Karen Denard Goldman (1949-2014)
 
Karen Denard Goldman, PhD, a longtime public-health advocate and educator, died in her home in Brooklyn Heights, New York, on March 31, 2014, after a 10-month illness. She was 64 years old.
A passion for public health and great dedication to her work marked Karen's/Dr. Goldman's 40-year career, during which she touched the lives of an incalculable number of people, directly and indirectly. After earning a BA and MAT at Beloit College, she took a job as clinic coordinator at Chicago's Billings Hospital. There, she first realized that, although quality treatment is vital, so, too, is the prevention of illness, injuries, and premature death. This realization moved her to pursue public and community health.  She moved to New York City and earned an M.S. in community health sciences from Hunter College (CUNY), a Ph.D. in health education from New York University, and, later, complementary certificates from Pace and Cornell universities.
During her wide-ranging career, Karen/Dr. Goldman served as Program Director of the New York Lung Association and Director of Program Development of the Greater New York Chapter of the March of Dimes. She also held a series of positions in New York City's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene-among them, Director of Training for the Bureau of School and Adolescent Health, Assistant Director of the Bureau of Public Health Education, Special Project Coordinator of the Bureau of AIDS Program Services, and Interim Director of the Lead Poisoning Prevention Program. 
Always an active volunteer, Karen/Dr. Goldman served as president of the Society for Public Health Education and its Greater New York Chapter and as a member of the boards of the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing; of Brooklyn-based People Against Sexual Abuse, Inc.; and of the Public Health Association of New York City.  She was co-founder and coordinator of the New York State Coalition for Health Education and of the New Jersey Health Education Council.
As an educator, Karen/Dr. Goldman inspired myriad public-health students to follow in her footsteps, and she believed that these students would be her greatest legacy. She taught and held program director and co-director positions at Kingsborough Community College; City University of New York (CUNY); Lehman College, CUNY; and Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, among others. In the last two years before her death, she served as associate professor and chair of the Department of Public Health at Long Island University, Brooklyn.
Life is fleeting, but the impact that Karen/Dr. Goldman had on the lives of men, women, children, and communities during her lifetime is an enduring gift to us all.
Karen's/Dr. Goldman's husband, Robert Goldman, died in 2012. Her ashes are inurned with his in a niche in Green-Wood Cemetery's Tranquility Gardens, Brooklyn.  Karen/Dr. Goldman is survived by her parents, Norman and Roslyn Denard of Skillman, New Jersey; brother Jeff Denard of Naperville, Illinois; sister Lisa Denard and brother-in-law Peter Koval of Syracuse, New York; nephew Sean Denard and nieces Jessica, Tracy, Amanda, and Alexis Koval and Rebecca Irizarry; sister-in-law Elaine Goldman Irizarry; and cousins Neil, Glenn, and Jon Bradie.
Gifts in Karen's/Dr. Goldman's memory can be made to Karen Denard Goldman Public Health Education and Internship Fund, Beloit College, Development and Alumni Relations, 700 College St., Beloit WI 53511.