Introduction
of the Godfrey M. Hochbaum Distinguished Lecturer,
Professor Patricia King, by Carol W. Runyan,
September 10, 2002
I am very pleased to see
you all here and to have the opportunity to introduce the 2002 Godfrey
M. Hochbaum Distinguished Lecturer, Professor Patricia King.
Before I introduce Professor
King, however, I would like to tell you about the lectureship and about
Dr. Hochbaum in whose honor this lecture is given each year within
the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education by an individual
selected because of his or her cutting-edge contributions to public health.
Dr. Hochbaum,
was an important and enduring figure in the field of health behavior and
health education. Dr. Hochbaum’s
distinguished career in public health began in 1952 at which time he was
hired as one of the first social scientists in the US Public Health Service.
– he was a social psychologist. During
his 20 years at the Public Health Service he was Director of the Office
of Social and Behavioral Sciences and later Director of the Office of
International Health Research during which time he coordinated research
on health care utilization in seven countries.
What Godfrey was most
well known for, however, was his creation of the Health Belief Model –
a behavioral science theoretical framework for understanding why individuals
engage (or don’t engage) in health promoting behaviors. He developed the
model in the late 1950’s in trying to solve the problem of getting people
to avail themselves of tuberculosis screening. The model, though modified
slightly over the years, remains an important tool for organizing health
education programs throughout the world and as a basis for much health
behavior research.
In 1972, Dr. Hochbaum came to UNC to our expanding Department of Health
Education to provide scholarly leadership.
During his 16 years as a full time faculty member and in his last
decade as an Emeritus Professor, he remained active in the field and the
department – participating in occasional classes.
He is widely recognized as one of the most significant leaders
in the history of modern health education research and practice. His scholarly
work spanned numerous health issues, and was always at the interface between
theory and its practical applications.
He had a particular knack in his research, writing and teaching,
for challenging assumptions and looking at problems in new and imaginative
ways.
Though he has been honored
in numerous ways over the years, including with several of the highest
awards in the field of health education, and a distinguished writing award
for his translation of scientific information to lay audiences, we are
pleased at UNC to be able to honor him every year with this lecture.
The lectureship pays tribute
to Dr. Hochbaum’s
many contributions to the field as an innovator and leader by inviting
a speaker at the cutting edge of his or her field, who shares Dr. Hochbaum’s ability to stretch our thinking about important
public health and behavioral science issues.
Now to today’s speaker… I’m very pleased
to introduce our distinguished speaker -- Professor Patricia King, JD.
holds her law degree from Harvard and is Carmack
Waterhouse Professor of Law, Medicine, Ethics, and Public Policy at Georgetown
University. She also is Adjunct Professor in the Department of Health
Policy and Management Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
Professor
King has a rich history of work in law and public policy. Prior to joining
the faculty at Georgetown, she was Deputy Director of the Office of Civil
Rights and Special Assistant to the Chairman of the EEOC. She also served as a Deputy Assistant Attorney
General in the Civil Division of the Department of Justice.
She is also a member of the American
Law Institute and the Institute of Medicine, a Fellow of the Hastings
Center, and a Senior Research Scholar at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics. Her work in the field of bioethics has included
service on the HEW-Advisory Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee, the President’s
Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical
and Behavioral Research, the National Commission for the Protection of
Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research, and the Ethics,
Legal, and Social Issues Working Group of the Human Genome Project.
Professor King is co-author of Cases
and Materials on Law, Science, and Medicine.
She is a board member of the Hospice Foundation, the National Partnership
of Women and Families, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, and serves
as Chair of the Board of Trustees of Wheaton College.
She also teaches a Law School course on Family Law and
offers a seminar in Law, Medicine, and Ethics.
And she grades ALL their papers herself! Her website lists the
following topics as areas of expertise: biomedical ethics, genetics and
ethics, adoption law, surrogate motherhood, fertility issues, organ transplantation,
abortion and genetic engineering – all of which are difficult, timely,
and controversial topics.
I think it is very fitting that she be
this year’s Godfrey M. Hochbaum Lecturer, at
a time this University is launching new initiatives in genomics and begins
to grapple with many ethical and policy issues at the interface of genetics
and public health. Her work exemplifies
the cutting edge inquiry that Dr. Hochbaum’s
did as well. Please join me in welcoming her.
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