PFRH Professor David Paige Honored by Maryland Governor Wes Moore
Photo courtesy of the National WIC Association
On November 21, 2024, David Paige, MD, MPH ’69, was honored by Maryland Governor Wes Moore at the National WIC Association’s Nutrition and Breastfeeding Conference in Baltimore, Maryland.
The citation, presented by Governor Moore during the conference’s opening general session, honors Paige’s distinguished career, which has made significant contributions in improving the nutrition of women, infants and children. Paige's pioneering research with the Maryland Food Committee, Baltimore city and Maryland state health departments to establish nutrition assistance programs in the 1960’s served as a model for the federal WIC program. His innovative, clinic-based food distribution program using vouchers led to the establishment of WIC in 1972 as a 2-year pilot program. Today, WIC serves forty percent of all U.S. infants and one quarter of children ages 1 through 4 years. Including pregnant and post-partum persons and children birth to 5 years, WIC served more than 6.5 million people in 2023. Dr. Paige also has been a strong advocate for the inclusion of breastfeeding as part of the WIC program. In 2024, the WIC program celebrated its 50th year of operations.
The citation reads:
The governor of the state of Maryland presents his Governor Citation to Dr. David Page. Be it known that on behalf of the citizens of this state, in recognition of your pioneering work and invaluable contribution to the Women, Infants and Children program in Maryland and across the nation, and in celebration of the 50th anniversary of WIC during the National WIC Association Conference in Baltimore in appreciation of your decades long pursuit to continuously innovate and improve and expand WIC services, your enduring legacy of mentorship and your outstanding service to the citizens of the state of Maryland and this entire country that we are pleased to confer upon you. This Governor Citation is signed by Secretary of State, Susan Lee, Lieutenant Governor Aruna Miller, and the 63rd governor of the state of Maryland, Wes Moore.
Dr. Paige earned a BS from Long Island University (1960), MD from New York Medical College (1964), and an MPH from Bloomberg School of Public Health (1969). Following completion of a pediatric internship at Kings County Hospital, he served as a medical officer with the US Public Health Service for two years before completing a pediatrics residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and a postdoctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He joined the Bloomberg School of Public Health faculty as Assistant Professor in 1969 in the Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health (then known as the Department of Maternal and Child Health). He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1972 and Professor in 1981. He maintains joint appointments in the Departments of International Health and in Pediatrics.
In January 2025, Paige announced his retirement from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, after 56 years of trailblazing work that has made a profound impact on the lives of millions of families and children—and will continue to do so for generations to come.
