Kaufman, former chair of nutrition, dies at 91
September 8, 2016
Mildred Kaufman
Mildred Kaufman, MPH, advocate for public health nutrition and former nutrition faculty member and chair at UNC’s Gillings School of Global Public Health, passed away on Saturday, Sept. 3, 2016, after several years of poor health. She was 91.
Born April 23, 1925, in Philadelphia, to Isaac Samuel Kaufman and Anna Helen Kaufman (née Abrams), Ms. Kaufman earned an undergraduate degree at Simmons College in Boston and held an internship at Indiana University before joining the dietetic staff of Medical College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
After completing a master’s degree in public health nutrition at Columbia Teacher’s College in 1952, she worked for three years with the Visiting Nurse Society of Philadelphia and then began a decade of work with the U.S. Public Health Service. During this time, she was involved with issues of chronic disease control, standards of food service and nutrition care for nursing homes, patient and public education about diabetes, and other nutrition- and chronic disease-related issues.
Her 12 years working with the State of Florida involved groundbreaking activities, including expanding the number of state nutritionists from 14 to 75 and advocating for the health needs of the migrant population in Florida. She became a national leader in the area of migrant health.
She encouraged many nutritionists in that state to advance their careers. One of those was Pam Haines, who later earned a doctoral degree and joined the UNC nutrition faculty.
“Mildred was strict as a teacher, but very kind,” Haines recalled. “She inspired her students and challenged us to do better. When I joined the UNC faculty, she continued to be a supportive teacher and mentor.”
Ms. Kaufman joined the UNC School of Public Health’s nutrition faculty in 1977. There, she was instrumental in developing the Master of Public Health (MPH) program as a means of interdisciplinary training. She developed an innovative MPH program, the first of its kind globally to combine registered dietitian (RD) training with obtaining an MPH degree.
During the period in which Ms. Kaufman led the public health nutrition component of the UNC Department of Nutrition, more than 500 students graduated from this multidisciplinary program with Bachelor of Science, Master of Public Health or Doctor of Public Health degrees. She guided the program toward becoming the preeminent MPH-RD program in the United States and helped other schools of public health adapt similar programs.
In 1982, Ms. Kaufman led a March of Dimes-funded project to improve the health and nutrition of pregnant women by training the health professionals who counseled them. She received a number of professional awards for her work, and through her teaching and mentoring, instilled in her students an abiding passion to improve nutrition programs and policies for the improvement of people’s health. The last three years of her professorship at the UNC School of Public Health before her retirement (1987-1990) were spent as department chair.
During her career, she was honored on a national level for her important and innovative public health and nutrition and dietetics activities. In 1982, she received the prestigious Medallion Award from the American Dietetic Association (now the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics), as well as its Award for Excellence in Community Dietetics Practice in 1988.
She is survived by a brother, Charles Kaufman, and his wife Naomi Sharpe Kaufman; a niece, Leah Kaufman; nephew, Edward Kaufman; nephew, Philip Kaufman and his wife Cindi Spiegel Kaufman and their children, Ms. Kaufman’s grand-niece and grand-nephew, Ayla and Ari Kaufman.
Ms. Kaufman was interred in Jacksonville, Fla., on Sept. 8. In lieu of flowers, the family asks those who wish to memorialize her to continue her work in nutrition and public health by making a donation to the Interfaith Food Shuttle of Raleigh, N.C.
Gillings School of Global Public Health contact: David Pesci, director of communications, (919) 962-2600 or dpesci@unc.edu
