Accomplished Atlanta alumni

Dean Rimer chats with Aimee Woods. Photo by Thomas England.

Move over other cities, Atlanta alumni are enthusiastic, accomplished and moving forward. It was great to catch up with alumni like Aimee Woods, who had worked in our office, and whom we still miss; Dan Gregg, who worked with me on research projects, and just acquired impressive new responsibilities; Scott Brown, who is headed to Uganda where he will work on messages about polio inoculation; Amy Lansky, who is president of the Atlanta alumni group, president-elect of the School’s Alumni Association (representing alumni in more than 100 countries!), member of the Alumni Governing Board and soon, of the Public Health Foundation board of directors; and many other impressive, accomplished alumni.

Dan Gregg and Jeffrey Simms. Photo by Thomas England.

These folks all have terrific jobs in the private sector, CDC and other organizations and they’re doing great work. It was wonderful to finally get to the Carter Center where we held the reception.

• Great because: I’d never been there before, and it has such historical meaning for people in public health, both the association with Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter and with Bill Foege. I’m of sufficient age that I can recall waiting for hours in the bitter cold on Inauguration Day to see the Carters walk down Pennsylvania Avenue.

At the reception, I quoted from Bill Foege who said: “This does not have to be a world of plagues, disastrous governments, conflict, and uncontrolled health risks. It is possible to plan a rational future and smallpox eradication is a constant reminder that we should settle for nothing less.”

Congress could take a lesson from Foege’s words.

Next week, on to Boston—and our reception at APHA.

Barbara