Press Release

Contact: Debra Humphreys
Vice President for Communications and Public Affairs
202-387-3760
Humphreys@aacu.org

AAC&U Appoints Public Health Expert Marian Osterweis as New Senior Fellow

Washington, DC -- June 3, 2008 -- The Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) announced today the appointment of Marian Osterweis as Senior Fellow. Osterweis, the Executive Vice President of the Association of Academic Health Centers (AHC) from 1989 to 2006, will be working with AAC&U’s Office of Diversity, Equity, and Global Initiatives on its Educated Citizen and Public Health Initiative. 

The Educated Citizen and Public Health Initiative aims to fulfill the Institute of Medicine’s recommendation that “all undergraduates should have access to education in public health.”  Working with AAC&U member campuses, the initiative provides resources to assist faculty in developing high quality public health curricula that use public health frameworks to deliver essential liberal education learning to undergraduates.

“Marian has been instrumental in bringing AAC&U into partnership with other interested groups around undergraduate public health education,” notes Kevin Hovland, director of AAC&U’s Educated Citizen and Public Health Initiative.  “We are delighted to be able to tap her experience and strategic thinking as a Senior Fellow as we expand our work in this important and fast-developing arena.”

Prior to her role at AHC, Osterweis spent six years at the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences, initially as a study director in the Division of Mental Health and Behavioral Medicine and subsequently as the Associate Executive Officer for Program and Acting Director of the Division of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention.  She served as Staff Sociologist for the President’s Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research from 1981-1983 and was on the faculty of the Department of Community and Family Medicine at Georgetown University from 1971-1981. 

Osterweis has published widely in the health services and health sciences policy arenas with a special focus on workforce policy and health professions education.  She has served on numerous boards and advisory committees.  She was president of the Federation of Associations of Schools of the Health Professions (a Washington-based organization comprised of 14 associations whose members train most of our nation’s health professionals), and chair of the board of trustees of the A.T. Still University of Health Sciences (formerly Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine), and currently serves on the Board of Visitors of the University of Maryland, Baltimore’s school of nursing. A graduate of Vassar College, Osterweis received her doctorate in social relations and public health from The Johns Hopkins University.

AAC&U is the leading national association concerned with the quality, vitality, and public standing of undergraduate liberal education. Its members are committed to extending the advantages of a liberal education to all students, regardless of academic specialization or intended career. Founded in 1915, AAC&U now comprises more than 1,150 accredited public and private colleges and universities of every type and size.

AAC&U functions as a catalyst and facilitator, forging links among presidents, administrators, and faculty members who are engaged in institutional and curricular planning. Its mission is to reinforce the collective commitment to liberal education at both the national and local levels and to help individual institutions keep the quality of student learning at the core of their work as they evolve to meet new economic and social challenges.

Information about AAC&U membership, programs, and publications can be found on the AAC&U Web site.