The Public Health Heroes Awards, which will be presented this Friday, March 16, at an awards banquet in San Francisco, are the UC Berkeley School of Public Health's way of recognizing and thanking outstanding individuals and organizations for their contribution to improving the lives of people both locally and worldwide. Each has worked tirelessly for decades to protect people from both biological and societal causes of poor health and to increase the prospects for healthy lives as a result. The awards also serve to draw attention to a vital discipline that often goes unnoticed.
Public health works behind the scenes by preventing disease and optimizing health.
Since 1900, the average life span of persons in the United States has lengthened more than 30 years, and 25 years of this gain are attributable to advances in public health, according to a 1999 paper published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A 16-member advisory council made up of community, industry and faculty leaders selected the finalists from nominations by UC Berkeley School of Public Health faculty, advisory council members and previous honorees. Each year, the council selects one organizational recipient and three individual honorees, each working on an international, national or local issue. Today's society faces a mix of health problems unlike any other in recorded history. Devastating infectious diseases, inequalities in access to medical care, childhood obesity, toxins in the environment and an aging population with special medical needs are just some of the challenges being tackled by the faculty researchers at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health.