Temkin-Greener Named Interim Chair of Public Health Sciences

The University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) announced today that Helena Temkin-Greener, Ph.D. will serve as interim chair of the Department of Public Health Sciences effective February 1, 2013. Temkin-Greener takes over leadership of the Department from Susan Fisher, Ph.D., who has accepted a new faculty position at the Temple University School of Medicine and the Fox Chase Cancer Center.

“We are grateful that Helena has agreed to step forward to help lead the Department of Public Health Sciences,” said Mark Taubman, M.D., dean of the URMC School of Medicine and Dentistry. “Her commitment and skill as both a researcher and educator will serve the Department well, particularly in the current health care reform environment which places a greater emphasis on quality of care, prevention, and cost containment. “

 

“I also want to thank Susan Fisher for the many valuable contributions she has made to this institution, including her efforts to expand and focus the Department’s research and education programs around its core mission of public health improvement,” Taubman continued. “She will be sorely missed.”

A search committee will soon be formed for the purpose of selecting a permanent chair.

 

Temkin-Greener has been a faculty member at URMC since 2001, and serves in the Department’s Division of Health Policy and Outcomes Research. She is also research co-director of the URMC Center for Ethics, Humanities, and Palliative Care.

Temkin-Greener is a national expert in community-based, hospital, and long-term care for the elderly and her research has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation, and the John A. Hartford Foundation, and other private and public funders. 

 

Over her career, she has received numerous appointments, awards, and honors. Temkin-Greener currently serves on the editorial board of the American Journal of Public Health and is a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America.  In 2011, she was the winner of the Excellence in Aging and Public Health Rural and Environment Research Award of the American Public Health Association. In 2012, she received the Alumni Award for Excellence in Graduate Education from the School of Medicine and Dentistry.