Pascal James Imperato
Description
Dr. Pascal James Imperato received his MD degree from the State University of New York, and then completed a residency in internal medicine at Long Island College Hospital. He was awarded the Glorney-Raisbeck Fellowship of the New York Academy of Medicine, and served his fellowship at the International Center for Medical Research and Training located at the Universidad del Valle in Cali, Colombia, and at Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, from where he received his MPH&TM degree. He then served for six years as a medical epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in West Africa, where he directed mass immunization campaigns against smallpox, measles, yellow fever, cholera, and meningococcal meningitis. The U.S. Department of State awarded him its Meritorious Honor Award and Medal for this work. He returned to the United States and worked for the New York City Department of Health, as Director of the Bureau of Infectious Disease Control and Principal Epidemiologist, First Deputy Commissioner of Health and Director of the department’s Residency Training Program in Public Health, and as Commissioner of Health and Chair of the Board of Directors of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation. He was also Chair of the New York State Board for Medicine, and for several years was a member of the Fulbright Screening Committee for Africa. He also served for seven years as editor of the New York State Journal of Medicine, now edits the Journal of Community Health, and is on the editorial boards of the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice and The Pharos. Dr. Imperato has served on many medical school committees and task forces. He served two 4-year terms as Chair of the Committee on Educational Policy and Curriculum (Curriculum Committee), chaired the Second Year Promotions Committee for twelve years, and was Chair of the Special Working Group on the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education Relationship. He also served as course director for the required Second Year Course in Preventive Medicine and Community Health from 1978 to 1998. Since 1980, he has served as course director for the program’s international health elective, “Health Care in Developing Countries.” His research in recent years has focused on clinical outcomes and health care quality improvement. In 1999, Dr. Imperato received the New York City Department of Health’s Public Health Achievement Award, and was made a Master of the American College of Physicians. In 2003, he was awarded the James D. Bruce Memorial Award for Distinguished Contributions in Preventive Medicine by the American College of Physicians, and in 2008, the Haven Emerson Award of the Public Health Association of New York City for distinguished contributions to public health in New York City. He became Chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health at the State University of New York. He is now Distinguished Service Professor and Dean of the School of Public Health at SUNY, and also the Interim Chair for the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology.
Books
Legends, Sorcerers, and Enchanted Lizards
"The Bamana People are known for their rich, artistic traditions, including the creation of masks, statues, headdresses, and ritual and utilitarian objects: their door locks are among the most remarkable of all African art. Sculpted of wood in a wide variety of forms, they depict mythological and historical figures - crocodiles, lizards, tortoises, owls, bats, butterflies, deities, and humans.". "Known as konbarabara, these locks were once presented to young women at the time of their marriage and affixed to the doors of their new homes. And so accompanying the lock's artistic and spiritual significance in Bamana society came a cherished symbol of marriage and a family's personal history.". "This in-depth study of these beautiful sculptures and the ingenuity of their locking systems contains three parts: the first provides an overview of the Bamana people and their philosophical and spiritual beliefs; the second presents a comprehensive discussion of the Bamana doors and locks; the third, the Catalogue, contains photographs of sixty-seven locks and four doors with locks, each with detailed and engaging descriptions."--BOOK JACKET.
Quest for the Jade Sea
The last of the major African lakes to be visited by European travelers in the late nineteenth century, Lake Rudolf lies in the eastern arm of the great Rift Valley in present-day northern Kenya, near the Ethiopian border. Also known as Lake Turkana, Lake Rudolf is a large salt water body one hundred and fifty-five miles long and twenty miles wide; it has long been called the Jade Sea. Quest for the Jade Sea examines the fascinating story of colonial competition around this remote lake. Pascal James Imperato's account yields important insights into European colonial policies in East Africa in the late nineteenth century and how these policies came into conflict with a powerful indigenous and independent African state, Ethiopia, which itself was engaged in imperial expansion. As well as examining the political and diplomatic aspects of colonial competition for Lake Rudolf, Quest for the Jade Sea focuses on the expeditions that traveled there. Many of these were the field expressions of colonial policy; others were undertaken in the interest of scientific and geographical discovery. Whatever the impetus, their success required courage and much suffering on the part of those who led them. Whether as willing agents of larger colonial designs, soldiers intent on promoting their military careers, or explorers who wished to advance scientific knowledge, expedition leaders left behind not only fascinating chronicles of their experiences and discoveries, but also parts of the larger story of colonial competition around an East African lake.
They married adventure
Martin and Osa Johnson thrilled American audiences of the 1920s and 1930s with their remarkable movies of faraway places, exotic peoples, and the dramatic spectacle of African wildlife. Their own lives were as exciting as the movies they made - sailing through the South Sea Islands with Jack and Charmian London, dodging big game at African waterholes, flying small planes over the veldt, taking millionaires on safari. Osa Johnson's ghostwritten autobiography, I Married. Adventure, became a national bestseller. The 1940 film version was billed as "the story of World Exploration's First Lady, whose indomitable daring would be stayed by neither snarling lion nor crouching leopard, tropic tempest nor savage tribesman!" Heroes to millions, this handsome pair from Kansas seemed to embody glamor, daring, and the all-American ideal of self-reliance. Probing beneath the surface of the Johnsons' public image, Pascal and Eleanor Imperato explore. The more human side of the couple's lives - and ways the Johnsons shaped, for better and for worse, America's vision of Africa. Drawing on many years of research, access to a wealth of letters and archives, interviews with many who worked closely with the Johnsons, and their own deep knowledge of Africa, the authors present a fascinating and intimate portrait of this intrepid couple.
Acceptable risks
We all know life is full of risks, and having to choose between risks in nothing new; accepting risks has become second nature to us. So why do the media announce almost weekly the evidence of yet another hazard to our safety- and why do we bitterly debate legislation regarding it? Perhaps because as the public becomes more knowledgeable about the nature and effects of many risks, we are also learning how risks are being 'managed' for us. We are being asked not only to confront personal, voluntary risks, but also to decide which involuntary risks are acceptable- and what is voluntary for one person has a way of becoming imposed on another. Or what may seem an 'acceptable' risk standard to a group of government regulators may not be to the citizens to whom that agency is responsible. This book is a political, philosophical, and psychological examination of risks in our society: an investigation of how risks are defined and responded to on a personal, corporate, and governmental- even global- basis. At its core is the fact that today the public is often ambivalent toward risk, at least until it begins to affect us personally. As the authors discuss a range of issues and proceed from chosen risks to how the public is informed, misinformed, or uninformed about risks, we learn of the impact our inaction has on our lives and by understanding risk determination, how we have come to live in a world of risks that are considered respectable, acceptable risks. -- from Book Jacket.
Over Land and Sea
"An explorer of East Africa in the era of Livingstone and Stanley, Hohnel mapped vast areas of modern-day Kenya and Tanzania. While in Africa, he was seriously injured by a charging rhinoceros and was transported back to Europe, where he recovered. He then rejoined the Austro-Hungarian Navy and rose steadily in rank until his retirement in 1909. During this time, Hohnel was given the prestigious appointment of aide-de-camp to the aged Emperor Franz Josef, whom he served (and critically observed) at court between 1899 and 1903.". "During the 1920s, with the encouragement of his friend William Astor Chanler, Hohnel produced a handwritten, English-language autobiography. This manuscript had been in the possession of the Chanler family for several decades, but was only recently discovered. It appears in print for the first time in this volume. The turbulent years preceding the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in 1918 are revived through Hohnel's vibrant memoir."--BOOK JACKET.