Dr. Karen Hein is a pediatrician and health policy expert who founded the first comprehensive HIV/AIDS program (research, clinical care and advocacy) for adolescents in the world. [1]
Dr. Karen Hein is a pediatrician and health policy expert who founded the first comprehensive HIV/AIDS program (research, clinical care and advocacy) for adolescents in the world. [1]
Karen Hein was born in 1944 in New York City. Her father was a physician. [1] Her mother also showed great interest in medicine, auditing classes at Karen's father's medical school and volunteering in his genetics lab, while at the same time caring for the couple's four children. Karen later said that she became a physician "because my mother couldn't". [2]
Dr. Hein earned her bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1966. She first entered medical school at Dartmouth Medical School in 1966 and attended there from 1966 to 1968. She then transferred to Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons where she graduated with an M.D. in 1970. [1]
After graduating from medical school, Dr. Hein completed a fellowship in adolescent medicine at Montefiore Hospital. [3] Her first job out of fellowship was at the Spofford Juvenile Center, treating adolescent patients in trouble with the law. [3] Subsequently, Dr Hein went on to a series of senior leadership positions in The Federal Government (Professional Staff of The US Senate Finance Committee, philanthropy (as President, William T Grant Foundation, ‘think tank’ (as Executive Officer, The Institute of Medicine, now renamed The National Academy of Medicine) as well as serving on the Advisory Boards of many not-for-profit organizations including The RAND Corp’s Health Advisory Board, The IRC, ChildFund International and CUSON Advisory Boards.
Dr. Hein has published nearly 150 books, articles, and abstracts over the course of her career. Some of her notable publications include: [1]
In her own words, she became a physician to "be an agent of change in society by helping to improve the system related to health of the people in this country and around the world." [1] Her activism began as a student working with the Student Health Organization, where she helped care for abandoned babies at Lincoln Hospital in the South Bronx. [3]
Dr. Hein's background in adolescent medicine gave her a unique perspective on the growing AIDS epidemic in the 1980s. With the help of her husband, Dr. Ralph Dell, a pediatrician who created a mathematical model to predict that HIV would become present in the adolescent population, Dr. Hein authored a paper, "AIDS in Adolescents: A Rationale for Concern", for which she was awarded a $1 million grant from the Centers for Disease Control. [3]
With this grant she established the first HIV/AIDS program specifically for adolescents in the world, the Adolescent Risk Reduction Program at Montefiore Hospital. She served there as the program's founding director. [3]
In May 2011, the Vermont legislature passed Act 48, a law that intended "to create a health care system in which all residents receive coverage from a single source, with all coverage offered equitably and health care costs contained by systematic change in the way providers of health care are compensated for their services.” [3] As a result, Dr. Karen Hein was appointed as one of five members of the Green Mountain Care Board, which oversees the health care system of the state of Vermont. In her role on the GMCB, she has also emphasized social, economic, and personal well-being for the citizens of Vermont, promoting healthy school lunches, upkeep of bike paths, and meaningful, safe employment among other causes. [3]
In 2003, Dr. Hein and her husband, Dr. Ralph Dell, moved to Whitingham, Vermont, where they have owned a home for several decades. [7] Together they have fulfilled a childhood dream of Karen's to live in Vermont among the trees. [2] There, Karen raises cashmere goats. She weaves and knits with cashmere wool from her flock each morning. [2] www.karenhein.com
Whitingham is a town in Windham County, Vermont, United States. The town was named for Nathan Whiting, a landholder. The population was 1,344 at the 2020 census. Whitingham is the birthplace of Brigham Young, the second president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and founder of Salt Lake City, Utah. Its village center, census-designated place, is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Whitingham Village Historic District.
Montefiore Medical Center is a premier academic medical center and the primary teaching hospital of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York City. Its main campus, the Henry and Lucy Moses Division, is located in the Norwood section of the northern Bronx. It is named for Moses Montefiore and is one of the 50 largest employers in New York. In 2020, Montefiore was ranked No. 6 New York City metropolitan area hospitals by U.S. News & World Report. Adjacent to the main hospital is the Children's Hospital at Montefiore, which serves infants, children, teens, and young adults aged 0–21.
Joia Stapleton Mukherjee is an associate professor with the Division of Global Health Equity at the Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Since 2000, she has served as the Chief Medical Officer of Partners In Health, an international medical non-profit founded by Paul Farmer, Ophelia Dahl, and Jim Kim. She trained in Infectious Disease, Internal Medicine, and Pediatrics at the Massachusetts General Hospital and has an MPH from Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Mukherjee has been involved in health care access and human rights issues since 1989, and she consults for the World Health Organization on the treatment of HIV and MDR-TB in developing countries. Her scholarly work focuses on the human rights aspect of HIV treatment and on the implementation of complex health interventions in resource-poor settings.
Jane Aronson, D.O. is an osteopathic physician, with expertise in pediatric infectious diseases and adoption medicine.
Anita Rachlis, M.D. is a Canadian HIV/AIDS researcher and is the principal author of the HIV treatment guidelines in Canada. She is an associate scientist at the Sunnybrook Research Institute, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Agnes Binagwaho is a Rwandan Politian, pediatrician and co-founder and the former vice chancellor of the University of Global Health Equity (2017-2022). In 1996, she returned to Rwanda where she provided clinical care in the public sector as well as held many positions including the position of Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Health of Rwanda from October 2008 until May 2011 and Minister of Health from May 2011 until July 2016. She has been a professor of global health delivery practice since 2016 and a professor of pediatrics since 2017 at the University of Global Health Equity. She resides in Kigali.
Mary Jane Rotheram-Borus is a licensed clinical psychologist and professor with the University of California, Los Angeles, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences. Rotheram is the professor-in-residence in the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. She is the Director of the Global Center for Children and Families at UCLA and the former director of the Center for HIV Identification, Prevention, and Treatment Services.
Janet L. Mitchell was an American physician known for her advances in perinatal HIV/AIDS treatment. During the early days of the AIDS epidemic in the U.S. Mitchell developed protocols for health treatment of pregnant women who were HIV positive or at risk for developing AIDS. She advocated against mandatory testing and testifying before Congress, she advocated in favor of an inclusive approach to health care and social services. One of her innovations derived from a study that saw a 70% decrease in HIV transmission to babies when AZT was administered to their mothers during the pregnancy.
Lucille C. Norville Perez is an American physician known for her work in substance abuse and HIV/AIDS prevention.
Dr. June E. Osborn has served as an expert advisor on numerous urgent medical and health issues that include infectious diseases and their vaccines, virology, and public health policy as well as publishing research on these subjects. Osborn currently works on public health policy with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, The World Health Organization, The National Institutes of Health, and The Food and Drug Administration.
Sabrina Bakeera Kitaka, commonly known as Sabrina Kitaka, is a Ugandan physician, pediatrician, pediatric infectious diseases specialist and academic, who serves as a senior lecturer in the Department of Pediatrics at Makerere University School of Medicine.
Adaora Alise Adimora is an American doctor and academic. She is the Sarah Graham Kenan Distinguished Professor of Medicine and professor of epidemiology at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. Her research centers on the transmission of HIV, as well as other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), among minority populations. Her work has highlighted the importance of social determinants of HIV transmission and the need for structural interventions to reduce risk. In 2019, she became an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine in recognition of her contributions.
Sten H. Vermund is the Anna M.R. Lauder Professor of Public Health, and former Dean (2017-2022) of the Yale School of Public Health, and also serves as a Professor in Pediatrics at the Yale School of Medicine. He is a pediatrician and infectious disease epidemiologist focused on diseases of low and middle-income countries.
Oni Blackstock is a primary care and HIV physician, researcher, and founder of Health Justice, a racial and health equity consulting practice. She previously served as assistant commissioner for the Bureau of HIV for the New York City Department of Health, where she led the city's response to the HIV epidemic. Her research considers the experiences of women and people of color in healthcare. During the COVID-19 pandemic Blackstock shared advice on how people in New York City could maintain sexual health and slow the spread of COVID-19 as well as guidance for people with HIV and HIV care providers about the intersection of HIV and COVID-19.
Nadia Lauren Dowshen is an American pediatrician and adolescent medicine physician. She specializes in the care of youth living with HIV infection and medical care to transgender and gender-diverse youth. Dowshen researches health inequality, access to care, and promoting resilience in LGBT youth. As an associate professor at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, she is also the medical director and co-founder of the Gender and Sexuality Development Clinic.
Valerie Ellen Stone is an American physician who is a professor of medicine at the Harvard Medical School. She serves as Vice Chair for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital. She specializes in the management of HIV/AIDS, health disparities and improving the quality of medical education.
Karithi Ruth Wanjiru Nduati is a Kenyan Pediatrician and Epidemiologist who also teaches at the University of Nairobi College of Health Sciences. She is also currently leading an interdisciplinary program through the University of Nairobi School of Medicine to educate physician-researchers to best implement HIV treatment and prevention methods backed by research. The program was funded by the Fogarty Training Grant which is a part of the PEPFAR funds the country of Kenya received.
Ligia Peralta is a Dominican-born doctor of pediatrics and adolescent medicine in Maryland. Her research focuses on HIV and the transmission of HIV in adolescents, specifically those from under-served communities.
Yvette Calderon is an American physician who is Chair and Professor of Emergency Medicine in the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Her research has focused on health disparities in Manhattan, with a particular focus on HIV and hepatitis C. She was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2022.
Mary Goretti Boland, MSN, RN, FAAN is a Pediatric Nurse and Doctor of Public Health, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing. She is nationally known for her work developing innovative healthcare programs for underserved children with HIV/AIDS and other chronic diseases. In 1978, Boland staffed an innovative mobile health screening van for the Ironbound Community Health Project in Newark, New Jersey. She became director of the AIDS program at Children's Hospital of New Jersey and served as the coordinator for the Children's AIDS program (CHAP) at United Hospitals Medical Center in Newark. She served on the AIDS Advisory Committee in New Jersey and the National AIDS Advisory Committee. The United States Department of Health and Human Services gave her an award for her work in pediatric AIDS/HIV treatment.
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www.karenhein.com
