Roger  Rochat

During my fourth year of medical school in Seattle in 1965, I received an LSU tropical medicine fellowship to study at the Children’s Hospital in San Jose, Costa Rica. Enroute to San Jose, I hitchhiked to New Orleans via Baltimore and Atlanta, stopping at medical centers to interview for internships.

After my residency at Charity Hospital in New Orleans, I joined CDC’s EIS program, as Oregon’s first EIS officer. That fall I went to East Pakistan to conduct the first field trial of oral therapy for cholera. Exposures to intense problems associated with rapid population growth, poverty, and crowding led me to change my career.

I transferred to CDC’s Family Planning Evaluation Activity and to the Georgia Health Department. One of my first tasks was to determine whether the 1968 Georgia law legalizing abortion would reduce maternal mortality. Because of continuing unequal access to services, it would not. A lawyer cited this social inequity in Doe v. Bolton, the Supreme Court case from Georgia that was decided concurrently with Roe V. Wade.

Two years later, CDC supported my studying demography at Princeton. I returned to CDC, spent a year in the CDC Director’s Office of Program Planning and Evaluation supporting medical care for Tuskegee survivors, then returned to the Family Planning Evaluation Division.

With CDC’s major reorganization in 1980-81, I became the first Director of the Division of Reproductive Health. In 1985, CDC assigned me to Emory to develop the Global Health Track, and in 1987 to USAID, New Delhi for two years—in charge of Population, Health and Nutrition. When I returned from India, I spent six years developing Maternal and Child Health epidemiology in the Georgia Health Department.

After 30 years with CDC working in 40+ countries and with most State Health Departments, I retired from CDC in 1999—went with my brother briefly to Antarctica—and then joined RSPH, the first two years in Epidemiology and now in Global Health. I served as Director of Graduate Studies from 2003-2016 and from August 2016 to June 2021, I served as Coordinator, Humphrey Fellowship Program. I retired and became emeritus professor August 2022.

 

HONORS:

March 1978 - PHS Commendation Medal in recognition of sustained high quality work performance in the development of the international family planning evaluation assistance programs.

September 1981 - CDC Letter of Commendation for contribution to the U.S.-Mexico Border Survey conducted during the period June-Sept 1979 in 51 selected counties in four border states of Texas, NM, AZ, and CA, of maternal and child health planning on the U.S. side of the border.

Oct 1990 - Georgia March of Dimes for producing Infant Health in Georgia: Progress during the     1980s--a collaborative report by Georgia March of Dimes, Georgia Department of Human Resources, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Nov 1990 - CDC Commendation Medal for outstanding work and development of activities to reduce infant mortality and to assist states in conducting analytic projects, and to evaluate their infant mortality problems.

1992 - CDC Meritorious Service Medal for sustained significant contributions to the development of activities to prevent and control morbidity and mortality among infants and women of reproductive age.

1993 - Recipient, Carl Schultz (Population and Reproductive Health) Award, APHA

1996 - Georgia March of Dimes - For contributions to statewide prevalence study of perinatal exposure to cocaine-- a collaborative study by Georgia March of Dimes, Georgia Department of Human Resources, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

1999 - MCH Coalition Award for Lifetime Achievement in MCH epidemiology

2001-2002 Rollins School of Public Health, Student Government ‘Professor of the Year’

2004- Ipas In Appreciation “for your distinguished career in public service, research, teaching, and advocacy; for your visionary leadership in advancing maternal and child health, family planning, and women’s access to safe abortion care in the United States and globally; for your mentorship and support of students and young professionals in reproductive health; for your outstanding scholarly contributions over three decades in contraception, abortion, postabortion care and the epidemiology of maternal and child health. We do hereby honor and thank you for your unwavering support for women’s reproductive health and rights around the world.”

May 2009-The Thomas F. Sellers, Jr. Award "For exemplifying the ideals of public health and serving as a role model and mentor to his colleagues. This award is given to an individual who, like the man for whom it is named, represents the best qualities of collegiality."

May 2012 Emory Williams Distinguished Teaching Award, Emory University

Sept 2016 Zena Stein and Mervyn Susser Award for Lifetime Achievement, 2016 National MCH Epidemiology Awards for Contributing Substantially to the Advancement of the Field of MCH Epidemiology with Significant and Lasting Impact. Awarded by the Coalition for Excellence in MCH Epidemiology

Sept 18 2013 Global Health Faculty Seminar: 

Global Elimination of Maternal Mortality from Abortion (GH 530)

Annual GEMMA Evening 2014

Annual GEMMA Evening 2015: https://rsph.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Embed.aspx?id=ebef1b73-0c02-4e53-9433-52e45bd05554

Annual GEMMA Evening 2019: https://rsph.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=fa260b22-0096-416d-bfac-aae9017ada76

Sept 4, 2019 Global Health Faculty Seminar https://echo360.org/media/d5d92367-3e56-443c-8b8d-3a1454f6a15d/public

Sept 17, 2019 GH Seminar & seminar with midwifery students: https://rsph.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=13980393-ad32-440d-9e9b-aadc015603e6

Public Health Aspects of Abortion: A Lifetime Journey ...

www.youtube.com › watch › v=giMoAt5If-U

1:16:26

The UIC Center of Excellence in Maternal and Child Health ... Health Aspects of Abortion: A Lifetime Journey ...

http://giving.emory.edu/gemma/ 

https://sway.office.com/X3djbBg2FEAaKSd2?ref=Link 

professor emeritus; one page c.v.:

Roger W Rochat, M.D.

Education:

University of Rochester, A.B. 1962; University of Washington, M.D. 1966;

Residency, Tulane University, Charity Hospital, 1966-1968.

Centers for Disease Control, Epidemic Intelligence Service Fellow, 1968-1970

Office of Population, Princeton University, 1972-1973

Academic Appointments (selected):

Professor Emeritus 2022-

Research Professor, 2002-2022; Hubert Department of Global Health, Rollins School of Public Health

Coordinator, Humphrey Fellowship Program, 2016-2021; Director of Graduate Studies, 2004-2016

Joint Appointments: Department of Epidemiology; Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics

Clinical Associate Professor, Departments of Community Health, Sociology, Gynecology and Obstetrics, 1977-1985

Nonacademic Appointments (selected):

Medical Epidemiology, Centers for Disease Control, 1968-1999; Director, Division of Reproductive Health, 1981-1985

Maternal Child Health Epidemiologist, Georgia Division of Public Health, 1989-1997

Publications (selected):

Cash RA, Nalin DR, Rochat R, Reller LB, Haque ZA, Rahman AS. A clinical trial of oral therapy in a rural cholera-treatment center. J of Trop Medicine & Hygiene. 19(4):653-6, 1970

Rochat RW, Tyler CW Jr, Schoenbucher AK: An epidemiological analysis of abortion in Georgia.  Am J Public Health 1971;61:543?52.

Rochat RW: Abortion the Bible, and the Christian Physician.  Christian Medical Society Journal 7:19?26, (1976)

Cates W Jr, Rochat RW, Grimes DA, Tyler CW Jr.: Legalized abortion: effect on national trends of maternal and abortion related mortality (1940?1976. Am J Obstet Gynecol 132:211?4, (1978)

Rochat RW, Jabeen S., Rosenberg MJ, Measham AR, Khan AR: Maternal and abortion related deaths in Bangladesh, 1978?1979.  Int J Gynaecol Obstet 1981;19:155?64

Kaunitz AM, Spence C, Danielson TS, Rochat RW, Grimes DA.  Perinatal and maternal mortality in a religious group avoiding obstetric care. Am J Obstet Gynecol 1984; 150:826?831

Serbanescu F, Rochat R: Georgia Women’s Health Survey--1995: Preliminary Report, Georgia Department of Human Resources, Division of Public Health, Atlanta, Ga. October 1996 110 pp. Monograph

Rochat RW, Atrash H, Handler A: Observations from the CDC: Developing Maternal and Child Health Epidemiology Capacity in State and Local Health Departments, J of Women's Health & Gender-Based Medicine 8(9):1135-1139(1999) 

SM Lasswell, WD Barfield, RW Rochat, and L Blackmon: Perinatal Regionalization for Very Low-Birth-Weight and Very Preterm Infants: A Meta-analysis JAMA 2010 304: 992-1000

Rochat RW, Heath CW, Chu S, Marchbanks P.: Maternal and Child Health Epi-Aid Investigations, 1946-2005, American Journal of Epidemiology Supplement (2011) 174(11) Suppl, S80-S88

Lathrop E, Rochat RW: The GEMMA Seminar: A graduate public health course on Global Elimination of Maternal Mortality from Abortion: CONTRACEPTION-87(1): 6-10 (2013)

Wijesooriya NS, Rochat RW, Kamb ML, Turlapati P, Temmerman M, Broutet N, Newman LM, Global burden of maternal and congenital syphilis in 2008 and 2012:  Global Lancet, August, 2016: vol.4, No.8,e525-e533

Howatt E, Rochat RW, McFarland D, Del Rio C, From Albania to Zimbabwe: Ten Years Surveying Global Health Field Experiences at the Rollins School of Public Health, Global Health: Science and Practice Journal, Sept 2017, 5(3):468-475

Swanson, JM, MM Hennink, RW Rochat: "I have no choice": Influences on Contraceptive Use and Abortion among women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Afr J Reprod Health 2019; 23[1]: 128-138

Chowdhary, P., Newton-Levinson A, Rochat R “No One Does This for the Money or Lifestyle”: Abortion Providers’ Perspectives on Factors Affecting Workforce Recruitment and Retention in the Southern United States. MCHJ (2022).

Awards (selected): Society of Family Planning Lifetime Achievement Award (2021); Emory Williams Distinguished Teaching Award (2012); MCH Coalition Award for Lifetime Achievement (1999, 2016); APHA Carl Schultz Award (1993), CDC Meritorious Service Medal (1992); CDC Commendation (1979