Ronald L. Braithwaite - The Morehouse Model: How One School of Medicine Revolutionized Community Engagement and Health Equity

We dedicate The Morehouse Model to our friend, colleague, and coauthor, Daniel S. Blumenthal, MD, MPH. Dr. Blumenthal was a key member of the research team that conceptualized, planned, and authored this volume from the Alpha to the Omega. He met his untimely death on July 25, 2019. He contributed meaningfully by offering his expertise in and to every aspect of the book and served as the institutional memory for many of its components. Without his participation, The Morehouse Model would never have come to fruition. He was the most senior of the four coauthors, and, in many ways, he mentored each one of them.

Dr. Blumenthal graduated from Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio, in 1964 with a degree in zoology. In 1968, he was awarded his medical degree from the University of Chicago. In 1986, he received his master of public health from Emory University. His career started as a VISTA volunteer in Marianna, Arkansas. He later became an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia.

Over his career, he served as principal investigator for more than 70 grants that generated $60 million; he published over 100 book chapters and journal articles and authored or coedited five books. He rose through the academic ranks to full professor in and chair of the Department of Community Health and Preventive Medicine and held that position for 30 years. From 1991 to 1992, he did a sabbatical at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. He also served as a chief health officer for the Fulton County Health Department. For over 20 years he served as the associate dean for community health at Morehouse School of Medicine.

His education, clinical, and public health leadership was extraordinary, and his dedication to service to both Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) and the broader disciplines of community-engaged public health and prevention was a class act. He was elected to the presidency of the Association of Teachers of Preventive Medicine, where he served with distinction. He also served as the president of the American College of Preventive Medicine. Dr. Blumenthal retired from Morehouse School of Medicine as Department of Community Health and Preventive Medicine professor and chair emeritus in 2014. Although he was retired, he was frequently on campus guiding and mentoring students, staff, and faculty, across tenure levels, in the art and science of prevention. Dr. Blumenthal was appointed Extraordinary Professor of Community Health from Stellenbosch University Faculty of Medicine and Health Science in Cape Town, South Africa. He was the founding director and principal investigator for the Centers for Disease Control and Preventionfunded MSM Prevention Research Center, where he proudly maintained a senior consultant role until his passing.

Awards received during his career include the Sellers-McCroan Award, Georgia Public Health Association, 1994; the Outstanding VISTA Volunteer of the 1960s (Recognition at the 30th Anniversary Celebration, 1995); the Shining Light Award, Georgia Association for Primary Health Care, 2005; the Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award, MSM, 2005; the Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award, Emory University Rollins School of Public Health, 2009; and the Duncan Clark Award, Association for Prevention Teaching and Research, 2010.

Dans leadership and unwavering commitment to and support of social justice issues were entrenched in his contributions to community-focused research, clinical practice, education, and service. They are unparalleled. He understood how White privilege operated and that Black lives matter, long before the term and movement were formally advanced. Until the day of his passing, his passion to advance community-engaged leadership (locally, nationally, and globally) was witnessed and felt by not only his The Morehouse Model coauthors but also his collaborators, mentees, students, and close friends, nationally and globally.

Given the above resume of professional service, Dans life work was evidence of the impact he made in the hundreds of careers that he launched among junior faculty and lay citizens in Georgia communities and throughout the world. Dr. Blumenthals legacy will be commemorated yearly at the Annual Daniel S. Blumenthal Health Conference and Public Health Summit at Morehouse School of Medicine.

Ronald L. Braithwaite

Tabia Henry Akintobi

W. Mary Langley