J. Joseph Speidel MD, MPH is an author, scholar and advocate for public health. He is a graduate  of Harvard College, Harvard Medical School, and the Harvard School of Public Health and a professor emeritus at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Medical School. Previously he directed the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Office of Population, was president of Population Action International (PAI), directed the population grants program at the Hewlett Foundation and was Co-director, of the UCSF Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health. At USAID and the Hewlett Foundation, Dr. Speidel was responsible for managing development assistance and charitable awards totaling more than $1 billion.

Dr. Speidel is board certified in Preventive Medicine and serves on the Editorial Board of the University of California, Berkeley Wellness Newsletter. He has authored more than 300 scientific publications in the field of health and population, and more than 50 health-related scientific reports that are posted on the website Catalyst for Children (http://catalystforchildren.org), that provides educational materials to improve the welfare of children and youth. 

As president of PAI, Dr. Speidel gave more than 750 interviews with print media and made more than 250 radio, TV, and personal appearances including on ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, BBC, Voice of America, and on talk shows including Good Morning America, The Charlie Rose Show, and Larry King Live.

He is a recipient of the Arthur S. Flemming Award for outstanding young men in government, the Carl S. Schulz Award of the American Public Health Association, the Family Planning Visionary Award of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association, and the Allan Rosenfield Award for Lifetime Contributions to International Family Planning of the Society of Family Planning. 

Dr. Speidel’s book, The Building Blocks of Health––How to Optimize Your Health with a Lifestyle Checklist, will help Americans adopt a lifestyle that will reverse much of the damage from their unhealthy way of living that leads to illness and premature death. The book focuses on important health-related topics such as nutrition, weight control, heart disease, cancer and dementia.