Jesse Gruman
1953-12-07 2014-07-14Jessie was born in Berea, KY, December 7, 1953, and grew up in upstate New York, Montana, Wisconsin and Oregon. She attended West Junior High School if Madison, and also West Senior High for 10th grade.
She graduated from Vassar College in 1975 and received a PhD in social psychology from Columbia University in 1984. In 1992, she founded the Center for Advancing Health, an independent, nonprofit research and policy institute based in Washington, DC, for which she served as president until her death.
She was the author of "AfterShock: What to Do When the Doctor Gives You or Someone You Love a Devastating Diagnosis." Jessie received honorary doctorates from Brown, Carnegie Mellon, Clark, Georgetown, New York, Northeastern, Salve Regina, Syracuse and Tulane Universities, and the Presidential Medal of the George Washington University. She was also honored by Research! America, the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship and the Society for Behavioral Medicine, which in 2014 created the Jessie Gruman Award for Health Engagement. She was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Council on Foreign Relations. She was a fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine and the Society for Behavioral Medicine. She served on numerous boards and advisory panels including, most recently, the Center for Medical Technology Policy, the Claremont School of Community and Global Health, the Journal of Participatory Medicine, the Milbank Memorial Fund, the Sallan Foundation and VillageCare.
She is survived by Richard Sloan, her devoted and loving husband, and many loving family members. Memorial services will be held this fall in New York and Washington, DC. Memorial contributions may be made to the Jessie Gruman Memorial Fund at the Center for Advancing Health, Washington, DC; VillageCare, New York; the Southern Center for Human Rights, Atlanta; City Harvest, New York.
Jessie and family moved into our neighborhood during 6th grade and she started at Randall. We quickly became good friends and her 3 brothers (Jep, Paul, and Peter) were in the same grades as 3 of mine (Henry, John, James) and our moms were close too. Jessie was brilliant and ended up graduating early and we mostly lost touch but I did connect with her later when she was in NYC. Her death was truly a loss to the whole world because she was one of those special humans who contributed to improving the health of all society. I dont think people as special as Jessie come along very often and I am lucky to have known her.
tribute by Ginny RohlichI met Jesse professionally in Washington DC during the 1990s, when I was working on cancer prevention as part of my job at the UW Carbone Cancer Center. We spoke fondly about our time together at West Junior High, and caught up on where various friends were. She was highly regarded in professional circles, as her bio indicates, and she was a tireless advocate for those suffering from a cancer diagnosis. She will be missed.
tribute by Pat Remington