Irwin Redlener

Dr. Irwin Redlener

Irwin Elliot Redlener is a pediatrician and public health specialist with expertise in emergency response to terrorism and natural disasters. He is the director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, where is is also an Associate Dean and Clinical Professor of Population and Family Health. He is also president of the Children's Health Fund, which he cofounded with Paul Simon of Simon and Garfunkel fame. He has been described as a "combination of kindly family doctor, political animal, and aggressive entrepreneur"

Education

Redlener received his M.D. degree from the University of Miami School of Medicine in 1969, and his pediatric training at Babies Hospital of the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City, the University of Colorado Medical Center and the University of Miami-Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami in 1964

Profile

From the Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health:

Dr. Irwin Redlener is a recognized national leader in disaster preparedness and the public health ramifications of terrorism and large-scale catastrophic events. He and his team have developed major programs to enhance public health and health systems readiness with respect to disasters. He has written and spoken widely on the response to Hurricane Katrina, U.S. readiness for pandemics and the concerns of children as potential targets of terrorism. Dr. Redlener has also had more than three decades of experience providing healthcare to medically underserved children in rural and urban communities throughout the U.S. As founder and president of the Children's Health Fund, he is a renowned advocate for access to healthcare for all children. Dr. Redlener served as a principal developer and president of the new Children's Hospital at Montefiore in the Bronx. He has been a formal and informal adviser to the president and various cabinet members since 1993, over the last few years working with key members of the U.S. Congress on disaster preparedness and child health access. In 1993 & 1994, Dr. Redlener served as special consultant to the National Health Reform Task Force for the Clinton White House. He has taught medical students in rural Honduras and has led or assisted in international disaster relief in Central America and Africa. Dr. Redlener has also created a series of direct medical relief programs and public health initiatives in the Gulf region ravaged by Hurricane Katrina.

Affiliations

• American Academy of Pediatrics' Task Force on Terrorism
• Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, Founding Editorial Board Member
• Huffington Post, Blogger

Books

• Irwin Redlener, Americans at risk : why we are not prepared for megadisasters and what we can do now (New York: Knopf, 2006) (ISBN: 0307265269; 9780307265265)