June 10, 2009

Brindis Named to Direct Institute for Health Policy Studies

Claire Brindis

Claire D. Brindis, DrPH, MPH, has been named director of the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies (IHPS), effective immediately.

Brindis served as acting director of the institute from 2006 to 2007 and has been interim director since 2007.

Brindis is a professor in the Department of Pediatrics Division of Adolescent Medicine and in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences. Her research focuses on program evaluation of a wide range of health topics and training strategies, child and adolescent health policy, and the effective translation of research into policy.

In her new position, Brindis will continue the institute’s legacy of leadership and service established by founding director Philip R. Lee, MD, and former director Harold S. Luft, PhD. She will encourage and enhance collaborations between IHPS faculty and other UCSF researchers, educators and clinicians. By integrating a health policy perspective into the University’s research, education and service missions, Brindis will expand the impact of UCSF’s scientific discoveries and improve the evidence upon which the University’s local, state, national and international health policies are based.

“Dr. Brindis has had a long and exemplary career at UCSF, where she has been instrumental in founding several centers,” said Sam Hawgood, MB, BS, interim dean of the UCSF School of Medicine in his announcement of the appointment.

She founded the Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health, which is focused on reproductive health research and policy, and two other centers that address national policy related to adolescent and young adult health: the National Adolescent Health Information Center and the Public Policy Analysis and Education Center for Middle Childhood, Adolescent and Young Adult Health.

Brindis has been honored with a variety of national, state and local awards. In 1994, she received the Integrity Award from the US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Office of Inspector General. The California Department of Health Services honored Brindis with the 2000 Beverlee A. Myers Award for Excellence in Public Health. In 2005, she was awarded the DHHS Maternal and Child Health Bureau Director’s Award “in recognition of contributions made to the health of infants, mothers, children, adolescents and children with special needs.”

UCSF Chancellor J. Michael Bishop, MD, with recipients of the 2009 Chancellor’s Award for the Advancement of Women: (left) Michael McGuire, assistant revenue director, radiology, Claire D. Brindis, DrPH, MPH, professor in Health Policy Studies, and Sunita Puri, medical student in the Joint Medical Program at UC San Francisco and UC Berkeley.

Most recently, Brindis received the 2009 UCSF Chancellor’s Award for the Advancement of Women in recognition of her longstanding and tireless advocacy efforts to improve campus policies affecting the lives of UCSF’s faculty and staff. A native of Argentina, Brindis is particularly committed to advancing campuswide diversity.

A former chair of the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on the Status of Women, she worked closely with the UCSF School of Medicine to identify key ways to improve the campus climate for women faculty members. She is also known for mentoring faculty, students and staff.

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