Kotch named distinguished professor for achievements in children’s health
September 04, 2009 | |
Jonathan Kotch, MD, professor of maternal and child health at UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, has been named the Carol Remmer Angle Endowed Professor in Children’s Environmental Health. The professorship was established in 2003 to fund a distinguished teacher and scholar in the field of environmental health. Kotch, who joined the UNC public health faculty in 1978, has a long history of policy and program experience in child care health and safety and a reputation for creating successful collaborations between the public health school and communities across the state and nation and around the world. A fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics (FAAP), Kotch holds a medical degree from Stanford University’s School of Medicine and a Master of Public Health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A renowned scholar in pediatrics and maternal and child health, he is a lifelong advocate and activist for children’s health and safety. In 2008, the American Public Health Association awarded Kotch the Martha May Eliot Award, an honor for lifetime achievement and exceptional accomplishments in maternal and child health. That year, he also received a competitive Kenan research leave from UNC to spend six months in Edinburgh, Scotland, where he helped implement a comprehensive injury prevention plan for Scottish children and youth, focusing on childhood injuries that result in death or serious disability. At UNC, he has advised more than 150 graduate students and has designed and taught dozens of academic courses. He is editor of Maternal and Child Health: Programs, Problems and Policies in Public Health, a textbook used extensively in the U.S. to teach maternal and child health students. He is director of the North Carolina Child Care Health and Safety Resource Center and, since 1997, has directed the National Training Institute for Child Care Health Consultants (http://nti.unc.edu), a collaboration between UNC’s Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute and the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health’s Department of Maternal and Child Health. “This wonderful recognition of Jonathan’s lifetime contributions to children’s health is so richly deserved,” said Herbert Peterson, MD, W.R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor of maternal and child health and chair of the department. # # #
UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health contact: Ramona DuBose, director of communications, (919) 966-7467 or ramona_dubose@unc.edu.
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