Jonathan M. Mann oral history collection

Collection

Identifier: HHC 53

Staff Only

Scope and Content

This interview with Dr. Jonathan M. Mann of Boston, Massachusetts (1947-1998), a nationally and internationally renowned epidemiologist, surveys broadly his career as of 1996, but focuses specifically on his ten years in New Mexico, 1975-1984. During that period, Dr. Mann served as New Mexico State Epidemiologist and in other capacities within the New Mexico state public health department. The interview includes discussion of Dr. Mann's personal and professional backgrounds; his selection of a public health career; his assignment to New Mexico's public health work and his tenure within the state; structure, strengths, and weaknesses of New Mexico's public health apparatus and personnel; and relationships between the public health system and the private sector.

Series I. Oral History, 1996.

Series II. Memorials, 1998.

Dates

1996

Creator

Spidle, Jake W., 1941- (Person)

Language of Materials

English

Access Restrictions

The collection is available for research and open to the public.

Copy Restrictions

Limited duplication of print materials allowed for research purposes. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Biography or History

Jonathan Mann (1947-1998) and his wife, Mary Lou Clements-Mann, a world-renowned expert on vaccines and founder of the Center for Immunization Research at Johns Hopkins University, were killed on September 2, 1998 in the crash of SwissAir Flight 111 on their way to attend a World Health Organization conference in Geneva, Switzerland. Dr. Mann was a world-renowned researcher and champion of human rights whose experiences with international AIDS policies led him to see a link between human rights and health. It was at Dr. Mann's suggestion that the School of Public Health at Harvard began a commencement tradition of awarding each graduate a copy of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with each diploma. He founded Doctors of the World-USA in 1991 as an independent, non-profit, non-sectarian organization working at the intersection of health and human rights.

Jonathan Max Mann was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1947. He received a B.A. in history from Harvard College in 1969 and completed his medical education at Washington University School of Medicine in 1974. After an internship year at Boston's Beth Israel Hospital, Dr. Mann was sent to New Mexico by the Centers for Disease Control's Bureau of Epidemiology to work with the state's Health and Social Services Department as State Epidemiologist. He received his Masters in Public Health from Harvard in 1980 and returned to the state to a position with the New Mexico Health and Environment Department. In his last years in New Mexico, Dr. Mann was elected president of the New Mexico Public Health Association and the Santa Fe County Medical Association.

From 1984 to 1986, Dr. Mann was Director of the Zaire AIDS Research Programme (Project SIDA), a project that incorporated epidemiologic, clinical, and laboratory components in a collaborative effort among Zairian, Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and Belgian AIDS researchers. He also was the Assistant to the Director of the CDC's AIDS Program for International Activities. From the CDC, he moved to the World Health Organization in Geneva to start its Global Programme on AIDS. In 1990 Mann returned to the Harvard School of Public Health as a professor in epidemiology and international health. In 1993 he was appointed the first Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Professor of Health and Human Rights and founding director of the Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights. In 1998, Mann assumed the deanship of the School of Public Health of the Allegheny University of Health Sciences in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Extent

1 oversized folder (2 audio tapes)

Additional Description

Abstract

This collection consists of an oral history transcript and an article which focus on the career of Jonathan Mann (1947-1998), in his ten years working in the state of New Mexico starting with his first job on assignment from the Centers for Disease Control, Bureau of Epidemiology from 1974 to 1977 and ending with his seven years working with the New Mexico Health and Environment Department as State Epidemiologist/Chief Medical Officer/Deputy Director.

Separated Material

Original audio recordings are stored in the Special Collections Annex.

Bibliography

Publications by Jonathan Mann.

AIDS: Prevention Through Education: A World View, edited by Jaime Sepulveda, Harvey Fineberg, Jonathan Mann.
"AIDS: Etiology, Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prevention, " in AIDS: Etiology, Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prevention, 3rd. edition.
"Global Aspects of the HIV Epidemic," in AIDS: Etiology, Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prevention, 3rd. edition.
"Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome and Human Rights," in AIDS: Etiology, Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prevention, 4th edition.
"Medicine and Public Health, Ethics and Human Rights," in New Ethics for the Public's Health.
Vamps, Virgins and Victims: How Can Women Fight AIDS?, by Robin Goma and Jonathan M. Mann.
Health and Human Rights: A Reader, by Sofia Gruskin, Jonathan M. Mann, and Michael A. Grodin.
AIDS in the World II: Global Dimensions, Social Roots, and Responses, by Jonathan M. Mann, and Daniel J. M. Taratola.