User:Eghogirl/James Curran

James W. Curran

Dr. James W. Curran, MD, MPH, is an American epidemiologist and the current dean of the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Dr. Curran coordinated the 1981 task force on acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) as the epidemic unfolded. Considered a pioneer in AIDS research and advocacy, he led the HIV/AIDS Division at CDC through 1995, attaining the level of assistant attorney general from 1991-1995.

Education/Personal Life:
James W. Curran was born in Monroe, Michigan and graduated from the University of Detroit High School. Curran received his bachelors degree from the University of Notre Dame, his MD from University of Michigan, and a masters in public health from Harvard. He is married to Juanita Curran and they have two adult children, one of whom followed his footsteps into public health.

Career:
After graduating from medical school, Curran began working for the CDC in 1970 in the veneral disease (VD) branch. When several cases of Kaposi's sarcoma began being reported from San Francisco in 1981, the CDC asked Curran to chair a 3 month task force on the rare condition. The subsequent epidemic, chronicled in Randy Shilts' opus 'And the Band Played On' led Curran to a lifetime career in AIDS research, advocacy, and involvement. His subsequent positions at the CDC included Chief of the AIDS Branch of the Division of Viral Diseases in 1984, Director of the AIDS Program in 1985, Associate Director for HIV/AIDS in 1988, and Director of the Division of HIV/AIDS in 1989. He became assistant surgeon general in 1991 until his departure to Emory University in 1995. Curran is the current dean of the Rollins school of Public health and chair of Emory University's Center for AIDS research (CFAR). He has authored or coauthored more than 250 scholarly publications, most having to do with AIDS research.

Awards and Honors:
Edward Brandt, Jr., Award from the National Leadership Coalition Against AIDS, 1995

Surgeon General's Medal of Excellence, 1996

John Snow Award from the American Public Health Association, 2003.

Ryan White Award, 2011