Joel Breman, MD '65

Dr. Joel Breman

When Joel Breman graduated from the Keck School of Medicine of USC in 1965, the last thing on his mind was a career in international health. But after two years of internship and internal medicine residency at L.A. County Hospital, he decided that he would like to take a year or two off to see medical problems in a developing country.  Paul Wehrle, then Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at the Keck School, pointed Breman toward the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, which was just beginning to undertake a smallpox eradication-measles control program in partnership with 20 countries in West and Central Africa.  The program was part of a World Health Organization effort to eradicate smallpox.

Breman and his wife, Vicki, an LA County Hospital-trained nurse, spent two years in Guinea, West Africa.  There, he was captivated by the exotic diseases and cultures and realized he needed more training if he wanted to make any lasting impact.  After training in infectious diseases (in Boston) and tropical medicine (in London), Breman and his family returned to Africa in 1972, where he spent four years in Burkina Faso doing vaccine preventable diseases research, establishing surveillance for smallpox, cholera, and yellow fever, and beginning studies on malaria.

From 1977 to 1980 he was at the World Health Organization in Geneva, responsible for orthopoxvirus research and the global certification of smallpox eradication.  After the “death certificate” for smallpox was signed by all countries in 1980, Breman returned to the CDC and began working on malaria epidemiology and control, which again brought him to Africa, repeatedly, to do research and train young scientists in clinical investigation of drug efficacy, the impact of malaria on pregnancy, mosquito vector control, and the development of policies for managing patients and preventing disease.  In 1995, he moved to the Fogarty International Center (FIC), National Institutes of Health, where he has been the director of the International Training and Research Program in Emerging Infectious Diseases and is currently Senior Scientific Advisor.

Breman realizes the importance of having international experiences early in a student’s career.  One can broaden their perspectives medically and culturally and become a true global citizen while contributing a small bit and gaining great personal and professional satisfaction.  These opportunities just didn’t exist during the 1960's and many medical schools still don’t have a global view.

In his commencement address at the Keck School titled “Physician as Internationalist:  What Ebola virus Means to the Class of 1995”, given 30 years after his own graduation, Breman underscored the importance of training at USC and LA County Hospital in preparing him for a career in international health.  As a grateful graduate he has worked with Clive Taylor, MD, PhD, Senior Associate Dean for Education, and Linda Werner in the Office of Educational Affairs to establish the Global Health Initiative and the student travel fellowships for research which he has been funding with the School for the past five years.

Breman, 2nd from right, with Fogarty International Center, NIH colleagues, celebrates success of Disease Control Project

The ability to offer financial support enables the Keck School of Medicine of USC to compete with the country’s finest medical schools in attracting the very best students. The Keck School of Medicine of USC depends on the generosity of friends, supporters and alumni to allow us to offer the best possible merit and need based scholarships.