Rath Receives 2003 J. Warren Perry Health Leadership Award

BUFFALO, N.Y -- Sen. Mary Lou Rath today was presented the 2003 J. Warren Perry Health Leadership Award by the University at Buffalo School of Public Health and Health Professions in recognition of her efforts to improve health in Western New York.

The award was presented to Rath, co-chair of the New York State Senate's Task Force on Wellness, by Maurizio Trevisan, M.D., interim dean of the school.

"Senator Rath has been a leader in numerous efforts to improve the health and well being of New Yorkers and a source of inspiration for other political and corporate leaders and the public," Trevisan noted.

"Her most recent efforts to stimulate and expand worksite wellness programs and to tackle such major public-health concerns as childhood obesity put her at the forefront of our efforts to ensure a long and healthy life for all of us and for future generations."

The award is named in honor of J. Warren Perry, founding dean of UB's former School of Health Related Professions from 1966-77.

It was presented to Rath prior to the 2003 J. Warren Perry Lecture in the Screening Room in the Center for the Arts on the UB North (Amherst) Campus.

The lecture, "Obesity in African American Women: Reflections on the Epidemic Within the Epidemic," was delivered by Shiriki Kumanyika, Ph.D., associate dean for health promotion and disease prevention and professor of epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.