Remembering Rick Mauery

Faculty, staff, and alumni from the Milken Institute School of Public Health are mourning the loss of Rick Mauery, who was a valued part of our community for many years.D. Richard Mauery, MS, MPH, joined GW in 1996 after working for the federal government for many years. He was a senior researcher at the Center for Health Policy Research (CHPR), the precursor to what is now the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Milken Institute School of Public Health, and later became managing director of the Jacobs Institute of Women’s Health in the School of Public Health and Health Services. His research included projects evaluating women’s health research at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, developing health professional educational materials on women and heart disease, and creating healthy weight programs for lesbian and bisexual women. As managing editor of Women’s Health Issues, the peer-reviewed journal of the Jacobs Institute of Women’s Health, Rick was especially appreciated by authors he encouraged to submit while they were early in their careers. He was a beloved teacher of the health policy fundamentals class; at his retirement party he stated that leaving his students was the most difficult thing for him to do and that he would miss interacting with them—teaching them but also learning from them.Rick was also an active and beloved member of multiple DC communities. He was active in ACT-UP work to address the HIV/AIDS crisis in the 1980s and 1990s and involved with the Washington National Cathedral congregation. He loved to sing, and he performed with the Gay Men’s Chorus and the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop. Rick retired from the university in 2014 to seek the dry air of Palm Springs in California. He would tell anyone who cared to listen that he was looking forward to the move and to enjoying margaritas in the desert.  After settling in his new home, he joined the Palm Springs Gay Men’s Chorus and became an active volunteer at the Desert Care Regional Medical Center. Most of all, Rick enjoyed spending time with his friends, his partner, and his beloved dog, Roxie. “For several years, Rick and I worked together closely on Women’s Health Issues,” recalled Anne Rossier Markus, chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management and the journal’s former editor-in-chief (now associate editor). “He was the journal’s most fervent advocate, and its face at AcademyHealth’s gender interest group meetings. He did a fantastic job, especially when it came to connecting with authors and showing them that we valued their work.” “I remember Rick as a fantastic colleague, always engaging in advancing the health of all, a public health scholar and teacher, and as a dear friend,” said Susan F. Wood, director of the Jacobs Institute of Women’s Health. “His energy, thoughtfulness, skills, and talents shone through in his professional life and in his life beyond the ivory tower.”Rick died on March 23, 2021 in Palm Springs. Those wishing to make a donation in his honor can contribute to this Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation fundraiser. He will be dearly missed by countless members of the GW community.