Email This PageHelen Smits ’58
Helen Smits ’58 was inducted into the Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame last October. A retired physician, Smits has dedicated her life to public health and healthcare management. In recent years, she taught in a new public health master’s program at Eduardo Mondlane University in Mozambique and worked with the Clinton Foundation to develop an AIDS plan for the country. Smits has also served as vice chairperson of the Institute of Medicine’s assessment of PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, and deputy administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration (now CMS), the government agency that administers Medicare and Medicaid. She was the first woman to chair the board of commissioners of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations and served on the faculty at both the Yale University School of Medicine and the University of Connecticut Medical School. Smit continues to work on projects that focus on improving the quality of care in Africa.
