The Johns Hopkins
Bloomberg School of Public Health has named Robert Wm.
Blum, a leading authority in adolescent health, to chair
its Department of
Population and Family Health Sciences. Blum joins the
faculty from the University of Minnesota, where he is
director of the Division of General Pediatrics and
Adolescent Health and director of the World Health
Organization's Collaborating Center in Adolescent Health.
Blum will begin the transition to his new duties with the
School of Public Health in January 2004.
"I am delighted to welcome Bob Blum to the faculty of
the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. I
believe he will lead Population and Family Health Sciences,
which is already an outstanding department, to even greater
heights," said Alfred Sommer, dean of the School of Public
Health.
Blum said, "I'm eager to begin working with the
preeminent faculty of the Department of Population and
Family Health Sciences. Together, I hope we can set a clear
direction for what our field should be, not only for Johns
Hopkins but for the nation."
Blum received his medical degree from the Howard
University College of Medicine. He did his pediatrics
training and earned his master's in public health in
maternal and child health and his doctorate in health
policy from the University of Minnesota. In 1978, he
founded the adolescent health program at the University of
Minnesota.
His research interests include adolescent sexuality,
chronic illness and international adolescent health care
issues. He has edited two books and written more than 220
journal articles, book chapters and special reports on the
study of adolescent health. Blum was co-investigator for
the National Longitudinal Study on Adolescent Health, the
largest survey of American youth ever undertaken. The study
measured adolescents in grades 7 through 12, their social
settings, the ways in which adolescents connect to their
social world and the influence of social settings and
connections on health. Recently, he published a study in
the American Journal of Public Health debunking the myths
that race, income and family structure can be major
predictors of youth health risk behaviors.
Blum was a keynote speaker at the White House
Conference on Youth in May 2000. He was honored by the
American Public Health Association with the Needleman Award
for "scientific research and courageous advocacy for
children" in 1998, and he was the recipient of the Society
of Adolescent Medicine's Outstanding Achievement Award in
1993.
For many years, Blum has served as a U.S.
representative to the WHO as chair of the Technical
Advisory Group of the Maternal and Child Health Program and
as a member of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Group
of the Reproductive Health Program. He also has served as a
consultant to the Pan American Health Organization, World
Bank and UNICEF. Blum has been chair of the Alan Guttmacher
Institute board of directors and is a past president of the
Society for Adolescent Medicine. He was named chair of the
National Academy of Sciences' newly formed Committee on
Youth Health and Development.
Blum will take over for Bernard Guyer, who led
Population and Family Health Sciences for nearly 14 years.
Guyer is stepping down as chair to focus on his scholarly
activities as the Zanvyl Krieger Professor of Children's
Health and to direct the Doctor of Public Health degree
program.
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