Jerome Green, MD

Born: 1929

Jerry Green, longtime National Institutes of Health (NIH) official, was educated at Brooklyn College and received an MD from Albany Medical College in 1954, going directly to NIH following an internship. Later he trained in cardiovascular research in the United States Public Health Service, at the University of California Cardiovascular Research Institute and the Cleveland Clinic, returning to administrative roles at NIH for the remainder of his career.

Dr. Green led extramural research policy and the division of research grants, quietly maintaining leadership of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), established by James Watt , in programs for epidemiology and prevention within a balanced research portfolio and through perpetual tension with the power elite of bench and clinical research. He was central to NHLBI decisions from the late 1960s onward to pursue CVD epidemiology, trials, and community programs; thus was “a friend of prevention in high places.” He closed his career in 1995 as Assistant Surgeon General. (HB)