The Abstract: December 6, 2021
December 6, 2021
Whether you’re local or global, student or alumni, the Abstract’s weekly news digest will help you stay in the loop with our amazing Gillings School community.
Harvey, champion of reproductive rights, dies at 83
Phil Harvey
On Thursday, Philip D. Harvey, MSPH ’70 died at the age of 83 in his home in Maryland. The 1970 graduate of the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health advocated tirelessly for reproductive rights around the world.
As a graduate student at the Gillings School, Harvey along with Tim Black, MS ‘70, CBE, founded a wildly successful company that sold contraceptives through the mail. The company later became adult entertainment giant Adam & Eve, and unbeknown to most customers, a portion of its profits went to providing inexpensive contraception in low-income countries. Though it was illegal at the time to sell contraceptives this way, the popularity of Harvey’s company proved these laws outdated.
He and Black pioneered the use of social marketing strategies to make low-cost contraception widely available.
“The thinking was that if Brooke Bond tea and Unilever batteries could be found in 150,000 shops in India, why can’t condoms,” said Harvey in October 2020. “The idea was born in India just about the time I was there, and Tim and I took hold of the idea and gave it life.”
UNC research featured in new list of “must-read” pharmacoepidemiology articles
Following a Twitter and LinkedIn call for a curated curriculum covering the most important aspects for people new to the field of pharmacoepidemiology, a newly published Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety list of 30 must-read papers includes five papers written by faculty from UNC’s pharmacoepidemiology program area — tied for first place with papers from current faculty at the Brigham and Women’s (Harvard) Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics (DoPE).
Congratulations!
Valeika receives inaugural VIN Veritas Award for Courage and Truth in Science
Steve Valeika, DVM, PhD, a doctoral alumnus, is one of two recipients of the inaugural Veterinary Information Network (VIN) Veritas Award for Truth and Courage in Science. Steve has won this award for his dedication to providing factual public health information during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Valeika is a small animal veterinarian in Asheville, North Carolina. He has a doctoral degree in epidemiology from the Gillings School, and prior to practicing, was an epidemiology professor at the University of Georgia. When he isn’t reading, talking, or thinking about COVID-19, he enjoys spending time with his family in the mountains of western N.C.
Congratulations, Dr. Valeika!
