Affiliations
Rear Admiral, USPHS (ret.)
Former US Assistant Surgeon General and First Deputy Assistant Secretary for Women’s Health, US Department of Health and Human Services
Visiting Professor, MIT Media Lab
Provost Distinguished Professor, Northeastern University
Senior Medical and Policy Advisor, amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research
Senior Health Advisor to the President, Arizona State University
Clinical Professor, Tufts and Georgetown University Schools of Medicine.
Senior Fellow in Health Policy, New America
Current Affiliations
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Media Lab
Rear Admiral Susan Blumenthal, M.D., M.P.A. (ret.) serves as a Visiting Professor at the MIT Media Lab, is a member of the MIT Media Lab Director's Circle and serves as the Honorary Chair of the Media Lab's WHx Program for Women’s Health. In these positions, she is catalyzing new directions in the field of public health technology that she founded and working to accelerate progress in advancing women’s health with technology innovations. The mission of the MIT Media Lab is to create transformative technologies, experiences, and systems that enable people to reimagine and redesign their lives. The Lab engages people everywhere in meaningful, creative experiences integrating art, science, design, and engineering. Experimenting in the spaces where humanity and technology interface, the Media Lab works with organizations and communities around the world to transform people’s dreams and ideas into reality through excellence in education, research, innovation, and inspiring creativity.
Northeastern University
Rear Admiral Blumenthal serves as a Provost Distinguished Professor at Northeastern University where she is working to develop a new Center of Excellence in Public Health Technology and co-chairs the University’s Task Force to accomplish this goal. Since founding the new field of public health technology in 2021, Dr. Blumenthal has co-chaired conferences at Northeastern on Catalyzing New Directions in Public Health Technology and is organizing a National Summit on Public Health and AI. Northeastern University is renowned for its experiential learning model, high-impact research, deep partnerships, and worldwide reach. The University pursues innovative ways of teaching and research that place a premium on experience and engagement with the world. Today, Northeastern’s signature approach erases traditional boundaries, empowering not only students, but faculty, alumni, partners, and innovators to solve problems and pursue impact.
amfAR (the Foundation for AIDS Research)
Dr. Blumenthal serves as Senior Medical and Policy Advisor to amfAR. Founded in 1985, amfAR is dedicated to ending the global AIDS epidemic through innovative research. With the freedom and flexibility to respond quickly to emerging areas of scientific promise, amfAR plays a catalytic role in accelerating the pace of HIV/AIDS research and achieving real breakthroughs. amfAR-funded research has increased our understanding of HIV and has helped lay the groundwork for major advances in the study and treatment of HIV/AIDS. Since 1985, amfAR has invested nearly $250 million in its mission and has awarded grants to more than 2,000 research teams worldwide.
Institut Curie
Dr. Blumenthal serves as the Ambassador for the Institut Curie in America.
Institut Curie, France's leading cancer center, combines an internationally renowned research center with a cutting-edge Hospital Group, treating all types of cancer, including the rarest. Founded in 1909 by Marie Curie, Institut Curie has 3 sites (Paris, Saint-Cloud and Orsay) and employs 4,000 researchers, doctors, and caregivers in its 3 missions: care, research, and teaching. The Institut carries forward Marie Curie's legacy in the 21st Century.
Clinical Professor of Psychiatry
Tufts University School of Medicine
Susan J. Blumenthal, M.D., M.P.A. serves as a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine. In this position, she contributes her expertise in mental health, public health policy, and women’s health to medical education and training.
Clinical Professor of Psychiatry
Georgetown University School of Medicine
Susan J. Blumenthal, M.D., M.P.A. serves as a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Georgetown University School of Medicine. In this role, she brings decades of leadership experience in public health, medicine, and policy to medical education.
Senior Fellow in Health Policy
New America
Dr. Blumenthal serves as a senior fellow in health policy at New America. New America is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy institute that invests in new thinkers and new ideas to address the next generation of challenges facing the United States. New America emphasizes work that is responsive to the changing conditions and problems of our 21st Century information-age economy — an era shaped by transforming innovation and wealth creation, but also by shortened job tenures, longer life spans, mobile capital, financial imbalances and rising inequality. The foundation’s mission is animated by the American ideal that each generation will live better than the last. With an emphasis on big ideas, impartial analysis and pragmatic solutions, New America invests in programs in critical areas, bringing promising new ideas and debates to the fore.
Dr. Blumenthal served as the Director of New America’s Health Innovations Lab that engaged policy-makers, health practitioners, technologists, designers, and other experts to link and sync technological innovations to health. The goal of the Lab was to accelerate fundamental changes in the way healthcare is delivered in the Digital Age. The Lab’s mission was to connect people to a seamless system of care in communities and modernize government health and nutrition programs so they deliver services in a consumer-oriented, efficient, easy-to-use and integrated way.
Dr. Blumenthal led the Wiring WIC Initiative, which identified technological advances that could strengthen nutrition and improve health in the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Federal food assistance program in which 50% of children born in the U.S. are enrolled. In 2017, in collaboration with the MIT Media Lab and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, she chaired a 2-day conference to reimagine what is possible for the program in the Digital Age. A national briefing was convened to disseminate the final report’s findings. Additionally, Dr. Blumenthal directed the SNAP to Health project, an initiative aimed at reducing obesity and food insecurity for those participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as Food Stamps. The project team released a Policy Report and Executive Summary containing key recommendations. A SNAP to Health Capitol Hill Briefing was convened in July 2012 which brought together policymakers, researchers, public health practitioners, and anti-hunger advocates to address the perilous paradox of obesity and food insecurity and offer strategies to address these epidemics in America.
Under her leadership, the Health Innovations Lab engaged with the MIT Media Lab establishing the Beat the Virus social media campaign and COVID- 19 online resource hub. Additionally, Dr. Blumenthal served as the Public Health Director of healthPULSE, a project that brought together a multidisciplinary network of experts to build a novel 21st century public health communications system. These initiatives served as models for how public health and technology experts can and must work together to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as to future health challenges.
Federal Government Service
For more than two decades, Rear Admiral Susan Blumenthal, M.D. served in senior leadership positions within the U.S. Federal Government working as a career senior medical officer in the Administrations of four Presidents of the United States. She was decorated with the highest medals of the United States Public Health Service for “distinguished and pioneering leadership, groundbreaking contributions, and dedicated public service that has improved the health of women, our Nation and the world.” Her positions over the past 20 years include having served as:
First Deputy Assistant Secretary for Women’s Health and Director, HHS Office on Women's Health
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
Served as the country’s first Deputy Assistant Secretary of Health. In this new senior Federal government position, provided national and international leadership in women’s health, serving as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service’s (HHS) leading expert on women’s health and as principal advisor on these issues to the Secretary and the Assistant Secretary for Health. Established numerous policy and program initiatives. Provided oversight, coordinated, and monitored research, service delivery, and public and health care professional education and women’s health programs of the HHS agencies, offices, and regions involving over a $4 billion budget. Directed and managed the programs and staff of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office on Women’s Health, the focal point for women’s health in HHS. Directed a $30 million dollar Office budget and 30 FTE’s. Collaborated with the HHS agencies including NIH, CDC, FDA, SAMSHA, AHQR, and other public and private organizations in the development and implementation of a comprehensive national strategy for the advancement of women’s health. Provided project management oversight on multiple cross-agency initiatives within the DHHS and with other Federal and private sector organizations, including establishing and directing the National Centers for Excellence on Women’s Health program, envisioning and directing the National Women’s Health Information Center, the “From Missiles to Mammograms” initiative to improve breast cancer detection, establishing an obesity, nutrition and physical activity initiative, chairing the Healthy Women 2000 Capitol Hill Conference, serving as Host and Medical Director for the a 13 part award winning Television Series on Women’s Health, chairing the Federal Coordinating Committees on Women’s Health, Imaging Technologies, Breast Cancer and on Women’s Health and the Environment. Served as the Co-Chair of the National Program on Breast Cancer, a Presidential initiative and public-private partnership. Represented the United States in international women’s health activities. Served as leading government spokesperson and an advisor to the White House on women’s health issues.
White House Advisor on Health
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Dr. Susan Blumenthal served as a Medical Advisor to the White House on Women’s Health and to its Domestic Policy Council on Youth Violence Prevention.
Senior Medical Advisor
Office of Global Health Affairs
Office of the Secretary
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Dr. Susan Blumenthal served as a Senior Medical and e-Health Advisor in the Office of Global Health Affairs within the Office of the Secretary, US Department of Health and Human Services. She worked on several international initiatives including facilitating the development of a Middle East Health Initiative. Provided national and international leadership, direction, and expertise on a broad range of global health issues including the response to terrorism, emerging disease threats including obesity, pandemic flu, SARS and AIDS, and the application of communication strategies to public health issues including the prevention of disease. Provided medical leadership in the Office of Global Health Affairs, the focal point for global health issues in the Office of the Secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services, which coordinates the implementation of HHS global health and science initiatives and programs with other nations. Provided leadership and innovation in applying information technology to improve health including envisioning, designing and directing Federal health websites. Served as a national spokesperson on national and global health issues Directed special initiatives and projects including a Middle East Health Initiative, organized and chaired conferences, developed public-private sector partnerships and represented the U.S. government in national and international meetings and commissions. Identified health policy areas requiring development and represented HHS to other governmental and non-governmental national and global organizations. Created the website, globalhealth.gov.
Director
National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center
Admiral Susan Blumenthal envisioned and established the National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center and served as its Medical Director. This Resource Center provided current information developed by Federal agencies or with Federal support pertaining to youth violence and suicide prevention. It served as a user-friendly, single point of access to Federal information on youth violence and suicide prevention that can be reached on the internet at www.safeyouth.org or through a call center at 1-866-SAFEYOUTH (723-3968). The NYVPRC served as a gateway for professionals, parents, youth and other interested individuals, providing the latest tools to facilitate discussion with children, to resolve conflicts nonviolently, to stop bullying, to prevent teen suicide, and to end violence committed by and against young people. Resources included fact sheets, best practices documents, funding and conference announcements, statistics, research bulletins, surveillance reports, and profiles of promising programs.
Senior Medical Advisor to the Secretary
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
Dr. Blumenthal served as the first Senior Medical Advisor to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture developing initiatives on nutrition and obesity prevention. She established nutrition.gov, a Federal gateway to information on nutrition. The U.S. Department of Agriculture provides leadership on food, agriculture, natural resources, and related issues based on sound public policy, the best available science, and efficient management.
Chief, Behavioral Medicine and Basic Prevention Research Branch
Head, Suicide Research Unit
Chair, NIH Health and Behavior Coordinating Committee
National Institute of Mental Health
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
From 1981-1993, Dr. Blumenthal directed major national research and education programs at the National Institutes of Health on behavioral medicine, disease prevention, including nutrition, sleep disorders, psychoneuroimmunology, as well as on mental illness and suicide. During this period, she was a leader in exposing the inequities in women’s health and in developing initiatives to address sex differences in the causes, treatment and prevention of disease. The National Institutes of Health (NIH), an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is the primary Federal agency for conducting and supporting medical research. Helping to lead the way toward important medical discoveries that improve people’s health and saves lives, NIH scientists investigate ways to prevent disease as well as to increase knowledge about the causes and treatments for common and rare diseases. Composed of 27 Institutes and Centers, the NIH provides leadership and financial support to researchers in every state and throughout the world.
Former Affiliations
Member of Visiting Committee
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Dr. Blumenthal has served on the committee for the T.H. Chan School of Public Health since 2000. Founded in 1913 as the first professional public health training program in America, the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health advances the public’s health through learning, discovery, and communication. In pursuit of this mission, the School produces knowledge through research and translates knowledge into evidence that can be communicated to the public, policymakers, and practitioners to advance the health of populations. The HSPH Visiting Committee provides informed, objective, and candid assessments of the school, as well as constructive advice on its future direction and development.
Public Health Editor
Huffington Post
Susan Blumenthal, M.D., M.P.A. served as the Public Health Editor for the Huffington Post, an internet site for news, blogs, video and community. She also frequently wrote health columns for the website.
Director, Global Health Program
Meridian International Center
Dr. Blumenthal served as the Chair of a new Global Health Program at the Meridian International Center, a non-profit institution that promotes international understanding through the exchange of people, ideas and the arts. Established in 1960 and headquartered in Washington, DC, Meridian offers a wide array of outreach, exchanges, and arts programs. The Center educates people of all ages about global issues, connects professionals from different countries and enriches the cultural perspective of audiences across the United States and abroad. The Global Health Program convened conferences, briefings, provided international leadership programs on health, and promoted dialogue and exchange on critical health issues and opportunities across the public and private sectors
Director, Health and Medicine Program
Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress
Dr. Blumenthal served as the founding Director of the Health and Medicine Program at the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress. Applying lessons from previous Presidents and Administrations, the Health and Medicine Program of the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress (CSPC), a non-partisan, not-for-profit organization, applied historical perspectives to frame health care challenges and opportunities to enhance public policymaking. The Health and Medicine program examined such issues as health care reform, public health and prevention, federal leadership, the application of health information technology, and global health. Dr. Blumenthal served as Co-Chair for the CSPC Commission on New Directions in Health and Medicine and for its Working Group on Prevention and Public Health with membership of more than 60 leading experts in medicine, public health, and science. She organized and chaired conferences, briefings, working groups and published articles and reports on health care challenges and opportunities.
Organization Board Affiliations
Dr. Blumenthal serves as a Board member of several philanthropic and educational institutions including:
Member, Advisory Council
Stanford University in Washington
Dr. Blumenthal serves as a member of the Advisory Council of the Stanford University in Washington (SIW) Program. This program offers qualified Stanford University undergraduate students an opportunity to study and learn in a rigorous program in the nation’s capital. In addition to seminars and tutorials taught by Stanford faculty and national policy experts, each student is placed in a substantive internship that enables them to work closely with individuals in Washington’s wide range of governmental and non-governmental organizations. Students also have ample opportunities to interact with local alumni and to enjoy Washington’s vast cultural resources. Dr. Blumenthal also served as a Visiting Professor at Stanford University in Washington teaching a course on women’s health policy.
Member, Board of Trustees
Fords Theater
Dr. Blumenthal serves as member of the Board of Trustees of Ford’s Theatre. Ford’s Theatre explores the legacy of President Abraham Lincoln and celebrates the American experience through theatre productions and education.
Former Member, Board of Trustees
and Chair, National Childhood Obesity Prevention Council
Save the Children
Dr. Blumenthal has served on the Board of Trustees of Save the Children appointed in February 2005. She also served as the Chair of its National Childhood Obesity Prevention Council. Save the Children is the leading independent organization creating lasting change in the lives of children in need in the United States and around the world. Recognized for its commitment to accountability, innovation and collaboration, Save the Children’s work takes the organization into the heart of communities to help children and families help themselves.
Former Member, Board of Trustees
Meridian International Center
Meridian International Center is a non-profit institution that promotes international understanding through the exchange of people, ideas and the arts. Established in 1960 and headquartered in Washington, DC, Meridian offers a wide array of outreach, exchanges, and arts programs. We educate people of all ages about global issues, connect professionals from different countries and enrich the cultural perspective of audiences across the United States and abroad. Dr. Blumenthal served on the Center’s Board of Trustees.
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