The Koener Center is pleased to announce the publication of Public Health Explored: 50 Stories to Change the World, co-authored by former Koerner Fellow Lowell Levin and U.K. public health leader John Ashton.
As noted in the book’s introduction, the idea for the book “grew out of the publication of a series of curated aphorisms by the authors in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health (JECH) between 2002 and 2007. This section of the journal was well received at the time with feedback, especially from teachers of public health, that the aphorisms were often cited in the classroom.” One such aphorism in the journal and book is Levin’s own on “Defining the Problem”: “The person who defines the problem controls the range of solutions.”
Ashton writes, “Although Lowell and I discussed the possibility of gathering together a collection of the most salient examples into a small book, the demands of everyday life meant that the project never reached the top of the pile before Lowell’s death at the age of ninety-one in 2019… . Many of these aphorisms have special salience this year; if Lowell was still with us there would have been more.”
John Ashton is one of Britain’s foremost public health consultants, whose footprint is to be found on many of the most innovative public health initiatives of the past forty years, including health promotion, reducing teen-age pregnancy, the first large-scale syringe exchange program, the HIV virus, the World Health Organization (WHO) Healthy Cities Project, and he wrote a book on COVID-19.
Lowell Levin, professor emeritus of public health, with decades of service to the WHO European Region, as well as the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), was an inspirational leader in public health, as a teacher, mentor, and colleague. Levin zeroed in on previously unexplored areas such as citizen participation in health and nonprofessional resources in health care, primarily self-care. Questioning established thought, he brought attention to the pervasiveness of medical errors and pressed for reforms. He established the global health program at the Yale School of Public Health and initiated numerous health-promoting and educational programs at local and international levels.
Levin is remembered for the kind of wisdom and humor that is reflected in the aphorisms and anecdotes included in Public Health Explored.
To read the book’s introduction and a tribute written by Levin’s wife, Joanna Stuart, click here.