Dr. Irwin Elliot Redlener, MD

President and Co-Founder, Children's Health Fund
Director, National Center for Disaster Preparedness
Clinical Professor of Population and Family Health, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
Clinical Professor of Pediatrics, College of Physicians & Surgeons, Columbia University

Dr. Redlener is president and co-founder, along with singer-songwriter, Paul Simon of the Children's Health Fund, a philanthropic initiative created to develop health care programs in some of the nation's most medically underserved urban and rural communities. He is also the director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, and he is one of ten members of the congressionally-established National Commission on Children and Disasters.

In his role as pediatrician-child advocate and president of the Children's Health Fund, Dr. Redlener has published, spoken and testified extensively on the subjects of health care for …homeless and indigent children, child abuse and neglect and national health policy. Recognized as a national expert on a range of issues, Dr. Redlener also speaks and writes extensively on national disaster preparedness policies, pandemic influenza, the threat of terrorism in the U.S., the impact and consequences of major natural disasters and related issues.

Dr. Redlener has worked extensively in the Gulf region following hurricane Katrina where he helped establish on-going medical and public health programs. He also organized medical response teams in the immediate aftermath of the World Trade Center attacks on 9/11 and has had disaster management leadership experience internationally and nationally. He is the author of Americans At Risk: Why We Are Not Prepared For Megadisasters and What We Can Do Now, published in August 2006 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.

In his various professional capacities Dr. Redlener has traveled in Europe, the Soviet Union and Central America. He has assisted relief efforts in Honduras, Guatemala, Ethiopia and South Florida. From 1971-73 he directed a rural, VISTA-run health center in East Arkansas. Dr. Redlener has also served as director of grants and medical director of USA for Africa and Hands Across America. The nationally acclaimed New York Children%u2019s Health Project, one of the country%u2019s largest health care program for homeless children and their families, was developed in 1987 by Dr. Redlener. It is the model for a number of innovative health care projects in The Children's Health Fund's network of programs serving disadvantaged child populations in 21 urban and rural communities across the country. In 1993, Dr. Redlener served as a member of the White House Task Force on Health Reform, under President Clinton. From 1997 through 2003, Dr. Redlener also had a lead role in the development of The Children's Hospital at Montefiore, where he served as president and chief spokesperson. This hospital remains one of the most advanced and innovative facilities of its kind in the world.

Dr. Redlener received his M.D. degree from the University of Miami School of Medicine, and pediatric training at Babies Hospital of the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City, the University of Colorado Medical Center and the University of Miami-Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami. He holds an honorary Doctor of Science degree from Hunter College of the City University of New York, among numerous other awards and honors.