More Women Rise to Leadership in Science and are Tackling Greatest Global Threats such as Climate Change and Future Pandemics

Newswise — WASHINGTON (Feb. 9. 2024)–As women have steadily risen to positions of leadership in scientific fields including public health, they are taking on some of the greatest challenges facing the world today including climate change and the pandemic. The United Nations designated Feb. 11 as International Day of Women and Girls in Science in order to celebrate the progress in increasing the number of women and girls going into fields such as engineering, artificial intelligence, and public health.

Lynn R. Goldman, Dean of the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health, is a nationally recognized expert in public health and an example of the strides women in science have made in recent years. Goldman is a pediatrician, epidemiologist and a leader in the field of environmental health science.

In 1993 she was appointed by President Bill Clinton and confirmed by the US Senate as the Assistant Administrator for Toxic Substances at the US Environmental Protection Agency. She was instrumental in crafting the first national environmental law to require measures to protect children from pesticides.

At the GW Milken Institute School of Public Health, Dean Goldman was the senior leader on the team that studied the impact that Hurricane Maria had on Puerto Rico. That report helped coastal communities all over the world begin to prepare for extreme weather caused by climate change.

Goldman was on the frontlines of the public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic and has frequently spoken in Congressional Town Hall Meetings and as a spokesperson for the national media. She has written about the importance of an early warning system to prevent the next pandemic and is frequently invited to testify before Congress about developments in the environmental health field.

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