Leona Baumgartner: Crusader for the Public’s Health- How the First Female Health Commissioner Transformed the Health of New Yorkers

Time: 12:00-1:30 p.m.

Place: Claire Fagin Hall, Room 2019

Abstract: Leona Baumgartner, M.D., Ph.D., rose through the ranks of the New York City Department of Health, beginning as Director of Public Health Training (1938-1939). She became the first female commissioner of the Department in 1954. This seminar will discuss some of the programs instituted by Dr. Baumgartner, the motivation behind her choices, and the ways in which she often successfully navigated the channels of New York politics. It will focus on child and maternal health (including the direct care provided in the EMIC program), the ways in which she moved the department from control of contagious diseases (tuberculosis, polio and venereal disease) to monitoring chronic disease (cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease), her insistence on the inclusion of research into the department and her focus on the protection of vulnerable populations.