Columbia Mailman Gears up for its Centennial Year

Initially founded as the [Joseph] DeLamar Institute of Public Health in 1922, the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health will officially mark its centennial next year. In celebration of the school’s first 100 years, the Columbia Mailman School will begin the centennial festivities this fall.

This September, the School will begin the Centennial Celebration with a kickoff virtual event for Mailman students, faculty, staff, and alumni. Later in October, alumni will have the opportunity to participate in various virtual programming to commemorate the school. Then, in December 2021, the School will host a Centennial Alumni Holiday event (whether this event is virtual or live is still to be determined). Virtual programming for alumni will continue in spring 2022, and culminate in a live, in-person Centennial Alumni Summit (health restrictions permitting).

The celebrations will build upon the school’s 75th anniversary celebrations of 1998, the same year that the family of Joseph Mailman gave a generous gift in his name, prompting the then-named Columbia School of Public Health to be renamed the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. As part of the 1998 celebration, the School was recognized in a special February 1998 issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology. The journal issue featured articles commemorating the School’s important milestone by former Dean Dr. Allan Rosenfield, Dr. Mervyn Susser, and by Drs. Annette B. Ramirez de Arellano and Sam Wolfe. Notably, Drs. Ramirez de Arellano and Wolfe also composed a substantial history of the Columbia Mailman School to mark the 75th anniversary; this body of work numbers over 200 pages and can be found in the Archives and Special Collections of the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library on the 168th Street campus.

Founded with the 1922 mandate to "study and [teach] the origins and cause of human disease and the prevention thereof," the School has, in the past 100 years, played an important role in public health in New York City, nation-wide, and internationally. In closing, his 1998 article on the School’s 75th anniversary in the American Journal of Epidemiology, Professor Mervyn Susser wrote:

“One has good grounds to hope, I believe, that a tradition which has aimed high for academic excellence, and equally high for the health of populations, whether local, national, or international, will enable the School to rise to its future challenges.”[1]

In the last quarter century that followed, these words have proven true. As an institution that has shaped public health for close to 100 years, the Columbia Mailman School—with its rich community of students, alumni, and faculty—is undoubtedly well-positioned to tackle the pressing public health challenges of the 21st century.

Columbia Mailman alumni are invited to join centennial celebrations! Stay tuned for more the launch of the Centennial on September 9, 2021!

[1] Mervyn Susser, The Columbia University School of Public Health 75th Anniversary Issue: Introduction. American Journal of Epidemiology, Vol. 147. No. 3 (February 1, 1998).

– Nicole Iny, MPH ’10