Academy President Jeremiah A. Barondess Retiring; National Search for a Successor to Begin Soon

NEW YORK CITY, Oct. 27???New York Academy of Medicine President Jeremiah A. Barondess, MD, has informed the Academy Board of Trustees of his intention to retire after 15 years as the helm of the venerable institution that he transformed into a vibrant national leader in urban health research and intervention.

An intensive nationwide search for a new President of the 158-year-old Academy will begin soon, said Board Chairman Jack D. Barchas, MD. Dr. Barondess will stay on until October 2006 or until a replacement is selected, whichever comes sooner. He will then remain at the Academy in a consultant capacity and will continue to be involved in helping to pursue the Academy mission of enhancing the health of people living in cities.

???This has been a period of institutional growth of enormous dimensions,??? Dr. Barondess told the rapt Academy staff at a meeting called to explain his decision. He and the Board have agreed that ???It???s a good time for a comprehensive reappraisal,??? Dr. Barondess explained. ???That reappraisal should not so much address the core of what we are about, which is urban health, but how to continue to go about it effectively and innovatively. I???ve been here a long time. A fresh infusion of energy, of insight and creativity would be good for this place.???

Dr. Barondess, an internationally known and deeply respected health leader, has used his tenure to build research and educational programs focused on identifying and understanding factors that erode health, or serve to preserve it. This understanding is leading to the development of insights, interventions and preventive measures that will help to make city-dwellers healthier. The Academy???s wide-ranging agenda focuses on pressing issues including health disparities, access to care, asthma, HIV/AIDS, geriatric social work, undergraduate and continuing medical education, substance abuse, health policy, urban disasters, mental health, and health education training for public school teachers.

Among the cutting-edge initiatives that Dr. Barondess created are the Center for Urban Epidemiologic Studies, which conducts a broad spectrum of studies designed to prevent disease and educate communities on health risks; the Division of Public Health, which formalized the Academy???s longstanding commitment to identifying and addressing public health issues of the day; Doctors Against Handgun Injury, a coalition of clinical societies working to promote public health by reducing handgun injuries; the Office of Health Disparities, which is concerned especially with reducing racially and ethnically based health disparities; the Office of Policy Development, which seeks to translate the Academy???s research into public policy in health; and the Office of Special Populations, established in the early 1990s to address clinical, policy and societal issues related to HIV and AIDS. Dr. Barondess also established the Divisions of Health Policy and Information Management. Under his leadership, research, education and advocacy have been conducted in dozens of initiatives by over 200 advanced degree professionals and support staff who produce an impressive array of peer-reviewed research publications and model interventions.

???There are very few people who are institution builders. Jerry has been that,??? Dr. Barchas said at the staff meeting. ???Now the challenge for us is how to continue.??? The new President will be ???someone who will bring new ideas, but also build on what is core to us,??? Dr. Barchas said. Academic searches such as this one often take as long as a year, he said.

Dr. Barondess was appointed Academy President in July 1990 after a distinguished decades-long career as a clinician and professor of medicine at Cornell University Medical College. He was educated at the Pennsylvania State University and the University of Michigan and received his MD from the Johns Hopkins University. His residency training was at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center. Dr. Barondess remained at Cornell until June 1990, rising through the ranks to hold the William T. Foley Distinguished Professorship in Clinical Medicine. Dr. Barondess has written extensively on clinical matters in internal medicine, on medical education, clinical ethics, the training of internists, and health disparities in urban populations.

Dr. Barondess is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Johns Hopkins University, and a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He is also a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Board of Trustees of the Associates of the Yale Medical Library, the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars, and served on the Board of Directors of the American Federation for Aging Research. ###

The New York Academy of Medicine, the country???s premier urban health policy and intervention center, focuses on enhancing the health of people living in cities through research, education, advocacy, and prevention. It is home to the second largest medical collection open to the general public in the United States.

Posted on October 27, 2005

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Contact:
Andrew J. Martin
Director of Communications
The New York Academy of Medicine
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New York, New York 10029
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amartin@nyam.org

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