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Robert W. Amler, M.D., M.B.A., Dean, School of Health Sciences and Practice; and Vice President for Government Affairs

Robert W. Amler, M.D., M.B.A. headshot

Robert W. Amler, M.D., M.B.A., is dean of the School of Health Sciences  and Practice and Institute of Public Health at New York Medical College (NYMC). He also serves as vice president for government affairs and professor of public health, pediatrics, and environmental health science. Prior to NYMC,  he served as regional health administrator of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and commanding officer of federal emergency response assets in the Northeast and Caribbean Region.

A native New Yorker, he is a graduate of The Bronx High School of Science, Dartmouth College, New York University, and Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, with post-graduate studies at Harvard Business School. He completed residencies at Bellevue Hospital, Roosevelt Hospital and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 

The CDC selected Dr. Amler for the Epidemic Intelligence Service during the campaign to eliminate measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases. The CDC later selected him for its collaboration with former President Jimmy Carter, in which Dr. Amler’s meta-analysis across 17 medical disciplines formed the database for a desktop health risk assessment utility that became an industry standard for worksite wellness programs in private and public sectors. As chief medical officer of the CDC’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Dr. Amler conceptualized and secured Congressional funding for the nationwide network of Pediatric Environmental Specialty Units that clinically manage children’s exposures to toxic substances. 

Dr. Amler joined NYMC in 2005 as dean of the School of Public Health, now the School of Health Sciences and Practice. He launched new career-enhancing offerings in health education, industrial hygiene, and other specialties as well as Master of Science and Doctor of Public Health Degrees. He expanded teaching faculty and facilities in physical therapy and speech-language pathology. He launched the interdisciplinary Institute of Public Health with centers of excellence in Disability and Health, Disaster Medicine, Children’s Environmental Health, and Long-Term Care. He oversaw the faculty’s definitive analysis, for the CDC, of Superstorm Sandy’s adverse health effects in metro-New York and led an emergency medical flight mission to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria’s devastating landfall. He collaborated with the Westchester Institute for Human Development (WIHD) to enhance the Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and related Disabilities (LEND) program. He instituted NYMC’s collaborative research data support program and secured government funding for the Women’s Institute for Science Entrepreneurship (WISE), Touro College of Dental Medicine, Clinical Skills and Simulation Center, and BioInc@NYMC, the region’s first biotechnology incubator. 

Dr. Amler addressed tens of millions in the news media on health and safety practices  during the COVID-19 pandemic. He is a practicing pediatrician in environmental medicine at Boston Children’s Health Physicians and former chapter president of the American Academy of Pediatrics. He has received numerous awards, including New York State Senate Leader’s “Dr. Robert W. Amler Day,” and serves on the boards of directors of the Hudson Valley Economic Development Corporation, the Business Council of Westchester, and Westchester County Association. 

 

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