HOWELL NAMED MDA CHAIRMAN

TUCSON, Ariz., July 13, 2007 – Noted pediatrician R. Rodney Howell of Bethesda, Md., and Coconut Grove, Fla., has been elected chairman of the Board of the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

During MDA's annual meeting in Los Angeles today, Howell was named to a one-year term as the leader of the Board of Directors of the voluntary health organization. The Board oversees MDA’s programs in its quest to conquer more than 40 neuromuscular diseases.

Howell is chairman emeritus and a professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Miami School of Medicine. In that capacity, he assists the director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health in Washington, overseeing newborn genetic testing. He has also served on MDA’s Board since 1994 and chaired its Scientific Advisory Committee.

“Rod Howell has guided our worldwide research program through its years of most aggressive and productive growth, developing our relationships with industry and government to help speed the testing of potential treatments for neurouscular diseases,” MDA President & CEO Gerald C. Weinberg said. “His expertise as a pediatrician specializing in neuromuscular diseases and a leading authority in genetics research make him especially qualified to continue propelling our mission forward.”

Howell is a graduate of the Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, N.C., and has overseen programs in pediatrics and genetics at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore and the University of Texas Medical School in Houston. He became chairman of the University of Miami Pediatrics Department in 1989.

Author of more than 100 scientific articles and books, Howell also has served on numerous committees and advisory boards of medical organizations concerned with childhood genetic diseases. He was president of the board of the American College of Medical Genetics Foundation from 2003 to 2005, and serves on the college’s Newborn Screening Expert Group, which recommends criteria for standard tests of genetic diseases in newborns.

Howell has appeared frequently on the Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon presenting news about MDA’s research progress.

MDA is working to defeat more than 40 neuromuscular diseases through programs of worldwide research, comprehensive services, and far-reaching professional and public health education. MDA maintains 225 clinics nationwide, including clinics at the Children’s National Medical Center and Georgetown University Hospital in Washington. In Miami, MDA has a clinic at the University of Miami School of Medicine.

The Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon will be broadcast Sept. 2-3, originating from the South Point Hotel, Casino & Spa in Las Vegas, and can be seen on WBFS, Channel 33, in Miami, and WDCW, Channel 50, in the Washington area.