"A Conversation with the CDC," featuring Joe Henderson, Associate Director for Terrorism Preparedness and Response, will take place on Thursday, May 8 from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. in Snyder Auditorium. The event will be webcast live. Visit www.hsph.harvard.edu at the time of the discussion to access the link.

The event will examine current efforts and future plans by the CDC, including: terrorism preparedness and planning, immediate lessons learned from the SARS experience, and ongoing problems and successes in translating federal policy into state and local preparedness.

The event is sponsored by the Harvard Center for Public Health Preparedness and will be moderated by the center’s principal investigator, Deborah Prothrow-Stith, who is also a professor of public health practice in the Department of Health Policy and Management. Panelists will include Dean Barry Bloom, Robert Blendon, and Leonard Marcus, all of HSPH; Alfred DeMaria of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health; Dora Mills of the Maine Bureau of Health; and Anita Barry of the Boston Public Health Commission.

Blendon Receives Award

Robert Blendon, a professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management, has been selected as the recipient of the 2003 Baxter Health Services Research Prize. The prize recognizes a uniquely significant contribution to the health care improvement of the public through original health services research. The prize honors national and international research efforts.

The $25,000 prize consists of $10,000 awarded to the individual and a $15,000 award donated to a not-for-profit institution that supports the prize winner’s work.

Selection Committee Chair Douglas Conrad of the University of Washington said in the March/April 2003 issue of the Exchange, a publication of the Association of University Programs in Health Administration (AUPHA): "Dr. Blendon's major contributions in public opinion research regarding health services delivery and financing, access to health services, alternative health system structures in developed countries, managed care models, and the viability of academic medical centers are truly remarkable in their breadth, depth, and quality." AUPHA administers the award.

Blendon directs the Harvard Opinion Research Program, which measures public opinions of health and social policy in the U.S. and elsewhere. He also directs the Henry J. Kaiser National Program on the Public, Health and Social Policy, which focuses on the better understanding of public knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about major domestic public policy issues. He also co-directs the Washington Post/Harvard University/Kaiser Family Foundation survey project, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

The Health Services Research Prize is funded by the Baxter International Foundation.

The prize will be awarded at the AUPHA Annual Meeting on June 28 in Nashville, TN.