Ninth Annual Maternal and Child Health Epidemiology Conference / December 10-12, 2003
HANI ATRASH: Good afternoon, I was told that I have two minutes after knowing that I particularly after Peter I crossed all jokes out so. It is my great pleasure and honor to present the 2003 National MCH EPI awards for outstanding leadership to my friend and colleague for over eighteen years that the William Sappenfield, but knows as Bill.
I personally cannot think of anyone today who is more deserving of this award. Over the past five years, we have tried repeatedly to nominate Bill for an award, but being the co-chairman of the awards committee, he always vetoed us, and never allowed us to do that. This year under extreme pressure he was willing to let us know nominate him and let the committee review the nominations along with the other nominees as well. You can read about Bill’s accomplishments in your book, I am not going to repeat that. I only have 90 seconds remaining, so I am going to share with you a few facts that you may not know about Bill.
Bill was the first second generation AIS officer at CDC, which is by itself speaks about a intergenerational public health careers. Although, there have been many epidemiologist assigned to CDC by CDC to states the work with MCH. Bill was the first and original what we call official CDC MCH epidemiologist in field. He was the first one in this program that continues now after 15 years in collaboration with MCH EPI HRSA. Bill is the only MCH CDC epidemiologist, to serve in three different states. He is the only one to be assigned to a national organization. He serves CityMatCH for 4 years. He was the only one to be assigned to university. He is the only one, who survived the program for over 18 years, every one of us left. That by itself is an accomplishment, and he was the only one to work at state, local, federal level, and at the university.
We current and graduate numbers of the MCH EPI program look up to Bill as the role model for how we want our MCH assignees to grow up to be. Fifteen years ago, when we started the program, we literally were being asked by MCH leaders, we want a Bill Sappenfield, and we thought that by the year 2000, we will have a Bill in every state. Unfortunately, today I think this is more like a 3000 objective not a 2000 objective, so unless we start cloning Bill, I do not think that is very real or realistic. Fifteen years ago, as you all know Bill went back to CDC in Atlanta, and is now leading the MCH epidemiology program. He just came three months before, I left the program and the Division of the Reproductive Health and I could not have happier. Actually, I was worried about leaving, and not having somebody to take care of the program. You know, I thought that I am the only one in the world who could it, but Bill coming back was the best news, and it helped me make my transition to my new job much easier. And I think the program currently on the CDC side is in the best hands possible. I do not need to tell you more. Go ahead read what you want. I think you all know Bill. You know his work. He has touched your lives. He either worked with you directly or encountered many of you, saw you at the various meetings. He has been at CDC meetings, MCHB meetings, and MCHEP CityMatCH, APHA, ATMCH. Wherever there is MCH there is Bill. I also do not need to tell you that Bill has been a great mentor, a great scientist, a great leader most important he is a great human being. Bill, on behalf of the whole MCH community here and at home, I am honored to present you the 2003 National MCH EPI Award for outstanding leadership, and I do not why this is _______.
BILL SAPPENFIELD: My two minutes are fading. Hani thank you and thank you all. I must tell you I was both surprised and honored. Surprised, because being on the committee, I was not to be on consideration, and honored that the committee said they would meet without me, and have this happen and I thank you. I will try and reflect on what does it mean to have award on outstanding leadership. If outstanding leadership is working together with others to improve the health of women, children, and families to effective data use. I have really been blessed and God has blessed me well, because I have had a chance to work with many people. I have had a chance to work with people like Bernard Guyer, Carol Hogue, Jim Bueller, Earl Fox, Doris Barnette, Eulan Holmgren, Hani Atrash, Marie McGlinn, Gil Chavez, Roger Roche, Magda Peck, Bal Ping Zu, Michael Kogan, and list goes on, all the national partners of the National Action Alliance, the national partner of the coalition for excellence in MCH and most importantly my MCH team and family. Truly we can do a lot together, and God has truly blessed me to work with such outstanding individuals. And this award is truly reflection of that and I thank you all, I thank my Lord for opportunity to serve and I thank my wife who is both inspiration and is reason that I enjoy living everyday. Thank you all.
HANI ATRASH: Thank you very much. Next award will be presented by Dr. Greg Alexander.
ALEXANDER GREG: It is my privilege to be here today to make this presentation of the MCH epidemiology advancing knowledge and work. I have known this year’s award recipients for well over a decade maybe that is why they chose me. I have known him so long. I am very familiar with his work as a scientific researcher, and his contributions to the field of MCH epidemiology. He is a valued research colleague, not only for me, but to many peoples in this room, and I believe his work truly has contributed to the advancement of knowledge in our field in several important ways. I want to take a little bit of time to identify this. First, I would like to recognize him for his leadership role in developing, implementing, directing, and analyzing impressive numbers, what I think are crucial, MCH related national databases and service.
These have been the foundation for the development of new knowledge in MCH. They have enabled many research studies that have had a growing impact on our field. And these include, and it’s an impressive list. The National Maternal Infant Health Longitudinal Follow-back Survey, The National Survey of Child Health, The Childhood Immunization Birth Certificate Follow-back Survey, The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, the National Survey on Children with Special Healthcare needs, and there is even more. He has played a key role working with others to make these databases available. He has been involved in their analysis, and I really think, it is quite an impressive part of what he has done for our field that these are available for needs assessment, research evaluation, and also development, but that is only first part. Noteworthy is his significant work on prenatal care. He has advanced research in this area on at least three fronts. He has contributed to the literature on the measurement and impact of the content of prenatal care, and how the content of prenatal care is related to low birth rate. He has worked on the relationship of prenatal care with pediatric outcomes, expanding our knowledge of how prenatal care is not just related to perinatal outcomes by going beyond that period. Finally, I note investigations on trends in prenatal care utilization using different indices.
Again, an important area of work expanding our knowledge of what we know about this critical health service. Now, one additional area, and I think is also important. Our recipient today comes from the background working with State Public Health Programs. I think that provided a strong public health practice foundation to his research and service efforts. So it is not surprising that he is spearheaded and been involved with others here in development of some critical grant offerings to assist States and building there data capacity. That has had a big impact on the field. And this involved a number of programs including the MCH Epidemiology Doctoral Fellowship Program, MCH Epidemiology Training Course, The Pre-MCH Epidemiology Conferences and hands-on training on epidemiology, and state training and recent advances in statistical analyses applied to help disparities. If I think about what these have done. It really helped to advance the field and advance our knowledge by training others to carry on this research. To making sure we have a well-prepared professional group available to carry on his work, and that is an important part what all leaders do, is make sure there is those who come after them. So when someone, I think award recipient has done considerable and diverse efforts to advance knowledge in this field, his efforts are commendable in terms of their breadth of the impact, the applied nature on a scientific note. So it is with pleasure that I present this award to Dr. Michael Kogan.
MICHAEL KOGAN: Well, thank you very much Greg. Last weekend, I was driving my kids in the car and my 14-year-old daughter was talking to my son and said something to the effect of well when you get older, you will appreciate the opportunities you have had and the things you got in our family. And my 9-year-old son taunted her and he said you know, sometimes I wish I were older, so I would know what you really appreciate. Well, fortunately or unfortunately, I am old enough to appreciate this, and I truly do. I am humbled by it. There are many people in this room whose work I have admired over the years and from the bottom of my heart I am truly humbled and to show you how humbled I am that it is not just something that comes up once or twice a year. Until last year, I kept the carton in my office and it showed a statue in a park and on the statue was a stern-looking general, astride his horse with his sword up in the air and on the side of the statue it is a soldier, statesman, author, patriot, but still the disappointment to his mother. Now, I could look around the room and I could probably pick out about half the people at every table, who I have had the privilege to know personally whose work I’ve admired. And I can take the time to thank everybody, but I would be remiss not to thank some people specially. First, I was lucky since before I left graduate school, I have had the honor and privilege of being a co-author with innovative and original thinkers like Greg Alexander and Milton Kotelchuck. At the Maternal and Child Health Bureau. I have been lucky to have work with thoughtful, creative, dedicated professionals like Mary Overpeck and Stella Yu. Finally, not finally, working with CDC, you get a sense of the cooperation that we worked with.
I have learnt first from Hani and I could not imagine anybody who has been more cooperative than Bill. He continues to teach me lessons in cooperation every time. In fact, Bill doesn’t know this, but I am fed up seeing my 9-year-old down to him to give lessons in cooperation. I could not imagine a more forward thinking and supportive director of MCHB than Peter. Thank you. Finally, as we look back in our lives, one of the things I think is important is, did you a make a positive difference in your life? Now, for all us here, working this part of your career in this field, giving voice to population that do not have a voice, and illuminating problems that need to be illuminated to help to make a better society, makes every single one of us an award winner in my estimation. Thank you very much.
GREG ALEXANDER: Thank you very much, but you are not rid of me yet. I have the privilege of staying up here and providing the next award. But before doing that, I would like to explain little background for this. Nearly a decade ago, in the field of MCH, the idea was starting to emerge that we needed our own journal. It had been recognized that folks in MCH were publishing an over 200 journals. And the questions were arising, have we reached the point of maturity where we could have our own journal? Where we had not only the scientific integrity and quality, but we had sufficient volume of research coming out on a regular basis and then ongoing stream of students, a new research is coming, where we could support our own journal. I look back on that now and it seems like it would be an easy choice, but frankly it wasn’t.
There were several people, good people, who really questioned whether we would reach that point. And were very concerned that if we failed in this, it will not help us at all, but the idea kept on growing and is evident if this idea was going to be carried out, it would require a very extraordinary person to develop that, to lead it, to turn it in to something. There are sayings about times create certain people and they emerge when the challenge comes. It is my privilege to introduce Dr. Milt Kotelchuck and to provide him with this plaque of our appreciation. I want to read it to. Hi, Milt, good to see you again.
MILTON KOTELCHUCK: Good to see you, Greg.
GREG ALEXANDER: “To Dr. Milton Kotelchuck, founding editor, 1997 to 2003, The Maternal and Child Health Journal With our deepest appreciation for your passion and stewardship, tireless dedication, and commitment to excellence.” Milt, thank you.
MILTON KOTELCHUCK: Thank you very much. I am truly under those, who are very touching, in warm words, and you are right, 10 years ago even actually 12 years ago, a group of us got together at American Public Health Association and said we need a journal. We really felt a journal is kind of a critical for our field because what is the MCH field? We are going to have a debate tomorrow what is MCH epidemiology, but you know stepping back what is the Maternal Child Health field and if we are publishing in 200 different journals and were combination of all these different professions, where is the center of our field? And we knew there was a center. Anybody who is in MCH we know there is a field of MCH. There never was any question, but we did not have the infrastructure, the capability of really defining ourselves a field. We were perceived by many people as being relatively weak, you know weak field, we do not get a lot of money. Although, we have got 20 million dollars additional money and we really those in both in academics and those is in practice. There was not a forum for communication among all of ourselves to really share the knowledge. People do research and then another group will duplicate the same research. There was not the sense of forward movement. I think a group of us came together in a number of different organizations around 10 years ago to really try to strengthen and build the MCH field as a field. And the journal was seen as one of those elements that were really important to give a place to publish in advancing knowledge, in practice, in research, and in policy.
We needed a place for that. That was important in defining our field and giving us a common voice to talk among each other, to share, to keep that knowledge moving forward. At MICHEP, there were several organizations, association of schools of public health. A group of different people of many different organizations trying to figure out what it would take to really develop the field of Maternal and Child Health, and give us a greater stability, and give us career pass, and give us the opportunities to say this is our field and we want to publish and talk in our field. And the journal came out of that milieu, I give people advice for the future if you do not want to be an editor, never write the mission statements. I came to the milieu, I said okay, I will write the mission statement. So after that everybody said, what is this journal going to be about. Well Milt, you wrote the mission statement, you say, and so next thing I know, I was the editor. I knew nothing about editing. I am not even a great writer. I’m actually a pretty good editor, I’ve to come to see, over the last 10 years, but I was not really you know I did not see myself in this world. I am more of the MCH epidemiologist. I happen to like numbers. I am really good with them, but it has been a great pleasure and privilege to be the editor of the journal for these years to see it grow. I want to particularly thank people at MICHEP, Hani Atrash in particular among the others who’ve really supported the journal particularly in this meeting from the beginning handing out the journal saying this is a, you know encouraging people to apply. We have published a lot of articles in MCH epidemiology and MCH methodologies that would not have been published anywhere else if you did not have a journal. I want to thank to many people who are authors in this room and many people who are in fact our reviewers of articles and people who have been on the board.
The journal is not a one person’s activity, it really reflects the contribution and hard work of everybody in the community. I am honored to have been able to be the editor for this the first eight years. But I am also happy to be able to pass on some of the day-to-day work because, it is a lot of work to Greg Alexander and to Donna Petersen who are going to take over as the editor. I do not plan to leave activity on the journal, but I will be happy to let some other people do some of the day-to-day editorial work and in the end I just really want to say I want to thank everybody here who has been supported for the journal, and supporting me. I knew from the beginning that I have had a lot of support for this journal. People have really liked it and work hard to make this is an important journal. And all I can say, as you know were in medline in three years for those who are having international thing. I just found out that MCH journal was selected to be one of the journals that is provided free in every developing country in the world, so the people do not have to actually even subscribe. They get it automatically. I felt really good about that. As you know, we are moving to an era where everything is going to be electronic so this journal should be available to everybody, fairly easily, and in fairly short amount of time and we just begun. It is time to move the journal in our own field and even to higher levels of scholarship. Thank you.
GREG ALEXANDER: Thank you very much.