Dr. Joel Bender’s career-long advocacy for effective disease prevention and health promotion at work and at home has benefited citizens across the United States and throughout other regions of the globe. His activities have included clinical, executive, governing, and medical advisory roles in many national, international, and professional organizations. Prior to joining U.S. Preventive Medicine as Global Medical Director, Dr. Bender served as Corporate Director of Global Health Services for the General Motors Corporation where his health promotion and awareness activities touched more than 1 million GM employees and their family members.
Dr. Bender was also a partner in Patient Advocates, Ltd. (PAL) and Managing Director of Health Strategies from 1998 until 2002. PAL provided health education and formal methods for resolution of disputes regarding health care. Health Strategies provided consulting services to health care organizations, trade associations, and manufacturers regarding health care delivery, toxicology, and occupational medicine. Clients included automotive manufacturing, vitreous fiber processing, health care delivery systems, and building products manufacturing.
He served as Vice President of Health, Safety, and Environmental Affairs and Chief Medical Officer for Owens Corning from 1987 until 1998. There he developed global stewardship initiatives for vitreous insulation materials that culminated in voluntary agreements between manufacturers, the European Commission, and OSHA. In this capacity, Dr. Bender was an invited participant on numerous World Health Organization panels and Workshops sponsored internationally by organized labor. Prior to this assignment, Dr. Bender worked for DuPont from 1979 to 1987 in a variety of roles including Manager of Field Services at Haskell Laboratory for Toxicology and Industrial Medicine and as Corporate Medical Director for Conoco Inc., a DuPont company in Houston, Texas.
Dr. Bender’s range and depth of performance in health care, occupational and environmental medicine is extensive. It includes having been an active member of the Advisory Committee for the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and past Executive Director of the American Occupational and Environmental Medicine Association. His leadership in several other national and global organizations has had an inclusive scope with contributions and responsibilities in toxicology, epidemiology, health care management, international health, disability prevention, behavioral health, and occupational health. He serves on editorial boards and as an advocate for hospice care and for children’s health protection. In addition to authoring or co-authoring more than 30 technical papers, he is a recipient of the C. Everett Koop Award, The US Department of Health and Human Services Award for Health Promotion and Wellness, The 2000 Kehoe Award of Merit and The 2004 President’s Award from The American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.