The Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University celebrated the formal installation of two distinguished scholars: professor Alison Barkoff, a veteran civil rights advocate and health policy leader, as the Harold and Jane Hirsh Associate Professor of Health Law and Policy; and Timothy Holtz, a physician-epidemiologist with decades of global service, as the Sumner M. Redstone Global Chair in Public Health.
“These positions honor extraordinary scholarly achievement—and they also represent lasting commitments to research, teaching, mentorship, and public service,” said Milken Institute SPH Dean Lynn Goldman. “It is an honor to celebrate two individuals whose work embodies the highest aspirations of our field.”
Endowed professorships, as GW Provost Christopher Alan Bracey reminded the audience during the installation in late May, are not just titles. “They are enduring investments in excellence, leadership and impact,” he said. “By securing visionary appointments like these, we ensure that GW students continue to learn from the very best.”
For Barkoff, whose work has long bridged disability rights, federal policy and public health law, the appointment was both personal and political. “My life’s mission has been advocating for inclusion, equal access and equality for all,” she said, noting the influence of her brother’s experience with developmental disabilities and her years of advocacy inside and outside government. “I’ve learned that the people most impacted must always be the drivers of change—and I’m proud to bring that commitment to GW, where I’ve found a community that shares those values.”
Holtz, too, spoke from a place of conviction. A former CDC program director in Thailand and India as well as the deputy director of the National Institutes of Health Office of AIDS Research, he brought his epidemiologist’s eye to the climate crisis. “In a time of climate instability, pandemics and growing inequity, public health can feel overwhelmed,” he said. “But mathematics teaches us that complexity is not chaos—and that through persistence and a clear sense of purpose, we can find solutions. That’s what gives me hope: not blind optimism, but the conviction that action, grounded in science and compassion, still matters.”
It was, in the end, a day that honored not only the careers of two distinguished individuals but the enduring mission of public health itself—to ask hard questions, to challenge systems and to prepare future generations to do the same.
