Director, Health and Medicine Program
Center for the Study of the Presidency
Former U.S. Assistant Surgeon General and Senior Global Health Advisor
Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Women's Health
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Leading National and Global Health Expert
Organizational Affiliations – Susan J. Blumenthal, M.D.
CURRENT
Senior
Medical and Policy Advisor
amfAR (the
Foundation for AIDS Research)
Founded in 1985, amfAR is dedicated to ending the global AIDS epidemic through innovative research. With the freedom and flexibility to respond quickly to emerging areas of scientific promise, amfAR plays a catalytic role in accelerating the pace of HIV/AIDS research and achieving real breakthroughs. amfAR-funded research has increased our understanding of HIV and has helped lay the groundwork for major advances in the study and treatment of HIV/AIDS. Since 1985, amfAR has invested nearly $250 million in its mission and has awarded grants to more than 2,000 research teams worldwide. Dr. Blumenthal serves as Senior Medical and Policy Advisor to AmFAR.
Director, Health and Medicine Program
Center for
the Study of the Presidency
The Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress (CSPC) is a non-partisan, non-profit organization founded in 1965. The Center is the only organization that systematically examines past successes and failures of the Presidency and relates its findings to present challenges and opportunities. Rear Admiral Susan J. Blumenthal, M.D., M.P.A. (ret) is the Distinguished Advisor for Health and Medicine at the Center for the Study of the Presidency, where she directs the Center’s Health and Medicine Program. This program focuses on the history of Presidential involvement in health as well as on a range of public health and science issues facing our nation and world in need of Executive Branch leadership and innovation. In this position, she leads CSP’s Commission on Charting Future Directions in Health and Medicine that is developing a framework of recommendations for the new Administration to improve the health of people in the United States and worldwide. Additionally, Admiral Blumenthal serves as the Director of the Palestine/Israel Health Initiative (PIHI) that has convened health experts in the region, fostering cooperation and building bridges using health as a tool for peacebuilding. PIHI has established a e-Health Commons, using the internet and new media tools, to network health professionals and also is creating the first multilingual portal in the region, healthmiddleeast.org, for comprehensive health information in Arabic, Hebrew and English.
Chair, Global Health Program
Dr. Blumenthal serves as the Chair of the new Global Health Program at the Meridian International Center, a non-profit institution that promotes international understanding through the exchange of people, ideas and the arts. Established in 1960 and headquartered in Washington, DC, Meridian offers a wide array of outreach, exchanges, and arts programs. The Center educates people of all ages about global issues, connects professionals from different countries and enriches the cultural perspective of audiences across the United States and abroad. The Global Health Program convenes conferences, briefings, provides international leadership programs on health, and promotes dialogue and exchange on critical health issues and opportunities across the public and private sectors
Clinical
Professor of Psychiatry
Susan J. Blumenthal, M.D., M.P.A. serves as Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Georgetown School of Medicine.
Susan J. Blumenthal, M.D, M.P.A. serves as Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine.
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SERVICE
For more than two decades, Rear
Admiral Susan Blumenthal, M.D. served in senior leadership positions
within the
First Deputy
Assistant Secretary for Women’s Health
Susan Blumenthal, M.D., M.P.A. was appointed and served as the country's
first ever Deputy Assistant Secretary for Women's Health within the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
This - first of its kind- senior level health post was established to
shine a national spotlight on women’s health. During her service in this
position, national attention and Federal funding for women’s health
increased dramatically. She coordinated a comprehensive national program
of over $4 billion (an increase of 30% in four years) in research,
policy, service delivery and education initiatives across HHS agencies
(including NIH, CDC, SAMSHA, FDA, HRSA, AHQR, and CMS) ensuring that our
national health programs targeted the unique needs of women. Dr.
Blumenthal served as an advisor to the White House on women’s health and
worked with governmental organizations, consumer and health care
professional groups to advance women's health in the United States and
internationally. Her accomplishments include developing a coordinated
national approach to women's health that dramatically increased public
and scientific attention to these issues, establishing National Centers
of Excellence on Women's Health at academic centers across the country
to serve as models for women's health care nationwide, forging
international partnerships, launching a coalition of 80 groups on AIDS
in women, and creating new initiatives on osteoporosis, obesity,
nutrition, physical activity, diabetes, and disease prevention that
brought together Federal agencies, private sector organizations and the
media to respond to these public health problems. Additionally, Dr.
Blumenthal made the fight against cancer in women a top priority. She
served as the Co-Chair and was responsible for the coordination and
implementation of the National Action Plan for Breast Cancer, a
Presidential initiative that catalyzed many new programs to accelerate
progress in the fight against this disease. Dr. Blumenthal initiated a
unique collaboration with the CIA, NASA and DOD called "From Missiles to
Mammograms" that transferred imaging technology used for military and
space purposes to improve the early detection of breast cancer.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
is the
Assistant
Surgeon General of the
Rear
Admiral (two star rank)
Admiral
Susan Blumenthal (ret.) served as Assistant Surgeon General of the
White House Advisor on Health
Dr. Susan Blumenthal served as a Medical Advisor to the White House on Women’s Health and to its Domestic Policy Council on Youth Violence Prevention.
Senior
Medical Advisor
Office of
Global Health Affairs
Office of
the Secretary
Dr. Susan Blumenthal served
as a Senior Medical Advisor in the Office of Global Health Affairs
within the Office of the Secretary, US Department of Health and Human
Services.
She worked on several international initiatives including facilitating
the development of a Middle East Health Initiative. The Office of Global
Health Affairs represents the Department to other governments, other
Federal Departments and agencies, international organizations, and the
private sector on international and refugee health issues. The Office
develops
Director
Senior Medical Advisor to
the Secretary
Dr. Blumenthal served as Senior Medical Advisor to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture developing initiatives on nutrition and obesity prevention. She established nutrition.gov, a Federal gateway to information on nutrition. The U.S. Department of Agriculture provides leadership on food, agriculture, natural resources, and related issues based on sound public policy, the best available science, and efficient management.
Chief, Behavioral Medicine and Basic Prevention Research Branch
Head, Suicide
Research Unit
National
Institute of Mental Health
National
Institutes of Health (NIH)
Chair, NIH
Health and Behavior Coordinating Committee
From 1981-1993, Dr. Blumenthal directed major national research and education programs at the National Institutes of Health on behavioral medicine, disease prevention, including nutrition, sleep disorders, psychoneuroimmunology, as well as on mental illness and suicide. During this period, she was a leader in exposing the inequities in women’s health and in developing initiatives to address sex differences in the causes, treatment and prevention of disease. The National Institutes of Health (NIH), an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is the primary Federal agency for conducting and supporting medical research. Helping to lead the way toward important medical discoveries that improve people's health and saves lives, NIH scientists investigate ways to prevent disease as well as to increase knowledge about the causes and treatments for common and rare diseases. Composed of 27 Institutes and Centers, the NIH provides leadership and financial support to researchers in every state and throughout the world.
ACADEMIC AFFILIATIONS
Dr.
Blumenthal has served as a Professor and Fellow at several academic
institutions including:
Clinical
Professor of Psychiatry
Susan J. Blumenthal, M.D., M.P.A. serves as Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Georgetown School of Medicine.
Clinical
Professor of Psychiatry
Susan J. Blumenthal, M.D, M.P.A. serves as Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine.
Lila Wallis Distinguished Professor of Women’s
Health
Admiral Blumenthal served as the Lila Wallis Distinguished Professor of Women’s Health at Cornell University School of Medicine in recognition of her “distinguished leadership and contributions to the field of women’s health.” Founded in 1898, and affiliated with what is now New York-Presbyterian Hospital since 1927, Weill Medical College of Cornell University is among the top-ranked clinical and medical research centers in the country with a triple mission of excellence in education, research, and patient care.
Bundy Visiting
Professor
Elizabeth
Blackwell Lecturer
Dr. Blumenthal served as the Bundy Visiting
Professor and as the Elizabeth Blackwell Lecturer on women’s health
issues at the Mayo Clinic. She has also been a keynote speaker at its
Obesity Prevention Summit and served on the Advisory Committee for the
Clinic’s National Health Policy Forum. The Mayo Clinic is a
not-for-profit medical practice and medical school dedicated to the
diagnosis and treatment of virtually every type of complex illness. The
Clinic is a pioneer and innovator in patient care, medical research and
academic education.
Fellow,
Institute
of Politics
John
F.
Kennedy
School
of Government
Visiting
Professor
Stanford in
Dr. Blumenthal served as a Visiting Professor at
the
Distinguished
Visiting Professor of Women’s Studies
Dr. Blumenthal served as the 3rd Distinguished
Visiting Professor of Women’s Studies at
Associate Vice
President for Health Affairs
Visiting
Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology
On special assignment from the
Federal Government, Dr. Blumenthal served as Associate Vice President
for Health Affairs and as a Visiting Professor of Obstetrics and
Gynecology at George Washington University Medical Center.
She worked as a member of the
ORGANIZATION BOARD AFFILIATIONS
Dr. Blumenthal serves as a Board
member of several philanthropic and educational institutions including:
Member,
Board of Trustees
Chair,
National Childhood Obesity Prevention Council
Dr.
Blumenthal has served on the Board of Trustees of Save the Children
since February 2005. She also is the Chair of its National Childhood
Obesity Prevention Council. Save the Children is the leading independent
organization creating lasting change in the lives of children in need in
the
Member, Board of Trustees
Meridian
International
Center
Member, Advisory Council
Dr. Blumenthal serves as a member of the Advisory Council of the
