Special Award in Public Health

In May 2011, Dr. Aviva Ron, then-Chairperson of the Executive Committee of Friends of Schneider Children’s and currently Honorary Chairperson, was inducted into the Delta Omega Society of Johns Hopkins University's School of Hygiene and Public Health. The Delta Omega Society, founded in 1924, is an honor society that annually recognizes excellence and accomplishments in the field of public health among its alumni. Pictured here with the Dean, Professor Michael Klag, Aviva was the first Israeli alumna to receive this honor. After receiving her PhD from Johns Hopkins University in 1971, Aviva returned to Israel and joined Clalit Health Services. As Director of Planning and Information in Clalit's Administration, she was intensely involved in the planning of Schneider Children's Medical Center, from the initial steps to obtain the approval of Israel’s Ministry of Health to the mobilization of funds and actual planning. In 1989, Aviva was invited to join the World Health Organization, first as an expert in social health insurance at WHO Headquarters in Geneva, and later as WHO’s Director of the Health Sector Development in the Regional Office for the Western Pacific, based in Manila. Upon her retirement from WHO in 2002, Aviva returned to Israel and became active on behalf of Schneider through Friends of Schneider Children's.