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1993.04.26 :  Appointment -- Donald A. Henderson

Contact:  Bill Grigg (202) 690-6867
April 26, 1993

       HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala today announced her
intention to appoint Donald Ainslie (D.A.) Henderson, M.D.,
formerly director of the decade-long global campaign that
eradicated smallpox, as deputy assistant secretary for health and
science in HHS' U.S. Public Health Service.
       Secretary Shalala said, "Dr. Henderson will arm our health
research and preventive health efforts with the kind of expertise
that eliminated smallpox and is eradicating polio world-wide. 
I'm delighted to be working with such a distinguished
epidemiologist and leader in public health."
       Dr. Henderson has been associate director for life
sciences in the Office of Science and Technology Policy,
Executive Office of the President, since 
1991.  He had been Edgar
Berman professor of international health and epidemiology at the
Johns Hopkins University, and was dean of the School of Hygiene
and Public Health from 1977 to 1990.
       Before going to Johns Hopkins, Dr. Henderson directed the
World Health Organization's global campaign to eradicate
smallpox, directing more than 700 advisers from 69 countries and
200,000 health staff and volunteers.  WHO announced on May 8,
1980, that smallpox had been eradicated.
       During the course of the smallpox campaign, Dr. Henderson
helped launch WHO's global program which now vaccinates 80
percent of the world's children against six diseases.
       He became, in 1986, the first public health professional
to receive the National Medal of Science, presented by the
president of the United States.  He also received the National
Academy of Sciences' highest award, the Public Welfare Medal. 
The Dana Foundation gave him its Award for Pioneering Achievement
in Health.
       Eleven universities have conferred honorary degrees and 13
countries have honored him.
       In 1978, he was elected to the Institute of Medicine and,
in 1986, to fellowship in the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences.
     Dr. Henderson has been chair of the technical advisory group
for the expanded program of immunization of the Pan American
Health Organization, the WHO consultative group on poliomyelitis
eradication, the U.S. National Vaccine Advisory Committee and the
board of overseers of the American Journal of Epidemiology.
       He was born Sept. 7, 1928, and grew up in Lakewood, Ohio,
a Cleveland suburb.  His A.B. degree is from Oberlin College, his
M.D. from the University of Rochester.  In 1960, he earned a
master of public health degree from Johns Hopkins.
       He lives in Baltimore with his wife, Nana.  They have
three grown children, two sons and a daughter.

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