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| Alumni Affairs 2003 Recipient - Ronald O. Valdiserri, MD (Class of 1977)  If the internet can be any indication of success, just type in the name Ronald O. Valdiserri. Depending on the search engine, you will get nearly 1,000 results bearing his name--citing such accomplishments as recognition from President Bill Clinton for Meritorious Executive service in the Department of Health and Human Service, invited speaker at numerous national and international conferences, interviews, publication reviews and quotes. We are pleased to have Dr. Valdiserri as our Distinguished Alumnus for 2003 and guest speaker at the Pat A. Tuckwiller Memorial Seminar (Alumni CME program).
Dr. Valdiserri is deputy director of the National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention (NCHSTP) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, Georgia, where he has held several public health leadership positions, including director of the Division of Public Health Laboratory Systems and deputy director for HIV in the former National Center for Prevention Services. Dr. Valdiserri played a key role in guiding the national implementation of HIV Prevention Community Planning and the creation of CDC's 2001 Strategic Plan which outlines strategies to reduce new infections in the United States by 50% in five years. Dr. Valdiserri is an accomplished author, lecturer and researcher with an abiding interest in community health. Prior to joining the CDC in 1989, Dr. Valdiserri was Director of the Falk Clinic Laboratories at the University of Pittsburgh, holding academic appointments in the School of Medicine and the Graduate School of Public Health. He served as a co-investigator on the first federally funded "natural history" study of AIDS and later, as an investigator on the National Institutes of Health AIDS Clinical Trials Group. Among his numerous scholarly articles on the scientific and policy aspects of HIV/AIDS prevention, he has authored three books: Preventing AIDS: The Design of Effective Programs, 1989, Gardening in Clay: Reflections on AIDS, 1994, and Dawning Answers: How the HIV/AIDS Epidemic has Helped to Strengthen Public Health, 2003. |
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