At age 57, I missed out on the honor of being the oldest member of the class by only a few months.  A graduate of the Yale Law School, I was a lawyer in Washington, D.C. for 25 years before coming to JHSPH.  In Washington, I spent most of my time representing clients in legal matters involving the U.S. Food & Drug Administration.

When I came to the Bloomberg School, I had no science or clinical background – I probably couldn’t have told you what ‘epidemiology’ was about.  But the lectures and course work were just thrilling.  It was a new world for me. The best part of the MPH program was my classmates.  Some of my best friends were from Bhutan, South Africa, and Japan.  The program attracts wonderful people from all over the world, and they all become friends.

My main interest is the process of developing and licensing new drugs, especially for neglected diseases.  One of the most important challenges is to encourage medical research to focus on the diseases that are the most serious for public health.  That may sound simple, but it’s a complex problem.  After completing the MPH, I had an appointment for the 2008-2009 academic year as a Visiting Scholar at JHSPH to research this public health challenge.