| Karen Hein, MD is a leading physician and health policy expert active in a range of domestic and international health issues. She is the Immediate Past President of the William T. Grant Foundation (1998-2003), which focuses on youth development. Dr. Hein served as the Executive Officer of the Institute of Medicine, the arm of the National Academies focused on health and medicine, from December 30, 1994 to June 30, 1998.
Dr. Hein is Clinical Professor of Pediatrics and was formerly Professor of Epidemiology and Population Health at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. She is currently a Board member of ten national and international organizations, including the National Board of Medical Examiners, which develops the U.S. licensure examination for physicians and additional forms of standardized assessment for other health professions.
Dr. Hein is the vice chair of the board of The Christian Children’s Fund, a nondenominational organization focused on the health of children worldwide. She also serves on the board of the ChildFund Alliance, a global alliance with 16 member organizations, which helps deprived, vulnerable and excluded children and youth in 25 countries . She serves on the advisory board to RAND Health, which undertakes extensive health-related research and has recently introduced RAND COMPARE, a simulation that enables comparisons of various health reform proposals with a particular focus on outcomes. Dr. Hein also serves on the board of directors of Consumers Union, publishers of Consumer Reports, and on the board of overseers of the International Rescue Committee, a leading international humanitarian organization that serves displaced persons and refugees in more than 20 nations.
Dr. Hein has broad experience in U.S. health policy issues, stemming in part from her work as a member of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee professional staff in 1993-94. In that position, she drafted legislation related to health benefits in the proposed health reform package of that era. She also drafted legislation on aspects of the health workforce issues including financing of undergraduate and graduate medical education and academic health centers.
Dr. Hein graduated from the University of Wisconsin (l966), attended Dartmouth Medical School (l966-l968) and received her medical degree from Columbia University, College of Physicians and Surgeons, in l970. She was one of the founding members of the Dartmouth Medical School Board of Overseers (1973-1978).
Dr. Hein has assumed a variety of roles related to health and health policy through her activities in program development, teaching and clinical research. She directed a model program for health care of juvenile detainees. In l987, she founded the nation's first comprehensive adolescent HIV/AIDS program. She worked closely with the Board of Education to expand AIDS education to the million students in the New York City public school system. She has written over l50 articles, chapters and abstracts related to adolescent health, particularly focusing on high risk youth. Her book, AIDS: Trading Fears for Facts, has sold over 100,000 volumes.
As President of the William T. Grant Foundation, Dr. Hein shaped the Foundation’s
efforts to support research to improve the lives of young people. With assets of $250 million, the Foundation pursues this goal by investing in research in social settings that influence youth, including schools, youth serving organizations, neighborhoods and informal activities with family members and peers. The W.T. Grant Scholars program supports promising early career scholars from different disciplines. Under Dr. Hein’s leadership, the Foundation celebrated the appointment of the 100th W.T. Grant Scholar in 2002. It also instituted the W.T. Grant Prize, which was awarded through The National Academies to encourage collaboration among scholars, practitioners and others.
On the National Board of Medical Examiners’ Center for Innovation advisory board, Dr. Hein has worked to expand the organization’s global partnerships. She has also served as an advisor to many city, state, federal and international organizations. She was President of the Society for Adolescent Medicine in l992. She has been a recipient of several awards including an Assistant Secretary for Health Award (DHHS) in l989, Health Care Financing Administrator's Award (HCFA) in l993 and Stewart B. McKinney Foundation in l994 for leadership in the HIV epidemic; 2nd Century Award from CU Nursing School 2005, Dartmouth College’s Granger Life-time Achievement Award for Social Justice in 2007.
In 2003, Dr. Hein narrowed her focus to international health and youth development, focusing on Asia and Africa. She participated in post-tsunami relief work in India designing health assessments in so-called Child Centered Spaces, which organizations like Unicef have begun to sponsor to protect and focus on the special needs of children and youth during emergencies. She visited and evaluated projects in Mongolia, Uganda, Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, India, Kenya, Rwanda, Congo and Thailand. She has also participated actively in efforts to create a learning collaborative of humanitarian relief organizations in order to identify core competencies and enhance skill development among humanitarian workers. The collaborative was launched at a major conference sponsored by Dartmouth and the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative in 2006, in which Dr. Hein played a major organizational and leadership role.
Dr. Hein and her husband, Dr. Ralph Dell, live in Vermont. They have 4 grown children.
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