��ѻ��ý

Current students enjoy easy access to global public health experts.

Take an esteemed public health faculty, house them in state-of-the-art labs and classrooms, and throw in almost a century’s worth of education and research that has led to millions of lives saved, millions at a time: There you have the Bloomberg School. Right?

Well, almost.

Missing in that equation—and vital to the school’s mission—is a thoroughly involved alumni who love mixing with current students. So much so, in fact, that they can be counted on to graciously drop everything and fly halfway around globe to visit their old Wolfe Street digs given an opportunity to meet up with and mentor the public health leaders of tomorrow.

Take Dr. Ruben F. del Prado, for instance, who earned an MPH here in 1988. Currently living in Kathmandu, he’s now the UNAIDS representative to the Federal Republic of Nepal and the Kingdom of Bhutan. A very busy guy, to say the least. He’s among the dozens who are coming “home” for Alumni Week (September 23-27) to participate in a range of activities. As current students are prime beneficiaries of Alumni Week, its highlights will include three separate career panels featuring del Prado and others talking about the public health paths they have travelled since graduating from Johns Hopkins.

“It’s worth my effort,” del Prado says, “because of the most amazing inspiration I experienced, both academically and socially, during my 11 months in Baltimore, now exactly 25 years ago! I am in a position now to ignite little sparks and be an inspiration too.”