Bruce Ribner

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Meeting ID: 811 5893 2214
Passcode: 340278

Bruce S. Ribner, MD, MPH, was born in Brooklyn, NY, on 7/30/1945. He was the son of Dr. Manuel and Natalie (Kenigstein) Ribner. Bruce was valedictorian of his Abraham Lincoln High School graduating class in 1962, and entered Princeton after graduation. He graduated from Princeton, Summa cum laude in Chemistry, in 1966, and then went to Harvard Medical School. He graduated from medical school in 1970 and joined the Army National Guard Reserve, where he served for 8 years. Bruce also simultaneously took his first academic position as an Infectious Disease specialist and began helping to establish the Medical College of Ohio in Toledo. While there, he met and married his wife, Barbara. After several years of practice/research, he attended the University of Michigan and obtained an MPH in Epidemiology. That ignited his interest in the newly formed specialty of Hospital Epidemiology.

Bruce worked as a hospital epidemiologist in Houston, Asheville, and Charleston before moving to Atlanta in 2000 to work at Emory University. While at Emory University, Bruce conceived of, formed, wrote the policies for, and became the Medical Director of the Serious Communicable Disease Unit. The most exciting moment of his career occurred when the unit admitted four Ebola patients in 2014. The unit performed superbly, with all four patients surviving, and consequently he was asked to give the plenary speech at the annual meeting of the Infectious Disease Society of America in October of that year. Professor Ribner retired from Emory University in 2021.

He and his wife Barbara are the parents of three sons, Aaron, Adam, and Thad (Brie), along with an additional son, Amer Smailbegovic (Zemira). They have seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Bruce was preceded in death by his parents. In addition to his immediate family, Bruce is survived by a brother, Dr. Jeffrey (Deborah) Ribner of Endwell, NY, and their family.

Donations or Memorials in his Honor may be made to American Friends of Magen David Adom, the Nature Conservancy, or Ahavath Achim Synagogue... or to a charity of the donor's choice.