Schoenfeld wins APHL Presidential Award for public health leadership and service
June 27, 2013 | |
Ernest Schoenfeld, DrPH, lecturer in the Gillings School of Global Public Health’s Public Health Leadership Program and longtime leader at the School, has won the Association of Public Health Laboratories’ Presidential Award. Schoenfeld is senior adviser to William L. Roper, MD, MPH, dean of the UNC School of Medicine and chief executive officer of the UNC Health Care System. He accepted the award at the APHL’s Annual Meeting and Seventh Government Environmental Laboratory Conference in Raleigh, N.C., on June 4.
The award honors outstanding achievements in laboratory science, creative approaches to solving today’s public health challenges and exemplary support of laboratories serving the public’s health.
“I was very moved to receive the award,” said Schoenfeld, who served as the APHL’s inaugural director of the National Center for Public Health Laboratory Leadership (NCPHLL) before advancing to a senior adviser role with the center. “It was a complete surprise to me.”
Schoenfeld’s work with the APHL drove the establishment of the NCPHLL, now celebrating its 10th anniversary. His report, Who Will Run America’s Public Health Labs?, was the basis of the grant proposal that led to the founding of the Center.
He is particularly proud of the role that UNC’s public health school has played in training many of the leaders who served the public health laboratory community.
“At one time, about half of the state public health laboratories in the country were run by graduates of the program in our School of Public Health,” he said.
Schoenfeld has served the University of North Carolina’s schools of public health and medicine for more than 40 years. He has led in various capacities, including as senior associate dean at the public health school and lecturer in its School’s Department of Health Policy and Administration.
At the medical school, he was assistant dean for operations and management and associate vice chancellor for health affairs.
In both schools, he has been called upon for various leadership roles and has been an honored adviser to the deans.
When he officially retired in 2002, he assumed oversight for a number of consulting projects to streamline operations and optimize leadership skills among the senior leadership teams at the schools, particularly in the School of Medicine.
Laura Conn, MPH, associate director for informatics in the Public Health Surveillance and Informatics Program Office, in the Office of Surveillance, Epidemiology and Laboratory Services at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also received a Presidential Award.
Gillings School of Global Public Health contact: David Pesci, director of communications, (919) 962-2600 or dpesci@unc.edu.
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