UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor honored with California’s Award for Excellence
Dr. Richard Jackson was recognized by the California Department of Public Health with the Beverlee A. Myers Award for Excellence in Public Health.
A UCLA Fielding School of Public Health faculty member has been honored with the State of California’s highest award for public service in the discipline, the Beverlee A. Myers Award for Excellence in Public Health.
Dr. Richard Jackson, professor emeritus of environmental health sciences and a faculty associate with the UCLA Center for Healthy Climate Solutions, was recognized April 22 in a virtual event hosted by the California Department of Public Health whose honorees “represent the best in public health work in California.”
“Dr. Jackson’s work and dedication (is) known worldwide; he is a pediatrician, a professor, and an international public health leader,” said Dr. Tomas J. Aragon, director and state public health officer. “He brought healing not only to individuals, but to communities, and to the environment … he knows that when policy makers ignore science, children pay the price.”
Jackson, who started with the state health agency in 1979, served as California state public health officer, and was instrumental in creating the new California Department of Public Health in 2007. He knew Beverlee A. Myers, the first woman and non-physician ever to head the California Department of Health Services (1978-83) and a UCLA faculty member after her state service.
“Bev was an excellent director, and I greatly admired her,” Jackson said. “My first job was in a small unit that focused on pesticides, (and) pesticides in ground water opened the door for us to push for major reforms in the state drinking water laws.”
Jackson’s award for 2020 was delayed because of the pandemic; also delayed were the 2021 Myers Award, which recognizes California’s local public health directors and public health officers. The 2022 recipient of the Award is Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, professor and chair of the department of epidemiology and biostatistics with the UCSF School of Medicine.
Past recipients of the Myers Award include Dr. Wendelin Slusser, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of community health sciences, in 2008, and Dr. Jonathan Fielding, UCLA FSPH distinguished professor of health policy and management, in 2007. In 2001, a joint award went to the late Professor Emerita Ruth Roemer and Dr. Milton Roemer, professor emeritus of the Fielding School’s Department of Health Services.
The UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, founded in 1961, is dedicated to enhancing the public's health by conducting innovative research, training future leaders and health professionals from diverse backgrounds, translating research into policy and practice, and serving our local communities and the communities of the nation and the world. The school has 761 students from 26 nations engaged in carrying out the vision of building healthy futures in greater Los Angeles, California, the nation and the world.
Faculty Referenced by this Article
Robert J. Kim-Farley, MD, MPH, is a Professor-in-Residence with joint appointments in the Departments of Epidemiology and Community Health Sciences
Director of Field Studies and Applied Professional Training
Professor of Community Health Sciences & Health Policy and Management, and Associate Dean for Research
Dr. Michelle S. Keller is a health services researcher whose research focuses on the use and prescribing of high-risk medications.
Associate Professor for Industrial Hygiene and Environmental Health Sciences
Assistant Dean for Research & Adjunct Associate Professor of Community Health Sciences
Dr. Ron Andersen is the Wasserman Professor Emeritus in the UCLA Departments of Health Policy and Management.
Industrial Hygiene & Analytical Chemistry
EMPH Academic Program Director with expertise in healthcare marketing, finance, and reproductive health policy, teaching in the EMPH, MPH, MHA program
Dr. Hankinson is a Distinguished Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, and of EHS, and Chair of the Molecular Toxicology IDP
Nationally recognized health services researcher and sociomedical scientist with 25+ years' experience in effectiveness and implementation research.
