LSUHSC’S LEIGH 1 OF ONLY 10 RWJF HEALTH POLICY FELLOWS
New Orleans, LA
– Janet Leigh, BDS, DMD, Chair of the Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology
at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans School of Dentistry, is one of ten
Health Policy Fellows selected by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation®
(RWJF) for 2009-10. She is the first dentist to be selected since 1999. The
award comes with a grant in the amount of $165,000 for the residential stay,
travel, research, conferences, and other leadership development activities.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellows program provides the nation’s most comprehensive experience at the nexus of health science, policy and politics in Washington D.C. The fellowship is an outstanding opportunity for exceptional midcareer health professionals and behavioral and social scientists with an interest in health and health care policy. Fellows experience and participate in the policy process at the federal level and use that leadership experience to improve health, health care and health policy. The fellowship is a 12-month residential experience in Washington, D.C. with continued health policy leadership development activities.
Fellows actively participate in the formulation of national health policies in
congressional offices and accelerate their careers as leaders in health policy.
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) conducts and administers the fellowship with
funding support from and in collaboration with RWJF.
The Washington experience prepares individuals to influence the future of public
health and health care and accelerate their own career development. Beginning in
September with an intensive three-and-a-half-month orientation arranged by the
IOM, fellows meet with key executive branch officials responsible for health
policy and programs, members of Congress and their staff, and representatives of
health- and health policy-related interest groups. Fellows also participate in
seminars on health economics, major federal health and health research programs,
the congressional budget process, current priority issues in federal health
policy and the process of federal decision-making.
In November, fellows join the American Political Science Association
Congressional Fellowship Program for an overview of the national political
process. The concentrated orientation is designed to prepare fellows for
immediate success on the Hill.
Fellowship assignments begin in January. During these assignments, fellows are
full-time, working participants in the policy process with members of Congress.
Fellows typically will: help develop legislative proposals; arrange hearings;
brief legislators for committee sessions and floor debates; and staff
House-Senate conferences.
Fellowship assignments are supplemented throughout the year by seminars and
group discussions on developing health policy, the general policy and
governmental process, as well as media training and leadership development.
Fellows are asked to prepare a formal presentation on a policy-oriented research
issue with which they have been engaged. Fellows also take part in meetings of
the IOM and other health policy organizations, as well as cultural and social
functions.
Dr. Leigh developed and directs the
LSUHSC HIV Outpatient Dental Clinic at the Interim LSU Public Hospital and was
appointed, in 1994, the dental director of the Delta AIDS Education and Training
Center. In 1997, the governor of Louisiana appointed her to the Governor’s
Commission on HIV and AIDS, and, in 1999, Dr. Leigh chaired that commission. She
spearheaded the creation of an oral HIV/AIDS clinical research program at LSUHSC
and is funded as principle investigator through the US Health Resources and
Services Administration Community Based Dental Partnership Program and a Special
Project of National Significance as well as through the National Institutes of
Health. Dr Leigh received her BDS from Guy’s Hospital Dental School University
of London, and a DMD from the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental
Medicine, where she also completed a fellowship in oral medicine and received
board certification. She has
received the Pfizer Award for Excellence in Research, Education, Patient Care
and Community Outreach, the LSUHSC School of Dentistry award for Excellence in
Research, and a New Orleans City Business
Women of the Year award for generating funding for educational opportunities for
dental health professionals and increasing access to dental care for HIV/AIDS
patients in Louisiana. In March 2008, at the American Dental Education
Association annual meeting, Dr Leigh was named the American Dental Education
Association/Sunstar Americas Inc. Harry W. Bruce Legislative Fellow.
___________________________________________________________________________
The Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation focuses on the pressing health and health care issues facing our
country. As the nation’s largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to improving
the health and health care of all Americans, the Foundation works with a diverse
group of organizations and
individuals to identify solutions and achieve comprehensive, meaningful and
timely change. For more that 35 years, the Foundation has brought experience,
commitment, and a rigorous, balanced approach to the problems that affect the
health and health care of those it serves. When it comes to helping Americans
lead healthier lives and get the care they need, the Foundation expects to make
a difference in your lifetime. For more information, visit
www.rwjf.org.
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