President Vicente Fox of Mexico presented the Award of Merit in Public Health to Susan Scrimshaw, dean of the School of Public Health, for her "major contributions in the field of public health." President Fox presented Scrimshaw with a gold medal in Cuernavaca, Mexico, on March 13, 2002, as part of a three-day event marking the combined anniversary of the Mexican School of Public Health and the National Institute of Public Health.

Scrimshaw was honored for her work to improve the health of Mexican women in the United States and in Mexico.

"Since my childhood in Guatemala, I have always tried to contribute to the health and well-being of people in Latin America and the United States. I have felt greatly rewarded by the friendships and warmth I have always experienced there and among Latinos here in the United States. It is wonderful to know that my work is making a difference."

Reared in Guatemala, Scrimshaw is bilingual and bicultural. She has served on the board of the binational U.S.-Mexico Foundation for Science since 1994 and was the 1999 to 2001 board president. Among other honors, she is a recipient of the 1985 Margaret Mead Award, a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.