Helene Gayle, President and CEO of Care USA, to Give Pitt’s Graduate School of Public Health 2007 Convocation Address

Helene D. Gayle, M.D., M.P.H., president and CEO of CARE USA, one of the world’s premier international development organizations, will deliver this year’s convocation address to the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH) graduating class. The convocation will be Saturday, April 28, from 11 a.m. to noon at the IBEW Conference Center, at 5 Hot Metal St. on Pittsburgh’s South Side.

With programs in more than 70 countries, CARE USA educates those from underprivileged communities, helping them to expand the control they have over their own lives to advance positive, enduring social change. Specifically, the organization aids in natural disaster and other severe emergency relief, works to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS and helps millions of people gain access to health care, nutrition, education, economic opportunity, safe water and improved sanitation.

Prior to receiving her medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Gayle earned her master’s degree in public health from John Hopkins University and bachelor’s degree from Barnard College of Columbia University. She also spent 20 years at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention where she filled a variety of positions, including staff epidemiologist to the director for the National Center for HIV, STD and TB Prevention. Before assuming her current position at CARE USA, Dr. Gayle served as director of the HIV, TB and Reproductive Health Program of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. She currently serves on the boards of the Institute of Medicine and the Council on Foreign Relations.

Founded in 1948 and fully accredited by the Council on Education for Public Health, GSPH is world-renowned for contributions that have influenced public health practices and medical care for millions of people. One of the top-ranked schools of public health in the United States, GSPH was the first fully accredited school of public health in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, with alumni who are among the leaders in their fields of public health. A member of the Association of Schools of Public Health, GSPH currently ranks third among schools of public health in NIH funding received. The only school of public health in the nation with a chair in minority health, GSPH is a leader in research related to women’s health, HIV/AIDS and human genetics, among others. For more information about GSPH, visit the GSPH Web site at http://www.publichealth.pitt.edu.