APHA Honors Eugene Declercq With Martha May Eliot Award.

Eugene Declercq, a BUSPH professor of community health sciences, received the Martha May Eliot Award at the 2013 Annual Meeting of the American Public Health Association.

For most of his career, Declercq has focused his research on the complex policies and practices related to maternal and infant health. His most recent research has explored the differences among hospitals in rates of cesarean sections, findings that suggest that the variances in cesarean rates may be partly attributable to the differences in practices and culture at the hospital level.

The APHA established the Martha May Eliot Award in 1964 to commemorate the life and achievements of the late Dr. Martha May Eliot, one of the nation’s leading advocates for maternal and child health. Over a career that spanned five decades, Eliot was a practicing pediatrician, served as former APHA president, and led the Children’s Bureau for the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. She was also a former chair of the Massachusetts Commission on Children and Youth, and was an assistant director for the World Health Organization before her death in 1978.