BENNETT, Diane E. Epidemiologist and Researcher Diane Elizabeth Bennett, MD, MPH, a retired Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) epidemiologist, died on September 10, 2020, at the age of 72, in Atlanta, GA. She was born on March 18,1948, in Fort Knox, Kentucky to Margaret and Robert J. Bennett. She is survived by her only brother, James (Jim) Bennett of San Francisco, CA. Diane had a talent for friendships. She was a brilliant multifaceted person with a love of travel, music, theater, art, hiking, and international cuisine. In addition, she was a voracious reader and a creative generous gift giver. She played recorder in Lauda Musicam, an early music group in Atlanta; spent several weeks each summer in the UK participating in the Dartington Music Summer School; and attended the music and literature summer festival at Ernen, Switzerland, for several years. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard/Radcliffe in Cambridge, MA, in 1971 in education, and then went on in 1975 to receive a M.Ed., studying at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom. She lived in a commune in Somerville, MA, and later in Cambridge, MA; demonstrated against the Vietnam War; and worked in an alternative school. She was deeply involved in feminist and socialist causes, volunteering with the Red Book Store collective and the Coalition to Stop Institutional Violence. At the age of 30 she entered the University of Massachusetts's Medical School in Worcester, MA, graduating in 1981; she then went on to get her MPH at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, MD and in 1984 she joined the Epidemiology Intelligence Service of the Public Health Service. She devoted the rest of her career to public health working in the U.S., Sierra Leone, London, Wales and Geneva combatting various diseases. In 2002, she continued her work on HIV, specifically surveillance of drug resistant HIV-AIDs; in conjunction with WHO Global AIDS Program in 2006-2009 in Geneva, Switzerland, and traveled around both Africa and Asia continuing this work before returning to Atlanta. She retired in Jan. 2013 because of health issues. She is missed and mourned by her family and friends and by the caregivers who helped her in the last years of her life. Donations in her memory can be made to the following groups: WHO Covid-19 Solidarity Response Fund, committed to developing treatments and vaccines for Covid-19 and seeing that it is distributed equitably and to areas of greatest need. https://www.covid19responsefund.org The Grammy Foundations, MusiCare Program, which provides a safety net of critical assistance for music people in times of need or personal emergency, including COVID-19 relief. https://www.grammy.com/musicares/donations

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Published in Boston Globe from Oct. 27 to Nov. 1, 2020.