Joyce Cohen Lashof (March 27, 1926 in Philadelphia – June 4, 2022) was an American physician,

public health Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the de ...

expert and advocate for health equity. She was the first woman to head a state public health department and the first woman to serve as dean of the School of Public Health at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

Early life and education

Lashof graduated from

Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

in 1946, followed by the

Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania Founded in 1850, The Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania (WMCP), formally known as The Female Medical College of Pennsylvania, was the first American medical college dedicated to teaching women medicine and allowing them to earn the Doctor ...

. She completed her residency in internal medicine at Montefiore Hospital.

Career

Lashof was hired as assistant professor in the department of medicine at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

and received a series of 1-year contracts. When she asked for a standard 3-year appointment, the department chair told her that “he would never give a married woman a tenured track appointment because she would leave and go where her husband's career took him”. Lashof joined the department of preventive medicine at the

University of Illinois College of Medicine The University of Illinois College of Medicine offers a four-year program leading to the MD degree at four different sites in Illinois: Chicago, Peoria, Illinois, Peoria, Rockford, Illinois, Rockford, and formerly Champaign–Urbana metropolitan ...

. Lashof was director of the Mile Square Health Center in Chicago, which serves disadvantaged communities, from 1967 to 1971. She went on to become director of community medicine at Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Hospital in Chicago. In 1973, she became the first woman to be director of the State of Illinois Public Health Department. In 1977 she was appointed deputy assistant secretary for health at the

Department of Health, Education, and Welfare The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is a Cabinet of the United States, cabinet-level United States federal executive departments, executive branch department of the federal government of the United States, US federal ...

in Washington, D.C. In 1981 she was appointed dean of the school of public health at the

. In 1995, she received the

Sedgwick Memorial Medal The Sedgwick Memorial Medal, given by the American Public Health Association, was established in 1929 for distinguished service and advancement of public health knowledge and practice. It is considered the APHA's highest honor. The medal is estab ...

Personal life and death

Lashof was married to

Richard Lashof Richard K. Lashof (November 9, 1922 – February 4, 2010) was an American mathematician. He contributed to the field of geometric and differential topology, working with Shiing-Shen Chern, Stephen Smale, among others. Lashof was regarded as "the k ...

, a math professor at the

and had three children, Judith, who died in 2018, Carol, and Dan. Lashof died of heart failure on June 4, 2022 in Berkeley, aged 96 years.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lashof, Joyce 1926 births 2022 deaths 20th-century American physicians 20th-century American women physicians UC Berkeley School of Public Health faculty American public health doctors Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania alumni Duke University alumni American university and college faculty deans State health commissioners of the United States American women public health doctors Members of the National Academy of Medicine