President Barack Obama appointed Brandeis alumna Janet Kahn Ph.D. '94 to the Advisory Board on Prevention, Health Promotion and Integrative and Public Health this month, according to a White House press release issued Oct. 7.

The Advisory Board's main agenda is to "develop policy and program recommendations, and advise the National Prevention Council on lifestyle-based chronic disease prevention and management, integrative health care practices, and health promotion," wrote Kahn in an email to the Justice.

The Council is a cabinet-level body chaired by the Surgeon General and was created by the Affordable Care Act in March 2010 to provide leadership and coordination at the federal level among all executive agencies regarding prevention, wellness and health promotion practices.

Kahn received her Ph.D. in Sociology—more specifically, in the areas of medical sociology, sexuality and gender and research methods—from Brandeis in 1994.

Kahn said that her degree and the training she received at Brandeis helped her get to this point in two ways.

"The first is that my understanding of the challenges of prevention and health promotion are informed by a sociological perspective that is inherent in how I view the world," she wrote. "The second way in which my Brandeis degree contributed to my appointment is that I find it difficult to believe I would have been appointed without a terminal degree relevant to the field."

Kahn said she looks forward to serving in her recent appointment. She wrote she plans on helping the Obama administration understand health care professions on a "more detailed level" and "how we might give Americans access to the best of what each has to offer."

Kahn also wrote that she also wants to "[help] Americans understand some of the value in the Affordable Care Act that has not yet been grasped—including access to certain preventive measures with no co-pay," she wrote.

"When the White House contacted me to begin the vetting process, I was extremely excited by the possibility of being part of this," said Kahn.

Kahn, who served as the executive director of Integrated Healthcare Policy Consortium for the last seven years, said, "I was, and am, excited by the opportunity of serving on this board. ... I have advocated strongly for a shift in our approach to health care that focuses on prevention and health promotion and that holds a multi-dimensional ideal of wellness."