Mitchell Katz

San Francisco Department of Public Health

Dr. Mitchell H. Katz earned a B.A. in Psychology from Yale University in 1981 and was awarded an M.D. degree at Harvard Medical School in 1986.  His residency in Primary Care Internal Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) from 1986-89 was  followed by an appointment as Clinical Scholar, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation at the UCSF from 1989-91.

Dr. Katz's public health career spans 15 (1991) years in a variety of positions with increasing scope and responsibilities.  Prior to his appointment as Director of Health, he served as Director of the Community Health & Safety unit of the Department of Public Health.  He has served as Interim Medical Director for Emergency Medical Services, Director of Epidemiology, Disease Control & AIDS, Director of the AIDS Office and Chief of the Research Branch of the AIDS Office.

He has published extensively in a variety of professional medical journals and books and is author of  a  celebrated text book required by many training schools and universities, "Multivariable Statistics for Clinical Researchers," published by the Cambridge University Press.

He currently holds a teaching position as Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology, UCSF School of Medicine and maintains a clinical AIDS practice at San Francisco General Hospital with the Community Health Network.

He and his son, Max, and daughter, Roxie, reside in San Francisco.

The Truth About Parental Notification Laws

Dr. Mitchell H. Katz is the Director of Health for the San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH).

In her recent column Debra Saunders says that those of us who oppose Proposition 85 "argue that teenagers will tell good parents...if they are pregnant. But if pregnant teenagers don't talk to their parents, it probably is for a good reason."

While Ms. Saunders is correct in this narrow observation, the Chronicle's editorial board better understood the entire issue and recommended its readers reject Prop 85.

No law, including Prop 85, can create good family communication. Prop 85 has the added disadvantage that it will put teens in real danger. Teens "not talking to their parents for good reason" is more than just a "nifty-sounding sentence," as Ms Saunders describes it... it's reality.