Steven H. Woolf, M.D., M.P.H, is Professor at the Departments of Family Medicine, Epidemiology and Community Health at Virginia Commonwealth University.  He received his M.D. in 1984 from Emory University and underwent residency training in family medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University.  Dr. Woolf is also a clinical epidemiologist and underwent training in preventive medicine and public health at Johns Hopkins University, where he received his M.P.H. in 1987.  He is board certified in family medicine and in preventive medicine and public health. 

Dr. Woolf has published more than 100 articles in a career that has focused on promoting the most effective health care services and on advocating the importance of health promotion and disease prevention.  In recent years, his work has turned to social determinants of health.  Dr. Woolf has conducted studies demonstrating that addressing poverty, education, and the causes of racial and ethnic disparities could accomplish far more to improve the health of Americans than investing predominately in medical technological advances.  In addition to scientific publications, he has tried to bring this message to policymakers and to the public through testimony in Congress, editorials in major newspapers, and speeches.  

Since 1987, Dr. Woolf has served as science advisor, member, and now senior advisor to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.  Dr. Woolf edited the first two editions of the Guide to Clinical Preventive Services and is author of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention in Clinical Practice.  He is associate editor of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine and served as North American editor of the British Medical Journal.  He has consulted widely on various matters of health policy with government agencies and professional organizations in the United States and Europe, and in 2001 was elected to the Institute of Medicine.