Boston University Magazine Profiles Dynamic Dean
“The name Sandro
Galea pops up alot.” That’s the comment made by one of our writers
in discussing possible topics for this month’s issue. To better
understand why this is so, subscribers need only read the latest issue
of Bostonia, the Boston University (BU) quarterly magazine which
published a revealing portrait of Galea, the Dean of the BU School of
Public Health, in its recent issue. According to the magazine,
“Galea’s goal is to not only take BU to the forefront of public
health, but to take public health to the forefront of American
discourse.” His approach seems to be paying dividends.
Background
Trained initially as a physician, Galea came to see from some of his
early volunteer work overseas that he could have more impact by
working on prevention at the population level rather than on treatment
at the clinical level. His wife explains this in the article by noting
“Sandro and I both gravitate toward the hardest thing, where we’ll be
challenged and have the biggest opportunity for impact.”
BU Sparkplug
Many of Galea’s colleagues at BU share their insights
about the him in the magazine article. According to Lisa Sullivan,
“Sandro is a dynamo. He has more energy than any person I’ve ever
encountered, of any age.” This helps explain why at 44 Galea is the
youngest public health dean in the country and why he has infused it
[BU] with “near palpable electricity” according to Bostonia. His
colleagues describe his leadership as both “exhilarating and
exhausting.”
Social Causes
As other population health scientists have come to
understand, Galea recognizes the importance of the social determinants
of health, especially income inequality, in accounting for the health
status of populations. According to the profile, Galea believes that
US health inequalities are due to public policies we adopt and these
policies are changeable if we have the political will to do so.
Advocacy
This focus on the
amendable nature of current policies which impact health has convinced
Galea they should be changed and that public health professionals
should engage in some form of advocacy. According to colleague
George Annas, “Sandro thinks we should be out in the world. If we
have something to say, we should say it.” He adds “Enter the political
arena, for God’s sake. Don’t just sit there and count things.”
Hatred of Public
Health
According to Bostonia, Galea has entered the public arena by writing
and speaking extensively. Interestingly, he has also rubbed shoulders
with policy leaders from conservative think tanks. According to Galea,
“Conservatives hate public health. They hate public health with a
visceral hatred…and they hate public health for two reasons. Number
one—they feel like public health has a value set that they don’t agree
with. But they also say that we use data only to serve our ends, to
impose upon them regulation and policies that they don’t agree with.”
[Ed. Note: We recall an anecdote which exposes these
values differences. There was an outspoken and recalcitrant
participant at a meeting about data on second hand smoke. Hearing
about the health effects of second hand smoke, he was refusing to go
along with the other attendees in agreeing on a policy to ban smoking
in public places. The outlier was asked why he was being so
recalcitrant. He replied: It’s not that I don’t hate smoking as much
as you do. Rather, it’s because I hate government more!]
Clearly, public health advocates in such a culture have
their work cut out for them. Galea told Bostonia about his encounter
with conservatives, “What emerged for me is that public health needs
to be much more honest, much more straightforward.”
To read the full
profile, visit
https://tinyurl.com/ztxluva ■
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