Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation

President’s Biography

June E. Osborn, M.D.

Dr. Osborn became the sixth president of the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation in New York in September 1996. She received a B.A. from Oberlin College in 1957 and an M.D. from Case Western Reserve University in 1961. She spent three years in training as a pediatric resident at Boston Children’s and Massachusetts General Hospitals and then two years as a postdoctoral fellow in virology and infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins Medical School and at the University of Pittsburgh. From 1966 to 1984 she was on the faculty of the University of Wisconsin Medical School where she was Professor in the Departments of Medical Microbiology and of Pediatrics. In 1975 she also became Associate Dean for Biological Sciences in the University of Wisconsin Graduate School.

In 1984, she left Wisconsin to become Dean of the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan, which position she held until 1993. She was also Professor of Epidemiology in the School of Public Health and Professor of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases in the University of Michigan Medical School. In 1986 she was elected to membership in the Institute of Medicine and from 1995 to 2000 she was a member of its governing Council. In 1994 she was also elected to fellowship in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Since the early 1970s she has played advisory roles concerning virology, infectious diseases and vaccines, health care, public health and public policy for a number of federal agencies including FDA, NIH, CDC, as well as for the World Health Organization. During the past fifteen years she has worked also with a number of private foundations, including chairmanship of the National Advisory Committee for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation ís AIDS Health Services Project (1986-90), membership on the Public Advisory Board for the Pew/Rockefeller Health of the Public Program, and from 1990-1998 served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Kaiser Family Foundation. In 2005 she was elected to the Board of Trustees of the United States Pharmacopeia for a five year term.

From 1984-1989 she served as chairwoman of the NIH National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute advisory committee on AIDS, and from 1988-92 as member of the Global Commission on AIDS of the World Health Organization. From 1989-93 she was chairwoman of the U.S. National Commission on AIDS. She has recently served as a member of the board of the MIND Institute (Albuquerque) and the International Advisory Board for the National Academies. She is currently a member of the Editorial Board of J.A.M.A. From 1997 to 2003 she chaired Physician Leadership on National Drug Policy, an activity based at Brown University that is attempting to bring a medical voice to the United States discourse concerning substance abuse policy.

She has published extensively on research topics in virology, infectious diseases, AIDS and public policy related to health care and public health. She received the distinguished alumna award from Case Western Reserve University Medical School in 1993, and in 1994 she shared with Dr. Mathilde Krim the Scientific Freedom and Responsibility Award of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In June 2000 she received the eighth Public Service Award from the National Institutes of Health Alumni Association. She has received honorary degrees (DSc, DmedSc or DHL) from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (1990), Yale University (1992), Emory University (1993), Oberlin (1993), Medical College of Pennsylvania (1994), Rutgers University (1994), Case Western Reserve University (1997) SUNY-Stony Brook (1999) and the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2004).