UCLA PUBLICHEALTH SPRING 2000 - UCLA School of Public Health

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.”