Dr. Deborah Prothrow-Stith

Youth Violence Expert, Physician & Author

Dr. Deborah Prothrow-Stith

Youth Violence Expert, Physician & Author

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Biography

Deborah Prothrow-Stith, M.D. is a nationally respected physician leader, public health innovator, and academic executive whose career has reshaped medical education, public health practice, and health equity. Since 2016, she has served as Dean of the College of Medicine at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science (CDU), where her vision and leadership have helped to transform the institution.

In 2022, Dr. Prothrow-Stith became the founding dean of CDU’s new independent medical school—earning LCME accreditation for the university to confer a CDU MD degree for the first time in its history. This milestone established CDU’s medical school as the 157th in the United States and only the fourth at a historically Black university, fulfilling a 60 year institutional aspiration. Under her leadership, the inaugural class of 60 exceptionally diverse medical students matriculated in July 2023, marking a new era for CDU and drawing national recognition from academic peers, philanthropic leaders, and major media outlets.

During her decade at CDU, Dr. Prothrow-Stith has overseen extraordinary institutional growth. She expanded the College of Medicine faculty from 100 to more than 600 across nine basic science and clinical departments. She also led the revival of CDU’s residency programs in South Los Angeles—reestablishing training pipelines in Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Psychiatry, and launching fellowships in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine. Additional residency programs in Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and General Surgery are now in development.

Her leadership has catalyzed unprecedented philanthropic investment. CDU’s endowment has nearly doubled during her tenure, bolstered by transformative gifts including $47 million from MacKenzie Scott and $75 million from Bloomberg Philanthropies in support of the new medical school. She also forged a strategic partnership with Sutter Health that secured more than $17 million in full-tuition scholarships for CDU medical students over 10 years and established a new research collaboration between the two institutions.

Before joining CDU, Dr. Prothrow-Stith was a principal at Spencer Stuart, advising major health systems and academic medical centers on executive leadership. She previously served as the Henry Pickering Walcott Professor of Public Health Practice and Associate Dean for Faculty Development at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, where she founded the Division of Public Health Practice and led pioneering national work reframing youth violence as a public health issue.

In 1987, Governor Michael Dukakis appointed her Commissioner of Public Health for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. As commissioner, she directed a department of 3,500 employees, eight hospitals, and a $350 million budget—becoming one of the nation’s most influential public health executives.

Dr. Prothrow-Stith was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2003 and has received ten honorary doctorates recognizing her contributions to medicine and public health. In 2017, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors honored her as Woman of the Year for the 2nd District. She is a graduate of Spelman College and Harvard Medical School and is a diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine. She and her family also spent several years living in Tanzania during her husband’s service as U.S. Ambassador.

Across her career, Dr. Prothrow-Stith has been a trailblazer—expanding opportunity, advancing equity, and building institutions that strengthen communities. Her leadership continues to shape the future of medical education and public health in the United States.

Speaker Videos

Health Inequality

Community and Family Violence

Preventing Youth Violence

Speech Topics

Violence Prevention: A Public Health Mandate

Sugar & Spice & No Longer Nice: How We Can Stop Girls’ Violence

Combating the Deadly Consequences of Violence & Our Youth

Testimonials

"Deborah was the PERFECT speaker for our event yesterday. She was passionate, informative, really connected to the event and people involved, and hit a home run with her talk. Please pass along my great thanks and appreciation for being part of this important event. And thanks to [APB] for your help!"

- Director of Development, Long Warf Theater

"We were absolutely thrilled to have Dr. Prothrow-Stith open up our conference - we received lots of laudatory feedback from our attendees both during and after the event. We want to express our utmost gratitude for her presence and contribution!"

- The Health Alliance for Violence Intervention

"The lecture was amazing! The attendees were overwhelmingly pleased with her presentation. I spent some one-on-one time with Dr. Prothrow-Stith and she is absolutely one of the warmest, down-to-earth but poised people I have ever met. I was beyond impressed with her personally and professionally, and really pleased that she was able to visit with us and present. Thanks so much for all of your assistance!"

- University of Chicago

"Dr. Prothrow-Stith, thank you so much for coming to Austin to give the keynote speech at CARY’s 5^th Annual Autumn Benefit last week. Almost 200 supporters of our youth violence prevention program really enjoyed your presentation, “Combating the Deadly Consequences of Violence and Our Youth.” We heard so many positive comments about your view of youth violence as a public health crisis. We especially enjoyed the American history of dueling and we all learned a lot! Thank you again."

- Council on At-Risk Youth

"Deborah was a joy! Her presentation was great. She spoke with such enthusiasm and compassion. She was very happy to come to a community-based organization convened conference of this nature. Even though we only had her for a short time, she was very impactful. Thank you so much for your assistance in scheduling her to come here. She is an amazing person and we are looking towards future interactions with her."

- Community Empowerment Association, Inc.

"Deborah was awesome!! After all the bumps along the way, it was a relief to see her smiling face and hear her words. Her pic does not do her justice, she's more even more beautiful and her aura makes you want to listen to what she has to say. The comments from our evaluations give similar comments. I am sold!"

- Public Health Initiative

"Thank you for the important role you played in making the AMA Alliance’s Leadership Confluence II such a great success. Adolescent Violence Prevention is a compelling public health issue. You certainly convinced participants on the need for communities and agencies to work together. The lively question and answer period demonstrated how much the audience was engaged and inspired. One women commented that she wish the program could have lasted even another hour."

- American Medical Association Alliance Inc.

"The program went really well. Prothrow-Stith is definitely the most impressive speaker we've had for this particular lecture in quite some time. She's very down to earth and engaging as well. She will be a hard act to follow."

- Washington University School of Medicine

"Our MLK event went very well and Dr. Prothrow-Stith did a marvelous job in incorporating the teamwork theme and MLK theme into her own presentation. She is a phenomenal and dynamic speaker."

- Cleveland Clinic