Department of Community Medicine, Division of Nutrition records

The Dept. of Community Medicine was established in 1965. In 1997 the name was changed to the Dept. of Community and Preventive Medicine. In July 2009, it became the Dept. of Preventive Medicine. The Division of Nutrition was one of the first functioning areas of the new department. Once Dr. Christakis left in 1969, the Division did not last.

George Christakis was born in New York City in 1928 and attended both the Juilliard School of Music and Stuyvesant High School. He received a BA from New York University and then an MD degree from New York Medical College, Class of 1954. In 1960 he was awarded a Master of Science degree in Nutrition from Columbia University and the next year completed the Master in Public Health program, also from Columbia. After his post-graduate clinical training, he became the Acting and then full Director of the Bureau of Nutrition of the New York City Department of Health, which at that time was led by Dr. George James. In 1965 Dr. James was appointed Dean of the new Mount Sinai School of Medicine. The next year James established the new Department of Community Medicine and served as the first Director and Chairman. Christakis came to Mount Sinai in 1966 to be in charge of the Nutrition Division of that Department. He also served as the School’s first Assistant and then Associate Dean for Admissions and Student Affairs and was an Assistant Attending in the Department of Medicine at The Mount Sinai Hospital. Dr. Christakis remained at Mount Sinai until 1974 when he moved to Florida.