How PopFam Has Changed the World
The Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health celebrates a half-century of transforming global health through bold research, rights-based advocacy, and lifesaving interventions
This year marks a historic milestone for the Columbia Mailman Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health (PopFam) as it celebrates its 50th anniversary. Since its founding in 1975, the department has been a trailblazer in maternal and child health, adolescent health, care in crisis settings, reproductive health, and environmental justice—shaping policies and saving lives in some of the world’s most vulnerable communities.
Today, the department has 100 faculty and staff whose work spans over 70 countries and across communities in the United States. More than 160 students annually can choose to specialize in topics including child, youth, and family health; public health and humanitarian action; sexuality, sexual and reproductive health; health and human rights; and public health research methods. Alumni hold leadership positions in nonprofits and NGOs, at universities and research institutions, at various levels of government, industry, and in hospitals and health-care centers.
To commemorate this anniversary, PopFam is launching a months-long celebration, highlights including the launch of the PopFam Changemaker Scholarship, a video series on the department’s global impact, storytelling initiatives showcasing alumni achievements, and a lineup of special events. The anniversary honors five decades of groundbreaking research, education, and advocacy—work that has redefined public health in complex settings, advanced human rights, and transformed care for marginalized populations.
“For 50 years, PopFam has transformed public health by turning evidence into action. From reducing maternal mortality to responding to humanitarian crises, we’ve proven that health justice demands courage, academic rigor, innovation, and trusted partnerships,” says Thoai D. Ngo, PopFam’s chair.
PopFam was established in 1975 as a center by Allan Rosenfield, a visionary leader in maternal and reproductive health who later served as the dean of Columbia Mailman from 1986 to 2008. From the outset, the department took a rights-based approach, challenging conventional public health paradigms. One of its earliest milestones occurred in 1985, when Rosenfield and Deborah Maine published their seminal Lancet paper, “Maternal Mortality—A Neglected Tragedy: Where Is the M in MCH?” This work exposed the systemic neglect of maternal health in low-income countries and laid the foundation for global efforts to reduce maternal mortality.
The following are some key ways PopFam has redefined public health and advanced equity for vulnerable populations worldwide:
Transforming Maternal Mortality
Established in 1999, PopFam’s Averting Maternal Death and Disability (AMDD) Initiative was the first global effort to frame maternal mortality as a human rights issue. Operating across 85 initiatives in 50 countries, AMDD influenced the World Health Organization’s Safe Motherhood Initiative and transformed how global specialists approach maternal health worldwide. AMDD also established Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care as the international gold standard for frontline maternal care worldwide. Between 1990 and 2015, this approach contributed to a nearly 44 percent decline in maternal deaths. In 18 countries, AMDD-supported facilities more than doubled the number of treatments for obstetric complications and cut case fatality rates in half, ultimately improving care for 270 million people.
Humanitarian Health and Crisis Response
For more than 25 years, PopFam has transformed how the world thinks about and responds to humanitarian crises and forced migration. As one of the world’s first academic programs dedicated to health in emergencies, PopFam has trained over 300 graduates who are now leading frontline innovation in fragile settings across more than 70 countries. PopFam faculty and researchers shaped the SPHERE standards, the global blueprint for ethical humanitarian aid. Their research on unaccompanied children in emergencies directly led to the 2012 U.S. Action Plan for Children in Adversity, the first federal policy addressing vulnerable children in crises.
Reproductive Health in Emergencies: The RAISE Initiative
From 2007-2020, PopFam’s Reproductive Health Access, Information, and Services in Emergencies (RAISE) Initiative reached more than 1.8 million new contraceptive users in over 30 crisis settings—with nearly half opting for long-acting reversible methods, a choice previously unavailable to most women in humanitarian settings. The program proved that quality sexual and reproductive health services are possible in crisis settings.
Emergency Medicine in Rwanda and Beyond
In 2005, PopFam founded the Columbia University Global Emergency Medicine Fellowship, one of the oldest emergency medicine fellowships in the country. PopFam played a pivotal role in establishing emergency medicine as a specialty in Rwanda, training physicians, and developing national protocols in collaboration with the Rwanda College of Medicine and Health Sciences and the Ministries of Health. Since 2013, 28 emergency specialists have graduated, strengthening health systems in low-resource settings.
Local Impact: From Local Clinics to Environmental Justice
Closer to home, PopFam’s Young Men’s Clinic in Washington Heights has become a national model for adolescent male health, offering comprehensive care, including sexual, mental, and primary care, to underserved youth. PopFam’s research on pesticide chlorpyrifos led to bans in nine U.S. states, protecting children from neurotoxic exposure. In 2018, Hawaii was the first state to outlaw the chemical after PopFam’s faculty presented evidence of its harms.
Looking Ahead: PopFam’s Next Chapter
Under its new chair, Thoai Ngo, PopFam is charting an ambitious course to tackle 21st-century challenges, from climate change to rampant misinformation. Ngo, a global health leader, emphasizes the importance of demographic resilience—integrating health, economic, and environmental strategies to build a more just and healthier world for the 10.3 billion who will inhabit this planet.
“Public health education and research must be bold, inclusive, and innovative,” Ngo says. “PopFam’s legacy proves that when evidence is grounded in justice and community partnership, it can transform lives.”
