Dr. M. Monica Sweeney Named Vice Dean for Global Engagement and Clinical Professor and Chair of Health Policy and Management at SUNY Downstate
Sep 14, 2015
Brooklyn, NY – M. Monica Sweeney, MD, MPH, FACP has been appointed vice dean for global engagement
and clinical professor and chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management
in the School of Public Health at SUNY Downstate Medical Center, it was announced
by Pascal James Imperato, MD, MPH&TM, MACP, Distinguished Service Professor and founding
dean of the School of Public Health.
In these positions, Dr. Sweeney will provide leadership for the School of Public Health’s many globally-engaged teaching, service, and research activities both locally and internationally. As chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management, she will lead a department whose student enrollment is among the largest in the School’s five Master of Public Health degree tracks.
“Dr. Sweeney brings to her new positions a comprehensive and sensitive understanding of the population health challenges present in Brooklyn and elsewhere,” said Dean Imperato. “She has dedicated many years to addressing these challenges, and to achieving health equity and improving health care access for those who are disadvantaged.”
“I am delighted to be back at SUNY Downstate in a capacity to advance public health initiatives that serve both our local community and the world at large,” said Dr. Sweeney. “I look forward to working with the many gifted public health and medical professionals who make up the Downstate faculty, administration, and staff.”
Dr. Sweeney’s most recent position was as the assistant commissioner for the Bureau of HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control in the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Prior to that time, she served as medical director and vice president for medical affairs at the Bedford Stuyvesant Family Health Center in Brooklyn. Dr. Sweeney is the immediate past chair of the SUNY Downstate Council, and served on the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA), and as president of the Medical Society of the County of Kings. She has been a member of the board of directors of several prominent organizations, and has served as co-chair of the Physician Advisory Council of the New York State Department of Health AIDS Institute, and as president of the Clinical Directors Network.
In the fight against HIV/AIDS, Dr. Sweeney led the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s prevention and control efforts for several years. Her service on the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS resulted in new initiatives to control the disease globally.
Dr. Sweeney received her medical degree from SUNY Downstate College of Medicine, and a Master of Public Health degree in health services management from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. She completed her residency training in internal medicine at Kings County Hospital Center/Downstate Medical Center, and is boarded in internal medicine.
Dr. Sweeney has served as a member of the faculty of the School of Public Health for several years and, prior to the school’s establishment, as a faculty member of the Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health. She has also served as a member of the faculty of Downstate’s Department of Medicine.
Dr. Sweeney is the recipient of numerous awards and honors including the Award for Service in Health & Health Education for Black Women of the Congressional Black Caucus, the Public Health Advocate Award from the Public Health Association of New York City, and the Leadership in Urban Medicine Award of the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health.
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About SUNY Downstate Medical Center
SUNY Downstate Medical Center, founded in 1860, was the first medical school in the United States to bring teaching out of the lecture hall and to the patient’s bedside. A center of innovation and excellence in research and clinical service delivery, SUNY Downstate Medical Center comprises a College of Medicine, College of Nursing, School of Health Professions, a School of Graduate Studies, School of Public Health, University Hospital of Brooklyn, and a multifaceted biotechnology initiative including the Downstate Biotechnology Incubator and BioBAT for early-stage and more mature companies, respectively.
SUNY Downstate ranks twelfth nationally in the number of alumni who are on the faculty of American medical schools. More physicians practicing in New York City have graduated from SUNY Downstate than from any other medical school.