Dr Linda Rosenstock views occupational medicine as inherently interdisciplinary, blurring the margins between individual healthcare delivery and public health. During her tenure as Director of NIOSH, Rosenstock doubled its annual appropriations—often credited to her partnership approach—and created the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA), a framework for guiding occupational safety and health research, a collaboration with 500 external partners.

“Through government-labor-industry partnership, it became clear that changing mindsets, fostering flexibility, and making progress on common ground made the unimaginable possible.”

Rosenstock acknowledges that rapid fundamental changes in the organisation of work have had an impact on occupational health and safety. Globalisation has led many companies to outsource, restructure, implement self managed teams, and/or streamline “just-in-time” production. These changes in the organisation of work have increased job stress related disorders. Over the past decade, disability due to stress related illness has doubled, implicating highly routine or fragmented work, time pressures, heavy cognitive demands, and reduced social support.

Rosenstock brings her internationally recognised expertise and broad knowledge of public health to her current position as Dean of the UCLA School of Public Health.