Bernard Guyer, ’70M (MD)

Dr. Bernard Guyer is the Zanvyl Krieger Professor of Children’s Health, Emeritus, at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore. A physician trained in both pediatrics and preventive medicine, Dr. Guyer’s 40-year career in public health was devoted to advancing the health of mothers, children, and families worldwide. Retired in 2011, he continues to be actively involved in the Women’s and Children’s Health Policy Center at the Bloomberg School, where he lectures, teaches, and advises students and faculty.

Dr. Guyer received his bachelor’s degree from Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, in 1965. He earned his medical degree with distinction in research from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in 1970 and went on to complete his internship in pediatrics and first-year residency at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Guyer spent the next two years at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta as an epidemic intelligence service officer for the U.S. Public Health Service. In 1974, he accepted a post as a medical epidemiologist for the CDC’s Smallpox Eradication and Measles Control Program in Central Africa. Three years later, he returned to the U.S. to complete a residency in ambulatory medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital and a research fellowship at the Harvard School of Public Health.

From 1978 to 1980, Dr. Guyer was a resident in preventive medicine at the Massachusetts Department of Health and the Harvard School of Public Health. He also served for seven years as director of the Division of Family Health Services at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Dr. Guyer’s first academic post came in 1986 at the Harvard School of Public Health; in 1988, he was named chief coordinator of the Master of Public Health Program. During his tenure at Harvard, he rose to associate professor of the Department of Maternal and Child Health and director of the Injury Prevention Center. In 1990, he joined the faculty at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, where he held successive posts as a professor and department chair until his 2000 appointment to the Zanvyl Krieger Chair. In 2003, Dr. Guyer became director of the Doctor of Public Health program at the Bloomberg School and senior faculty advisor for research at the Urban Health Institute. For the last ten years he has continued to provide consultation and support to colleagues in Nigeria and Ghana through the Bill and Melinda Gates Institute for Reproductive Health.

The author of more than 300 publications, Dr. Guyer is a fellow of the American College of Preventive Medicine and a member of Delta Omega Public Health Honor Society. His areas of research include low birth weight and infant mortality, child development and pediatric care, the delivery of immunization services, childhood injury and injury prevention, and urban health. His numerous honors include the Harvard School of Public Health’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, the American Public Health Association’s Martha May Eliot Award, and the Zena Stein and Mervyn Susser Award for Lifetime Achievement from The Coalition for Excellence in Maternal and Child Health Epidemiology. In 2011, the University of Rochester’s Center for Community Health established the Dr. Bernard Guyer Lectureship in Maternal and Child Health in his honor.  He is a member of the Institute of Medicine, and most recently chaired its Board on Children, Youth and Families.

Dr. Guyer and his wife, Dr. Jane (Mason) Guyer ’72 (PhD), who is a professor of anthropology, live in Baltimore and have three grown children and five grandchildren.