IAAH Regional Vice President Spotlight - North America - November 2019
IAAH Regional Vice-President for North America, Jonathan D. Klein, is a tenured Professor of Pediatrics and Executive vice head (Chair) of the department of pediatrics at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) College of Medicine. Jon is a pediatrician and a specialist in adolescent medicine and a health services researcher known for his leadership and globally recognized for his expertise and scholarship in adolescent preventive services and tobacco control, and for translation of research into clinical and public health practice and policies.
His studies of adolescent health services established the validity and reliability of adolescent self-report of services, the impact of health insurance expansion on improved access and utilization, and demonstrated that a major gap in quality of care for youth includes a lack of confidential, private-time with clinicians during care encounters.
An innovative leader, Jon is known for his ability to mobilize coalitions to address priority health issues and disparities facing underserved populations at community, state, national and international levels. He was on the faculty at the University of Rochester and from 2009-2017 was Associate Executive Director at the American Academy of Pediatrics, where his responsibilities included global child survival, immunization, tobacco control and other non-communicable disease programs. He also was founding director of the Academy’s Richmond Center, dedicated to protecting children and adolescents from tobacco and secondhand smoke.
In addition to serving as North American Vice President for IAAH, Jon is co-chair of the planning group for the IAAH Congress in Lima, Peru, in November 2020. He also currently serves as a member of the Leadership Committee for the American Pediatric Society, and as an elected member of the Executive Committee and Standing Committee of the International Pediatric Association, a global organization of 186 national and regional pediatric associations and global specialty societies, including IAAH.
Jon is married to Susan E. Cohn, MD, MPH, a professor of medicine and HIV/infectious disease specialist at Northwestern University. They have two adult children, and one grandchild.