If confirmed as the next U.S. surgeon general, Dr. Antonia Novello will be taking on a demanding assignment that can be considered both enviable and unenviable.
Enviable because the surgeon general, who commands the 6,500 employees of the Public Health Service, plays a key role in determining the nation's health policy. And because she will be making history as both the first woman and first Hispanic to hold the job.Unenviable because she has such a tough act to follow. And because, as her predecessor demonstrated, a leader in such a highly visible and responsible post can expect plenty of sniping from powerful opponents.
Inevitably, Novello's performance is bound to be compared to that of the often controversial but widely respected C. Everett Koop even though it isn't always fair to contrast such disparate styles and approaches to the job.
As surgeon general since 1981, Koop seemed to thrive on confrontation and controversy. Koop took the job to the limits by using it as a pulpit to preach public health policy outside the formal policy-making channels. Taking a firm line against smoking, he encountered strong political pressure from the powerful tobacco industry. An anti-abortion activist, he also generated an uproar by urging detailed discussion of sexual activity as part of an AIDS education program.
By contrast, Novello, who has maintained a low public profile even though she is a vigorous advocate of children's health concerns, is known as a skilled administrator with a decidedly non-confrontational style. Soft-spoken and deliberate, she can also be gregarious and energetic. She uses humor to put people at ease and has the ability to laugh at herself - an ability that seems likely to be especially useful in her new assignment.
Born in Puerto Rico, Novello is currently deputy director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, a component of the National Institutes of Health. At NIH, she has worked in the areas of arthritis and metabolic and digestive diseases. A committee aide for Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch in 1982-83 when he was chairman of the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee, she also has headed a national task force investigating the problem of children with AIDS. As surgeon general, she will have to deal with broader health issues.
In other words, don't expect Antonia Novello to be another C. Everett Koop. But there are other ways to be an effective surgeon general, and this lady is no shrinking violet.