Biography

Bernadine Healy M.D. since 2002 has been health editor for U.S.News & World Report and writes the On Health column for the magazine. A Harvard- and Hopkins-trained physician, she has had an active career in patient care, research and education. Serving as Director of the National Institutes of Health in the early 1990's, she started the Women's Health Initiative and developed NIH's first cross-disciplinary strategic plan entitled Investing in Humanity. After that Dr. Healy was Dean of the Ohio State University College of Medicine. Under her leadership it became the College of Medicine and Public Health, with the establishment of Ohio's first accredited school of public health -- reflecting her belief in the need to more closely integrate the teaching and practice of public health with medical care and the basic sciences. She carried that perspective to her position as president of the American Red Cross where she emphasized the organization's life saving medical mission in both disaster preparedness and the safety and readiness of the nation's blood supply, and led its response to numerous disasters, both national and international, including efforts after 9/11. Currently Dr. Healy serves as a member of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, an appointment she has held under two previous Presidents. Her latest book, "Living Time," an intimate doctor-patient communication about the facts and faith of cancer drawn in part from her own personal odyssey with the disease, will be released by Random House in early 2007.

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