Media contact: Robert Hornsby, 212-854-5573, rh2239@columbia.edu

Doug Levy Appointed Communications Director

at Columbia University Medical Center

NEW YORK, October 22, 2010 — Peabody Award-winning journalist Doug Levy, former health reporter for USA Today, has been named executive director of communications and public affairs at Columbia University Medical Center, effective this week.

The announcement by Lee Goldman, MD, dean of the faculties of health sciences and medicine and executive vice president for health and biomedical sciences, and David M. Stone, Columbia’s executive vice president for communications, culminates an extensive national search.

“Some of today’s most exciting health sciences research and patient care happens here at Columbia,” said Levy. “We have a tremendous opportunity to tell stories about how Columbia faculty are improving people’s lives and health.”

Returning to his native New York after working in Washington, DC, and San Francisco, Levy joins Columbia with more than 20 years of media relations and journalism experience related to health care, biotechnology, life sciences and academic medicine, including at the University of California San Francisco, Fleishman-Hillard Public Relations and The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

He was a medical reporter for USA Today, where he broke many stories about the tobacco industry’s secret research, and was science editor at United Press International. Doug also is an experienced broadcast journalist, having worked at National Public Radio and the NBC and Mutual Radio Networks. At Mutual, Levy’s investigative reporting earned a Peabody award, among others. He holds a J.D. from the University of Maryland, a M.S. in journalism from Northwestern University, and a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley.

Columbia University Medical Center provides international leadership in basic, pre-clinical and clinical research, in medical and health sciences education, and in patient care. The medical center trains future leaders and includes the dedicated work of many physicians, scientists, public health professionals, dentists, and nurses at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, the Mailman School of Public Health, the College of Dental Medicine, the School of Nursing, the biomedical departments of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and allied research centers and institutions. Established in 1767, Columbia's College of Physicians and Surgeons was the first institution in the country to grant the M.D. degree and is among the most selective medical schools in the country. Columbia University Medical Center is home to the largest medical research enterprise in New York City and state and one of the largest in the United States. To learn more, visit: www.cumc.columbia.edu

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