for
Occupational Safety and Health to continue one of
the largest workplace violence prevention
programs for small retail establishments ever
undertaken. She was an invited participant at
the National Workplace Violence Intervention
Workshop in Washington, D.C. Among her recent
publications are a chapter on injury control in the
Oxford Textbook of Public Health and a report on
GIS mapping of injuries in relation to earthquake
intensity measures in Annals of Epidemiology.
RUTH ROEMER participated in the World Health
Organization Consultation to Develop Tool Kits for
Tobacco Control Legislation and Economic Interventions
in Geneva, Switzerland in March.
DRS. STEVEN ROTTMAN and KIM SHOAF coauthored
an entry entitled “Natural Disasters” in
the upcoming Encyclopedia of Public Health,
edited by Dr. Lester Breslow; and “Public health
impact of disasters” for the Australian Journal
of Emergency Management. They are also guest
editing a special issue of Prehospital and Disaster
Medicine (Fall 2000), which will feature
papers from the Center for Public Health and
Disaster Relief’s 1999 conference on public
health and disasters.
DR. JUDITH SIEGEL wrote “Victimization after a
natural disaster: Social disorganization or community
cohesion?” for the International Journal
of Mass Emergencies and Disasters.
DR. SUSAN SORENSON published a policy
forum, “Regulating firearms as a consumer product,”
in the November 1999 issue of Science.
Letters to the editor and Sorenson’s response were
published in the February 2000 issue of the journal.
DR. MEL SUFFET was the keynote speaker, and
one of six panelists answering questions, at a
four-hour American Water Works Assn. teleconference
from the AT&T studios in Denver, titled
“Taste and Odor in Drinking Water: Operational
Tools and Techniques for Identification and Control.”
The teleconference was beamed to more
than 6,000 participants at more than 250 sites in
all 50 states and all of the Canadian provinces.
▲
DR. PAUL TORRENS was appointed to the Board of
Directors of Blue Shield of California, one of only
two not-for-profit health insurance plans in the
state, covering 2.3 million people. In March, he was
appointed to the California Attorney General’s Task
Force on Hospital Conversions. The task force will
make recommendations to the attorney general
about regulations governing the purchase, sale, or
merger of not-for-profit hospitals in California.
DR. ROBERT O. VALDEZ recently released
findings from two major studies on the Medicaid
program. Findings from a Kaiser Family
Foundation-sponsored national survey of parents
of children who are eligible for Medicaid but not
enrolled will inform efforts to insure the nation’s
uninsured children. Future directions for improving
the Medi-Cal program can be found in a Medi-
Cal Policy Institute-sponsored statewide survey
of Medi-Cal beneficiaries’ views and experiences
with the program.
DR. STEVEN WALLACE received a grant from the
California Program on Access to Care to examine
the access to health services by racial/ethnic minority
elderly persons in HMOs. He will spend the
next academic year in Chile studying access to
care by the elderly at the U.N.’s Economic Commission
for Latin America and the Caribbean; and
at Catholic University, funded by a Fulbright
Scholarship and a sabbatical.
DR. ARTHUR WINER has been appointed to a National
Academy of Sciences/National Research
Council committee for a two-year study to evaluate
the Federal Congestion Mitigation and Air
Quality Program.

10
STUDENTS/
FRIENDS
PROMOTING PUBLIC HEALTH — To commemorate Public Health Week,
the UCLA Public Health Students Association helped coordinate a series
of activities on the UCLA campus, including an evening of yoga (above).
The week included “Eat Smart Day” featuring recipes and advice on
healthy eating; “Motivation and Stress Management Day,” including a
presentation by Dr. Alan Nagamoto of Student Psychological Services;
and fitness-focused themes such as “Elevator Boycott Day,” “Pick
Up Some Weights,” and “Let’s Get Physical” — a run-walk-bikerollerblade-athon.
AWARD WINNER
Que Dang, a second-year M.P.H. student in Community Health Sciences, received a
Gloria Steinem Award (one of four given nationally) in New York on May 22 for her
achievement in developing a program that addresses the health needs of low-income
Southeast Asian women and girls throughout California.
REVAMPED STUDENT SERVICES OFFICE — Combining
the functions of student services, career advising, and diversity
outreach, the newly remodeled Student Services
Office opened with the beginning of Spring Quarter. Students
are now served in a reception and library area
within the Student Services suite, rather than through a
window in the busy first-floor corridor.
CAMPAIGN
UCLA UPDATE
L
aunched in May 1997 as the most ambitious
private fund-raising effort in
the history of public higher education,
Campaign UCLA has reached its
initial goal of $1.2 billion two years ahead of
schedule. Chancellor Albert Carnesale recently
celebrated this achievement with
UCLA donors and fund-raising volunteers,
and announced an increased Campaign
UCLA goal of $1.6 billion, to be raised by
June 30, 2002. The School of Public
Health’s goal within Campaign UCLA will
remain at $15 million. As of April 30, 2000,
the school was 81 percent toward its goal.

ALUMNA LOOKS TO INSTILL HEALTHY HABITS IN MINORITY CHILDREN
As a pediatrician, Andriette Ward
(M.D., M.P.H. ’99) has seen for
herself the problem of obesity in
children, particularly minorities.
An estimated 25 percent of
school-age boys and girls in the United
States are overweight. “It’s very difficult
to develop healthier eating habits
and levels of physical activity as an
adult when you have a lifetime’s worth
of bad habits to change,” she says.
Ward also was convinced that even pediatricians’
best efforts at persuasion
were falling on deaf ears. “It’s silly to
think that any kind of behavioral
11
modification is going to be successful if
ALUMNI
you’re seeing a patient no more than
once a month for a 10-minute visit,”
she contends.
Dr. Andriette Ward (far left) hopes to convince children of the rewards of
The desire to affect larger numbers
healthy eating and physical activity before they develop bad habits.
of children than would be possible in
clinical practice motivated Ward to
pursue a research fellowship through
the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Clinical Scholars Program at UCLA
and, concurrently, an M.P.H. at the
UCLA School of Public Health. Now,
through the Division of Cancer Prevention
and Control Research and the
UCLA School of Public Health, Ward
is a co-investigator on a project that
tests a more intensive behavioral intervention.
“Community Steps to Minority
Youth Fitness” will examine the impact
of modifying students’ home and
school environments. At two middle
schools with predominantly African
American and Mexican-American student
bodies, the researchers are working
with the school cafeterias, the
physical education faculty and parents
to convince the students of the rewards
of healthy eating and physical activity.
Says Ward: “We think that because
we’re introducing these kids to activities
and behaviors that they can sustain
for the rest of their lives, they will
have a better chance of continuing with
these healthy habits even after the intervention
is over.”
APHA CAUCUS CHAIR CYNTHIA MOJICA AIMS
TO ADVANCE LATINO HEALTH INTERESTS
For as long as she can remember,
Cynthia Mojica (M.P.H. ’95) has
been interested in serving the
Latino community. In the early
’90s, when she attended the school’s
Public Health Leadership Conference
as an undergraduate, Mojica decided
that public health would provide the
best avenue for fulfilling her career
objectives. And by the end of the
decade, Mojica was already positioned
to make a difference: armed
with an M.P.H. from UCLA and a national
leadership role as chair of the
American Public Health Association’s
Latino Caucus.
Mojica first attended the annual
meeting of the APHA as a student in
1994, and became increasingly active
with the caucus over the next several
years. She served as secretary of the
executive board last year, and was
Cynthia Mojica
elected to a two-year term as chair last
November. “Our purpose is to advocate,
both within and outside of
APHA, for the health interests of the
Latino community,” she explains.
Mojica has remained at UCLA since
receiving her M.P.H., working as a
project director on two cancer-control
studies headed by Dr. Roshan Bastani,
associate professor of health services.
She will enroll in the Ph.D. program in
the school’s Department of Health Services
this fall, and plans to pursue an
academic career that will enable her to
make a contribution in identifying and
eliminating health disparities, particularly
affecting Latinos. While she prepares
for an important new phase in
her education, she continues to gain invaluable
education in the field. “My involvement
with the caucus is exposing
me to a lot of the issues affecting Latino
communities across the country, and
I’m making great contacts,” Mojica
says. “It’s a tremendous experience.”

Special Thanks
Special thanks to the following School of Public Health
alumni who took time this academic year to offer career advice
to current and prospective students:
SUSAN ACKERMAN
ROSALIND ESSNER
ROBIN FOMALONT
MICHAEL GALPER
CHRISTIAN GIANGRECO
MARK GOLD
POPPY INSIXIENGMAY
JONATHAN KEI
CYNTHIA LANDES
CHRIS MARDESICH
ROSA PECHERSKY
KEN RESSER
DAN STONE
MARC STRASSBURG
BILLIE WEISS
SAVE THE DATE!
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2000
APHA CONFERENCE RECEPTION-BOSTON
The Institute of Contemporary Art
955 Boylston Street
6:00 - 7:30 p.m.
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