Working for the Government
Alumni Panel
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
12:00 – 1:30 pm
Anna Baetjer Room
Program
Welcome……………………………………Paul Hutchinson, MS
Assistant Director, Career Services
Discussion…………………………………..Panelists
Panelists
Rick Berzon, DrPH 1990
Dr. Berzon is a Health Science Administrator within the National
Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) at the
National Institutes of Health (NIH). He is a social and behavioral
scientist, public health practitioner, clinician, policy analyst and
administrator. Dr. Berzon has extensive experience in identifying,
measuring and evaluating health outcomes, specifically patientreported outcomes, quality of life endpoints and performance
indicators. He has expertise within numerous therapeutic areas,
including HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases and the respiratory
and central nervous systems, and has worked at the Johns Hopkins
University, the Institute of Medicine/National Academy of Sciences,
USAID, NIAID/NIH, and within the pharmaceutical industry. Dr. Berzon’s
efforts within NIMHD are directed toward developing and implementing
initiatives to bridge social and biological determinants of health within
clinical translational research. Rick develops and manages portfolios of
grants that focus on the social determinants of health and global health;
and he fosters collaboration across NIH institutes and centers to identify
and cultivate new ideas to advance the science of health disparities. His
interests include program evaluation; implementation research; healthrelated quality of life; HIV/AIDS; and global health.
Miles Braun, MPH 1992
Dr. Braun is an Adjunct Professor in the Division of
Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacotherapy of Utrecht University,
and he is also Adjunct Scholar in the Center for Clinical Epidemiology
and Biostatistics of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
In 2009-2010, he worked in leadership positions in the biotechnology
industry, including as Global Head of Epidemiology and Associate Vice
President for a major vaccine manufacturer. Prior to that Dr. Braun had
a 20 year career as a commissioned officer in the United States Public
Health Service. He served 1999-2008 as the Director of the Division of
Epidemiology at the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, FDA.
And for a year he led the epidemiology group in FDA’s Office of Orphan
Products. Before joining FDA, Dr. Braun was Senior Research
Investigator in the Epidemiology and Biostatistics Program at the
National Cancer Institute, NIH. He is a graduate of the Masters in
Public Health Program at John Hopkins, SUNY Buffalo School of
Medicine and the Preventive Medicine Residency Program at the
US Centers for Disease Control, where he also served as an
Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer. He has authored and coauthored more than 130 scientific publications and has earned
more than 20 US Public Health Service Awards, including the
Meritorious Service Medal, and two HHS Secretary’s Awards for
Distinguished Service.
Rani Jeeva, MPH 2011
Ms. Jeeva is a Public Health Advisor and Team Leader for
Healthcare-Associated Infection Prevention in the Office of the
Assistant Secretary of Health at the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services. Her division was established in 2009 to lead and
coordinate cross-cutting issues to strengthen the health system,
improve healthcare quality, and enhance patient safety. She
currently focuses on developing and implementing the federal
strategy to reduce healthcare-associated or nosocomial infections
in the United States. Prior to joining the Office of the Assistant
Secretary for Health, she worked at the Clinical Center at the
National Institutes of Health. Her background includes experience
in hospital management, information systems program
management, and quality and process improvement.