Ruth Katz Joins CDC Foundation Board of Directors
Ruth Katz, J.D., M.P.H., has been elected to the board of directors of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Foundation. Katz is the director of The Aspen Institute’s Health, Medicine and Society (HMS) Program, an educational and policy studies organization. The HMS Program draws on the expertise of a diverse group of leaders in health and health policy to inform the national conversation on health, medicine and biomedical research.
Katz has a long and distinguished career in public health and previously served as a member and secretary of the CDC Foundation’s board of directors from 2004–2009.
Katz joined The Aspen Institute after serving from 2009 to 2013 as chief public health counsel with the Committee on Energy and Commerce in the U.S. House of Representatives. Prior to that, Katz was the Walter G. Ross professor of health policy of the School of Public Health and Health Services at The George Washington University. She served as the dean of the school from 2003 to 2008. Prior to joining George Washington University, Katz was associate dean for administration at the Yale University School of Medicine, where she also held appointments in the departments of internal medicine and epidemiology and public health as an assistant professor. From 1982 to 1995, she served as counsel to the Subcommittee on Health and the Environment of the Committee on Energy and Commerce in the U.S. House of Representatives. In addition, Katz was the director of public health programs at the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation; in 1996, the Democrat nominee for New Jersey’s 2nd Congressional District for the U.S. House of Representatives; and in 1997, counsel to the advisory committee on Tobacco Policy and Public Health, chaired by Drs. C. Everett Koop and David Kessler. She was engaged in the private practice of law from 1977 to 1979.
“We are delighted to have Ruth back on the CDC Foundation board,” said Gary Cohen, chair of the CDC Foundation’s board of directors, who also serves as executive vice president of BD and acting CEO of GBCHealth. “Ruth is a leader with broad experience in public health and public policy, and we look forward to her thoughtful insight in helping our mission of advancing CDC’s life-saving work.”
As a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, Katz holds a law degree from Emory University and a Masters of Public Health from Harvard. Katz has completed terms as a member of the board of trustees of Emory University; the board of directors of NARAL Pro-Choice America; the Advisory Committee to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Research on Women’s Health; the Advisory Committee to the Director of CDC; CDC’s National Vaccine Advisory Committee; the National Advisory Committee for the Robert Wood Johnson Health & Society Scholar Program; and the Finalist Selection Committee of the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation.
Katz has received several awards recognizing her efforts in the enactment of many major pieces of health-related legislation, including those from the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Women’s Association, and the Association of Community Health Centers. Katz was also a recipient of Emory University Law School’s 2009 Distinguished Alumni Award and the 2010 Congressional Staff Achievement Award from Trust for America’s Health.