Allan Rosenfield Alumni Award for Excellence

Kathleen Anne Crowley, PA-C, DrPH’13, MPH’91 

Dr. Kathleen Crowley serves as the Vice President of Environmental Health and Safety (EH&S) at Columbia University and is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. Dr. Crowley earned both her MPH and DrPH from Columbia Mailman and is a board-certified physician assistant, with her initial training from Stony Brook Health Sciences Center. 

A distinguished member of the Columbia community, Dr. Crowley has been honored with Columbia University’s highest Alumni Medal Award, recognizing her significant contributions to building and strengthening the Columbia community. She is also the recipient of the Exceptional Service Award from Columbia University’s Department of Public Safety. 

In her current role, Dr. Crowley oversees a broad range of environmental health and safety responsibilities, ensuring regulatory compliance across multiple critical areas. EH&S serves as a central department addressing all safety matters, including biosafety, chemical hygiene and research safety, fire-life safety in laboratories, hazardous materials management, occupational safety and industrial hygiene, radiation research, and clinical radiation safety. Her work spans five University campuses, five NewYork-Presbyterian Hospitals, and ColumbiaDoctors. She has been instrumental in fostering proactive programming, especially in the management of hazardous, radioactive, universal, and regulated waste materials, with a strong emphasis on reducing, reusing, and recycling. Notably, during the COVID-19 pandemic, she served as the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons COVID-19 Safety Coordinator. 

Dr. Crowley’s commitment to Columbia extends beyond her professional role. She is a past president of the Columbia Mailman Alumni Board. Currently, she is an active member of the Columbia Alumni Association (CAA) Board, serves as the CAA Scholarship Ambassador for MSPH, and represents MSPH on the CAA Women’s Leadership Advisory Group. She is the inaugural co-chair of the “She Opened the Door” initiative and the Chair of the CAA Program Events Committee. Dr. Crowley is deeply involved in student mentorship, alumni relations, and fundraising efforts for the Scholarship Fund for Public Health Students. Her contributions include being a past presenter at Admitted Students Day in NYC, delivering the Closing Commencement Speech, and moderating at the Alumni Summit. She continues to mentor students and currently advises a DrPH candidate. 

A picture of Gaul Emrick in a blue top

Gail Emrick, MPH’87, MIA’87 

A global health & development specialist, Ms. Emrick has been SEAHEC’s Executive Director since 2008, advocating for rural, migrant and border health programs and workforce development.  Retiring from that position in August 2024, Gail continues health advocacy as Principal Investigator for an NIH ComPASS award “to increase access to mental and behavioral health services for rural Arizonans” using community health equity structural interventions (CHESI). She also serves as Adjunct Faculty at the University of Arizona College of Public Health.  

Ms. Emrick has dedicated her professional life to promoting the well-being of individuals, families, and communities in Central America and the U.S.-Mexico border regions. She has served as Regional Director of a USDA-funded food security program in Central America, as Adviser for strategic public/private partnerships for the United Nation’s World Food Program in El Salvador and directed a Mayan women’s health network in the highlands of Guatemala, immediately after graduation from Columbia University in 1987. Under her leadership, SEAHEC forged strategic alliances throughout Arizona for improving Arizona’s rural health workforce and has become a recognized leader in migrant and farmworker health advocacy, policy development and award-winning programming.   

In 2021, Ms. Emrick and SEAHEC received the National AHEC Organization “Community based Program” award for a model farmworker capacity building. Columbia University public health students were an integral part in that recognition. Ms. Emrick, in partnership with Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, developed a summer internship program, allowing Mailman students to intern with SEAHEC, learn about the challenges that farmworkers face in accessing basic services including healthcare. The program placed students for several consecutive years, while the local farmworker community developed their own cadre of community health workers, responsive to local health needs. 

  Gail earned a joint master’s from Columbia University in 1987 in public health and international affairs. When not at SEAHEC, Gail can be found playing with her newest family additions – grandbabies Keira, Charlie & Leonardo, or hiking in Arizona’s rugged mountains and desert landscape. 

 

Learn More About Our Awards

Recipients of the Allan Rosenfield Alumni Award for Excellence:

  • 2024: Kathleen Crowley, DrPH’13, MPH’91, PA-C and Gail Emrick, MPH’87, MIA'87
  • 2022: Aletha Maybank, MD, MPH
  • 2021: Dr. Melanie Bernitz, Dr. Wafaa El-Sadr, Dr. Donna Lynne
  • 2020: Leslie M. Kantor, PhD, MPH
  • 2018: M. Monica Sweeney, MD, MPH, FACP
  • 2017: Sandro Galea, MD, MPH, DrPH '03
  • 2016: John A. MacPhee, MBA, MPH '12
  • 2015: Paul W. Brandt-Rauf, DrPH '87, MD '79, ScD '74
  • 2014: Sten H. Vermund, MD, MPhil '87, PhD '90
  • 2013: Ilise Zimmerman, MS '79, MPH '79
  • 2012: David Michaels, MPH '81, PhD '87
  • 2011: Salim and Quarraisha Abdool Karim, MD '89
  • 2010: James T. Harden, MBA '78, MPH '83
  • 2009: Thomas R. Frieden, MD, MPH '85
  • 2008: Michael H. Barnett, JD, MS '70
  • 2007: Nancy R. Barhydt, RN, DrPH '79

To submit a nomination for the Allan Rosenfield Alumni Award, or for questions, please email us.