Lois K. Cohen, PhD
National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, Retired
Consultant and Paul G. Rogers Ambassador for Global Health Research, she is formerly Associate Director for International Health, National Institute of Dental & Craniofacial Research at the National Institutes of Health. Her Ph.D. in sociology was earned at Purdue University (1963) where she also received an Honorary Doctorate of Letters (1989), the first sociologist ever to have been awarded that honor from Purdue. During her more than 58-year career having had Visiting Faculty appointments at both Howard University and Harvard University, she spent most of those years with the U.S. Government both as a researcher and a health science administrator. She edited and authored four volumes on the social sciences and dentistry and publishing more than 150 professional journal articles. Purported to be the architect of the behavioral and socio-dental sciences, she co-directed two major multinational collaborative studies with the World Health Organization on nationally developed oral health care delivery systems.
Dr. Cohen has served or currently serves on various organizational boards including: Foundation Against HIV/AIDS in Africa, the Journal of the American Dental Association, the Friends of the Organization of Safety, Aespsis and Prevention, the Edward B. Shils Entrepreneurial Fund, The Alliance for Oral Health across Borders, the Caplin Family Charities, the Regulatory Affairs Society’s Global Advisory Council, Humble Smile Foundation, and the Institute of Musculoskeletal Health and Arthritis of the Canadian Institutes for Health Research. She regularly serves as an expert consultant to the World Health Organization in Geneva, its regional offices in the Americas (Pan American Health Organization) and the African region as well as various universities and associations focusing on global health through oral health.
Awards and/or honorary lectures in her name are given annually at Harvard School of Dental Medicine, the International Association for Dental Research and at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia and at Purdue University.