D.A. Henderson, MD, MPH (1928

Dr. D. A. Henderson, served for 10 years as the Director of the World Health Organization’s global smallpox eradication campaign. Smallpox, a lethal and contagious disease, killed more than 300 million people during the 20th century, but not one since 1980. Smallpox is the only human disease eradicated, and no single individual played a more important role in the eradication program--an effort many consider to be one of the greatest accomplishments of the human race. This website features video and audio interviews with Dr. Henderson conducted between 2006–2013.

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Dr. Henderson served as a Distinguished Scholar at the UPMC Center for Health Security and Professor of Public Health and Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh; Director of the Office of Public Health Emergency Preparedness and, later, as a Principal Science Advisor in the Office of the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services; Associate Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, Executive Office of the President; Dean of the Faculty of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health; and Chief of the Surveillance Section of the Epidemiology Branch of the Centers for Disease Control.

In 2002, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. In 2015, he was awarded Taiwan’s Prince Mahidol Award for Public Health, and in 2013 he was presented with the Order of the Brilliant Star with Grand Cordon, the highest civilian honor awarded by the Republic of China (Taiwan). He is the recipient of the National Medal of Science, the National Academy of Sciences’ Public Welfare Medal, and the Japan Prize. He has received honorary degrees from 17 universities and special awards from 19 countries.

Dr. Henderson, a Lakewood, Ohio, native, graduated from Oberlin College, the University of Rochester School of Medicine, and the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. He served as a medical resident at the Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital in Cooperstown, New York.

These videos are directed and produced by Randall Larsen Presents.

D. A. Henderson, MD, MPH

(1928 – 2016)

Interviews with Dr. Henderson