Dr. Ruth Lynfield (M.D. ’85), state epidemiologist and medical director of the Minnesota Department of Health, and an adjunct professor of medicine and of epidemiology and community health at the University of Minnesota, has been awarded the 2025 Weill Cornell Medical College Alumni Association Award of Distinction.
Established in 1949, the award is presented each year to a Weill Cornell Medical College alumnus who has demonstrated exceptional achievement in education, research or patient care, and who has brought honor and acclaim to the institution. Dr. Lynfield was honored with the award on May 15 at Weill Cornell Medicine’s 2025 commencement ceremony.
“I’m incredibly humbled, because when I look at who has previously received the award, I'm blown away,” she says. “They are some of my public health heroes, like Dr. C. Everett Koop (M.D. ’41), Dr. Anthony Fauci (M.D. ’66), Dr. Bill Schaffner (M.D. ’62) and Dr. Peter Hotez (M.D., Ph.D. ’87).”
Dr. Lynfield credits the institution with setting her up for success as an epidemiologist.
“It was a formative experience to be at Weill Cornell Medical College,” she says. “I had very rich opportunities as a medical student.”
During her time at Weill Cornell Medicine, she spent one summer in Brazil, working in field epidemiology on leishmaniasis and says that one of her early mentors, Dr. Steven Reed – currently an adjunct professor of microbiology in medicine – was an influential force in her career. When Dr. Lynfield was working in Brazil, Dr. Reed was on the ground there, leading a joint program with the Federal University of Bahia.
“That summer was foundational for me,” she says. “It really put me on the track to becoming an infectious disease epidemiologist.”
As a student, Dr. Lynfield also spent time working in a lab at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. “To have the medical school give you the opportunity to have these experiences beyond just the curriculum set Weill Cornell apart for me,” she says.
Throughout her career, Dr. Lynfield has worked on the epidemiology, prevention and control of emerging infectious diseases and developed surveillance systems, investigated outbreaks and advised on public health policy. She has also mentored many master’s students, doctoral students, infectious disease fellows and epidemiology fellows.
“What excites me about mentoring is the ability to help students and fellows on their journeys, channel their enthusiasm and passion into projects, and share some of the lessons I’ve learned,” says Dr. Lynfield.
Her own mentors include Dr. Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist and public health leader, and a professor at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, who graduated from Weill Cornell Medical College more than two decades before she did. “He has been an incredible mentor throughout my career; he is innovative, a ‘big thinker,’ and such a great communicator,” she says.
Dr. Lynfield has served on multiple federal public-health advisory committees, including the National Vaccine Advisory Committee, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Board of Scientific Counselors for the Office of Infectious Diseases, which she chaired from 2018 to 2022.
She has authored or contributed to more than 400 peer-reviewed articles and policy statements and has served as an editor for several textbooks on public health, including “Infectious Disease Surveillance” and “Public Health and Preventive Medicine.” She also served as an associate editor of the 2021 and 2024 editions of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ “Red Book: Report of the Committee on Infectious Diseases.”
Decades into her career, Dr. Lynfield remains passionate about epidemiology and the collaborative work that leads to solutions.
“What excites me is being able to impact an emerging infection or public health issue,” she says. “We've done a lot of outbreak investigations: figuring out what's going on, developing a public health intervention, and then assessing the effectiveness of that public health intervention.”
Dr. Lynfield is an elected member of the American Epidemiological Society and has been co-chair of the CDC Emerging Infections Program steering committee since 2008. She has also served on the executive board of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases and as the president of the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists.
“Weill Cornell set the bar very high,” she says. “There was a sense of excellence – that you had to do your best work – and a sense of the importance of independent thought that motivated people to ask questions and to look deeper. That approach to science set me up to be successful.”