Washington, D.C., November 7, 2004
- Kenneth Olden, PhD, SCD, LHD, director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), received the 2004 Sedgwick Memorial Medal today at the American Public Health Association's 132nd Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. The medal has been awarded every year since 1929 to an individual with a remarkable public health service record. Dr. Olden is the first African American to head one of the institutes at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and is also the first director of an NIH Institute to be presented this prestigious public health award.
Olden was selected because of his extraordinary achievements in linking environmental health sciences with public health and the practice of medicine. Olden placed a strong emphasis on prevention involving basic, clinical and social sciences. He was among the first to make the case that human health and disease are the result of gene-environment interactions. While now well accepted, this was a novel concept a decade ago. That's when Olden began to write and speak about the need to focus our research efforts on gene-environment interactions in understanding the development of chronic diseases.
Under Olden's leadership, NIEHS developed many new and innovative programs, which provided knowledge and technologies for better public health decisions related to the environment. Examples of Olden's initiatives include: health disparities programs, community-based prevention/intervention/participatory research, the Environmental Genome Project, the National Center for Toxicogenomics, consortium centers on Parkinson's disease and breast cancer, and children's environmental health research and prevention centers.
While the development of these research programs is impressive, it is Dr. Olden's commitment to reach out to the public-at-large that truly sets him apart. Soon after he became director of NIEHS in 1991, Olden immediately began to put in place the bold brush strokes of a vision that would link community groups with resources at research institutions. The linchpin of his vision was a belief that local communities had the collective ability to identify environmental health problems, but often lacked the time, means and research expertise to effectively resolve these problems.
Dr. Olden saw the nationwide network of NIEHS-funded Environmental Health Science Centers as an ideal vehicle for collaborating with community groups. He made it mandatory for each center to establish a "Community Outreach and Education Program" (COEP) to respond to local environmental health problems, particularly among poor and minority populations. Forced to think in a new way, many researchers discovered a new relevance to their research. They now ask different questions in laboratory projects and are instrumental in changing implementation of state and local laws. The local communities, the intended beneficiaries, have profited from having local researchers and resources that can help them address the important environmental health issues in their homes, neighborhoods and workplaces.
Because of Olden's leadership, it is more widely accepted that socio-economically disadvantaged communities are at higher risk for environmentally linked health problems. In fact, Olden is the individual most responsible for elevating health disparities to the national agenda.
Town meetings were another priority for Olden as a tool for involving the American public in developing a national environmental health agenda. NIEHS conducts town meetings regularly at locations throughout the country. The town meetings provided an open forum for the public to speak about environmental health issues. Olden dramatically increased public visibility of health issues, and made NIEHS research programs more responsive to the needs of the American people.
Olden's contributions to the field of health are widely recognized. He was elected to membership in the Institute of Medicine and selected by the North Carolina magazine Business Leader as one of the 100 individuals who had the most significant impact on the local community in 1994. Olden is the recipient of the City of Medicine Award in 1996 for extraordinary achievements in medicine in the public health interest.
"Dr. Olden has transformed the NIEHS from a typical NIH 'basic science' funding agency to one that has a very proactive public health emphasis that extends well beyond the support of basic research," said APHA member David L. Eaton, Ph.D., associate research dean for the University of Washington, School of Public Health, and professor and director of the school's Center for Ecogenetics and Environmental Health. "He changed the mission and vision of NIEHS in a profound way, and fully recognized the importance of educating the general public about how environmental health sciences can be used to inform public policy and reduce diseases with an environmental etiology."
"Ken is a bridging leader, exactly the kind that is needed in public health and holds the greatest promise for addressing the problems of the 21st century," said APHA member Noreen Clark, PhD, dean of the University of Michigan, School of Public Health. "He is exceedingly worthy of the Sedgwick Medal because of his contributions, but also because his way of working reflects the very best of leadership in public health."
Dr. Bernard Goldstein, dean of the Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, stated "Dr. Olden has increased the breadth and depth of NIEHS. His leadership at NIEHS in public health research and in responding to the needs of communities is recognized among all the National Institutes of Health."