Peterson awarded prestigious Allan Rosenfield Award

Herbert B. Peterson, MD, Kenan Distinguished Professor and chair of the department of maternal and child health at the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health, has received the 2010 Allan Rosenfield Award for Lifetime Contributions to International Family Planning. The award is presented annually by the Society of Family Planning (SFP).

Peterson, who also is a professor in the UNC School of Medicine’s department of obstetrics and gynecology, will receive the award on Sept. 23 at the society’s 2010 annual scientific meeting in Atlanta.

“Your tremendous international contributions to the field of family planning truly embody the spirit of this award and the quality of work that we strive to support and promote within our membership,” Mark Nichols, MD, president of the SFP Board of Directors said in a letter to Peterson.

The award was established in 2007 and first awarded to its namesake and SFP founding board member, Dr. Allan Rosenfield, for his outstanding and inspiring global work to promote women’s health. It is given yearly to individuals who have made invaluable contributions to the health of women worldwide.

Peterson is known nationally and internationally for his work in women’s reproductive health, epidemiology, health policy and evidence-based decision-making. Before he joined the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health faculty in 2004, he held research and administrative positions with the World Health Organization, U.S. Public Health Service and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention over the course of 20 years.
In 2008, he became the director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Research Evidence for Sexual and Reproductive Health. The center was established in the UNC public health school’s department of maternal and child health to help the United Nations agency use the strongest and most comprehensive available research to promote and improve global reproductive health.

In 1999, Peterson received the U.S. Public Health Service Distinguished Service Medal; in 2004, he was awarded the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Distinguished Service Award; and in 2007, he was elected to membership in the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.

A graduate of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Peterson completed his obstetrics and gynecology residency at UNC-Chapel Hill and trained in epidemiology at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), where he later served as chief of the epidemiologic studies branch. He was the first chief of the women’s health and fertility branch of the division of reproductive health. Peterson also was professor of gynecology and obstetrics at the Emory University School of Medicine and was co-director of the WHO/CDC Collaborating Center for research training in human reproduction.

For more information, see www.societyfp.org/about/awardees.asp.

UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health contact: Ramona DuBose, director of communications, 919-966-7467 or ramona_dubose@unc.edu.