Former city & state health worker Sylvia Sterne is laid to rest
SYLVIA STERNE, a native New Orleanian, former state and City of New Orleans Health Department worker and tireless volunteer, died in her second home in Seattle, WA. surrounded by her family on April 28. 2025. She was 91.
SYLVIA STERNE
New Orleans was always “home” until she moved to Seattle following her retirement to be closer to family there.
She attended Henry W. Allen Elementary School and graduated from Isidore Newman School. Sterne next enrolled at Newcomb College of Tulane University where she met her husband and graduated with distinction in English Literature in 1954. Years later, during the time she was an active volunteer in the community, she returned to Tulane where she received a Master of Arts degree in English literature.
She began her professional career in public health in 1974 as Public Information Officer of the Louisiana Regional Medical Program, then worked for the City of New Orleans Health Department under the administrations of Moon Landrieu and Dutch Morial. In 1979, she became an administrator at the Louisiana Office of Public Health where she served as Director of Policy Planning and Evaluation for ten years. In that role, she was instrumental in studying the establishment of health centers in Louisiana public schools according to a resolution of the Louisiana Legislature.
When the law for a state program was enacted, she administered the Adolescent and School Health program from its beginning until her retirement in July 2000. Under her leadership, the number of school based health centers grew from four to forty and provided access to physical and mental health care for thousands of school children annually. The journal Health Affairs, in a study of school health centers nationwide, referred to her a “bureaucratic activist.”
She was a consultant to the Louisiana Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics for child health planning and to the Dallas regional office of the federal Department of Health and Human Services for quality assurance in ambulatory health care. She served on the health services advisory committee of New Orleans Head Start, was a board member of the Tulane Center for Cardiovascular Health and a member of the Governor’s task force on school-based health clinics. She was a Preceptor and adjunct faculty member at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine where she trained graduates in public health administration. She also served as Advocacy Chair and board member of the National Alliance for School Based Health Care.
She was a member of the first women’s leadership training group of the Jewish Welfare Federation’s Lemann-Stern program, a founding member and officer of the New Orleans Council for Young Children, and served on the boards of Brandeis University Women’s Committee, New Orleans Urban League and Communal Hebrew School. She was a life member of the Council of Jewish Women, Brandeis Women’s Committee and Hadassah.
Sterne began her volunteer career with the Greater New Orleans Section of the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) where she became an advocate for civil rights and Great Society programs of the 1960s. She served on its board of directors in many leadership capacities over a 15-year period. In 2001, Council honored her with its “Dare to Care about Kids” award.
Among her joys were being with her children and grandchildren, reading and talking about good books and movies, listening to symphonic and chamber music and opera. She called herself a government junkie and ardently followed local, state and national politics.
Sterne was predeceased by her husband, George Gershon Sterne, and is survived by her children Mark (Pilar) of Alameda CA, Steven (Jennifer Lynn Dice) of Seattle and Susan (Peter Kellers) Sterne of Portland OR, and her three grandchildren.
She was buried in Hebrew Rest Cemetery Number Three on May 2, 2025.
Memorial donations are suggested to the Greater New Orleans Section of the NCJW ./
