Brooke Grundfest Schoepf

I'm from New York (mainly) and WH, where we have lived year-round since 1982. I first came to WH in 1939, and spent summers here from 1945. My father, Dr. Harry Grundfest brought his lab from Columbia to spend summers at the MBL. When we came from France in 1961, Claude Schoepf joined the Grundfest lab. Our son, Eric, spent his summers here. Our daughter, Diane Kagoyire, attended school in Falmouth, Mullen Hall and Falmouth Academy.

I am a medical and economic anthropologist, specializing in African studies, with a Ph.D. from Columbia (1969). From 1974-1978 I taught and conducted field research in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Zaire, as it was then called). Since 1985 I have led research and consulted on AIDS prevention in 14 African countries, and since 1991, for UN organizations. Since 1999 I have been a member of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and I continue to write.

Although no longer able to sail or even go out in the whaler, Claude and I still try to keep the garden going and tend to a pair of Siamese cats. With a life-long connection, Woods Hole is my anchor, my tether to my parents and my children, the place where I belong in the world.