Bruce B. Cohen, PhD, past president of the Friends of Brookline Public Health and a long-time Brookline resident, will be honored with the 2015 Public Health Leadership Award given by the Friends at their annual meeting to be held Wednesday evening, December 16, 2015, at the Brookline Department of Public Health, 11 Pierce Street, Brookline.
Dr. Cohen retired from full time state service at the MA Department of Public Health in September 2014, where he was director of the Division of Research and Epidemiology. Dr. Cohen has been particularly interested in the area of simplifying epidemiologic data for community advocacy, data release guidelines, race-ethnicity variation in disease patterns and evaluation of health programs. He is a member of the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics and served on the board of the National Association for Public Health Statistics and Information Systems for 8 years.
Locally Bruce Cohen has been an active member of the Friends of Brookline Public Health since its inception, most recently serving as its President. In addition, Dr. Cohen was appointed a member of Brookline’s Advisory Council on Public Health in 1996, serving as Chair since 2008. He also has been a Brookline Town Meeting member since 1996.
The Friends annual meeting also will include a presentation of the Carlin Community Health to Rene Feuerman, Executive Director, Brookline Food Pantry. In addition to increasing use of the St. Paul’s Church Food Pantry site, Ms. Feuerman was instrumental in opening a second Food Pantry site at the Brookline Housing Authority Egmont Street apartments. She has also established a committee to improve the nutritional quality of items now offered at the food pantries.
