FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 9, 1998
RUTHERFORD NAMED DIRECTOR
OF UCSF PREVENTIVE MEDICINE RESIDENCY PROGRAM
George W. Rutherford, MD, UCSF adjunct professor in epidemiology and
biostatistics, has been appointed director of the new UCSF Preventive
Medicine Residency Program, part of a joint program with the UC Berkeley
School of Public Health.
Rutherford is well known for his research contributions regarding the
epidemiology and public health issues of the AIDS epidemic. He has held
several key public health positions at the local and state level.
As director of the UCSF program, Rutherford's goal is to prepare physicians
for practice of preventive medicine and public health in the next century
and to establish it as the best preventive medicine residency program in
the nation. Physicians will be trained for careers in public health
practice, careers in medical management, or careers in preventive medical
research and teaching.
Rutherford's experience in the public health field includes service as an
Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer for the Center for Disease Control
from 1982-84, while also carrying out duties as director of the
Immunization and Tropical Disease Division in the New York City Department
of Health. From 1985-90, he was director of the AIDS Office in the San
Francisco Department of Public Health.
"Dr. Rutherford has exceptional skills as an administrator as evidenced by
his accomplishments at the San Francisco health department," said Steve
Hulley MD, MPH, chair and professor of the UCSF Department of Epidemiology
and Biostatistics. "He has the ability to attract first rate people around
him and under his leadership, the AIDS Office changed rapidly from being a
typical county health department into one of the world's premier AIDS
research groups and the sponsor of an annual national AIDS conference."
Rutherford was the state's leading public health official in the area of
infectious disease epidemiology from 1990-92, with an appointment as the
state epidemiologist for the California Department of Health Services. In
1993, he was named state health officer, serving for two years as the top
physician and chief public health official for the state health department.
In 1995 he was appointed associate dean for the UCB School of Public Health
as well as the director of the UCB Preventive Medicine Residency Program.
In addition to numerous articles in scientific journals, Rutherford
authored the book Communicable Disease Control in a Managed Care
Environment (1995). He has also authored chapters in several books on
public health issues including "Control Of Communicable Diseases In Man"
(1985), "The Statistical Analysis and Mathematical Modeling of AIDS"
(1987), "HIV and AIDS In The United States: Risks For Children And
Adolescents" (1988), and "AIDS and Reproduction" (1992).
He has served on a number of journal editorial boards and is an associate
editor of Current Issues in Public Health and is an assistant editor for
public health practice for the Western Journal of Medicine. He also serves
as president of the California Academy of Preventive Medicine, chair of the
California Department of Health Services' California Tuberculosis
Elimination Advisory Committee, and a member of the state's Tobacco,
Education, and Research Oversight Committee.
Rutherford graduated from Duke University School of Medicine in 1978. He
received three degrees from Stanford University: an MA in history and a BS
in chemistry, both in 1975, and a BA in classics in 1974. He completed his
pediatric residency at the UC San Diego Medical Center in 1982.
He lives in Piedmont with his wife and six children.
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