Renée Joskow, D.D.S, M.P.H, Captain, U.S. Public Health Service, and Special Advisor, National Institutes of Health will be the commencement speaker and honorary degree recipient for the Doctor of Science, Schools of Medicine and Dental Medicine commencement, Monday, May 8, Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts, at 1:00 p.m. Joskow is a dentist and a medical epidemiologist who has dedicated her life to service and leading change.
Joskow holds the rank of Captain in the U.S. Public Health Service whose mission is “protecting, promoting, and advancing the health and safety of the Nation.” She has inspired others through teaching and mentoring and has provided high quality clinical care and public health expertise in the U.S. and abroad.
A graduate of Columbia University’s dual-degree Doctor of Dental Surgery and Master of Public Health program, Joskow completed both a hospital-based General Practice Residency and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Dental Public Health Residency/ Intramural Fellowship. She spent the first half of her professional career integrating teaching, clinical care, and public health.
As faculty and course director at Columbia University’s College of Dental Medicine and as an Attending Dentist at two hospitals, she cared for patients, taught, and mentored medical and dental students as well as residents. Concurrently, Joskow maintained a private dental practice in New York and founded a quality assurance and quality control consulting business working with several healthcare entities in the tri-state region.
After nearly 15 years in the academic, corporate, and clinical sectors, Joskow was commissioned in the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia as an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) Officer, or “disease detective”. After her EIS assignment, Joskow joined the Office of the Surgeon General where she served as the Medical Readiness Manager/Training and Education Chief for the USPHS Commissioned Corps, responsible for the training of over 6,100 physicians, dentists, nurses, pharmacists, scientists, and other health professionals.
She went on to serve as a Senior Medical Epidemiologist and Program Manager in the Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate. Joskow later returned to the NIH providing subject matter expertise and program management for a multi-million-dollar Clinical Translational Science Award research program to promote and accelerate the
We are honored to have Dr. Joskow as our keynote speaker at the commencement ceremony this year and look forward to the wealth of experience, insight, and wisdom she will share share with this year’s graduates.
