Anthony “Tony” Mazzaschi
Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health
Anthony “Tony” Mazzaschi retired as chief advocacy officer of the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH) in December 2021. The ASPPH represents 129 schools and programs of public health accredited by the Council on Education for Public Health. Mr. Mazzaschi joined the ASPPH in 2014 to lead policy efforts, and he advanced the capacity of research faculty members to conduct critical population-based and prevention-oriented research.
Before joining the ASPPH, Mr. Mazzaschi served as senior director for scientific affairs at the AAMC for 19 years. In that role, he revitalized and directed the AAMC Council of Academic Societies and managed its transition to the Council of Faculty and Academic Societies (CFAS) to be more representative of the faculty’s voice within the AAMC. Mr. Mazzaschi also organized a community of medical school research deans that became the AAMC Group on Research Advancement and Development and for many years staffed the AAMC Advisory Panel on Research.
Mr. Mazzaschi served as the AAMC staff leader on various critical and high-profile research policy issues, including using animals humanely in research and medical education, stem cell research, and research funding and grants management policy.
One of his enduring legacies is an email newsletter for CFAS members and other constituents. It came to be known as “Tony Mail,” with a listserv he developed of more than 10,000 subscribers. His goal was to ensure that CFAS representatives were the most well-informed faculty when it came to current events and public policy and their impact on academic medicine.
During a 2013 interview with “The Scope,” a podcast from the University of Utah Health, Mr. Mazzaschi explained that the newsletter started about 20 years prior as a fax message. It included news clippings, magazine articles, and other information that might be useful to faculty as they worked on research policy. “As the technology evolved it became an email listserv. And it grew to … a direct distribution of about 10,000, but many of the academic societies then … send it out to all of their members,” he said. All told, the newsletter likely reaches more than 40,000 readers every week.
In recognition of his efforts, Mr. Mazzaschi received the Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries’ Gerald J. Oppenheimer Cornerstone Award, given to promote widespread understanding of the significant changes taking place in medical and biological sciences as scholarly communications move from print to digital.
Mr. Mazzaschi is a native of Laconia, New Hampshire, and graduated from James Madison College at Michigan State University.
In recognition of Mr. Mazzaschi’s unwavering dedication to advancing and communicating public policy issues affecting academic medicine, the AAMC Board of Directors confers this Special Recognition Award.