Todd Olszewski

Office: Service Building, Room 225
Email: tolszews@providence.edu
Phone: (401) 865-1217

Dr. Todd Olszewski joined the Providence College faculty in January 2011 after two years as a Stetten Fellow in the History of Biomedical Sciences at the National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, MD). He received his PhD in the History of Science and Medicine from Yale University in 2008, where he received a Prize Teaching Fellowship for excellence in undergraduate teaching.

Dr. Olszewski teaches the program's required Field Experience course (HPM 450) and serves as the program's field experience coordinator. He also participates in the program's team-taught senior seminar and has taught HPM 101 as well as special topics seminars on Heart Disease and Drugs and Disease.

His research explores how medical research and public health institutions like the NIH and FDA translate scientific discoveries into clinical practice and public policy. Currently, Dr. Olszewski is preparing a book manuscript titled A Calculated Risk: Cholesterol, Heart Health, and the Politics of Science, which traces the rise of cholesterol as a cardiovascular risk factor. He explores how researchers, public health officials, and the American public came to associate heart healthiness with a low-cholesterol diet.

In addition to his work on cholesterol and heart disease, his research and teaching interests include the history of American medicine and public health, biomedical research, drug development, health activism, and chronic disease prevention.

A native of Galesburg, Illinois, he is an avid golfer with one hole-in-one to his credit and a lifelong Fighting Illini fan. When he's not on the golf course, he plays French horn in the Brown University Orchestra and enjoys exploring Rhode Island.

^{Last updated 6/26/2012}