ABOUT US

REACH Board of Directors

Irwin Redlener, MD, CEO and Director

Children’s Health Fund

Associate Dean for Public Health Advocacy and Preparedness and

Director, National Center for Disaster Preparedness

As President and Co-Founder of The Children's Health Fund (CHF), Dr. Redlener founded the National Children's Health Project Network, which consists of mobile-based and other primary care programs for severely disadvantaged child populations in 17 urban and rural communities across the country. The Fund's flagship program, The New York Children's Health Project, is the nation's largest dedicated healthcare program for homeless children.

At the Columbia University Joseph L. Mailman School of Public Health, Dr. Redlener serves as Associate Dean for Public Health Advocacy and Preparedness, and Director of its National Center for Disaster Preparedness. Previously Dr. Redlener had a lead role in the development of the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore, where he served as president and chief spokesperson.

In his role as pediatrician-child advocate, Dr. Redlener has published, spoken and testified extensively on the subjects of health care for homeless and indigent children, child abuse and neglect and national health policy. Since September 2001, Dr. Redlener has spoken widely on preparedness with regard to chemical, biological and nuclear terrorism. He has worked to develop national protocols around prevention of and response to the effects of children’s exposure to weapons of terror. In 1996, he completed a two-year term as Chairman of the National Advisory Council on the National Health Service Corps. He currently leads Kids First, Kids Now!, a national CHF initiative proposing comprehensive health reform for children.

Dr. Redlener has served as a consultant to the White House and to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. Previous experiences include international work on access to health services in Ethiopia, Sudan, Russia, Guatemala, and Honduras and the development of special initiatives addressing the problems of child abuse and neglect. Dr. Redlener received his medical degree from the University of Miami School of Medicine and pediatric training at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, University of Colorado and Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami.

He is a lecturer in pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and holds an honorary Doctor of Science degree from Hunter College in New York City.