Brian Moench, MD ‘77
The Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine Distinguished Humanitarian Award
Brian Moench, MD ‘77
Recognizing individuals or organizations that have made outstanding contributions to the health and welfare of our communities, both at home and abroad
When Brian Moench, MD ‘77, reflects on the forces that shaped his life, he points first to his parents. His father, a psychiatrist, devoted a quarter of his time to unfunded care for the severely mentally ill. His mother, one of eight children, often cared for members of her extended family, taking them in when they were ill or lost a job.
“I think being raised during the Great Depression made them very empathetic individuals,” Moench says. “I didn’t grow up deprived like they were, so it took me a little longer to understand what empathy is. And if achieving empathy is the most import-ant quality that a person can acquire, then I don’t think I achieved it until I went to medical school.”
He points to a particular incident in his senior year of medical school, during which a patient came into the emergency room at the VA, filthy and with scars on his back in various stages of healing. Moench deemed this patient “just another deadbeat” until a nurse explained he was living with a neurological disorder he couldn’t control.
“This patient lived in a trailer with broken pipes behind the toilet, so his back would get torn up when his body would move uncontrollably,” he says. “I felt so ashamed for judging him and decided from that point on that I would look at everyone differently.”
This pivotal lesson guided Moench through more than 40 years as a board-certified anesthesiologist and for the second act of his career: founder of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment (UPHE), the state’s largest civic organization of health professionals. Since 2007, UPHE has become a powerful voice against the dangers of air pollution, climate change, and environmental toxins.
“Make sure you’re the kind of person who sees a problem and does something about it. If you do that, I think you’ll find that your life will be considered—by yourself and many others—a real success.”
Moench’s environmental advocacy has deep personal roots. In 1996, his 27-year-old daughter was diagnosed with breast cancer. Witnessing her undergo a double mastectomy galvanized his determination to prevent similar tragedies from happening to other families.
“I committed to my daughter to try and find out what the medical literature would say about why she got this in the prime of life,” he says. “It’s there that I learned that 80–90% of cancer is environmentally caused in some way.”
Under Moench’s leadership, UPHE has helped communities throughout the United States and in Canada organize against polluting industries. He has served as an expert witness and written court briefs for pollution lawsuits and has met with top officials at the Environmental Protection Agency. One of his proudest achievements is spearheading the installation of more than 30,000 air purifiers in Utah schools, protecting 75% of K–12 students and nearly 60% of children in early education centers.
For Moench, receiving the Distinguished Humanitarian Award serves as validation for the work he has poured himself into over nearly two decades, and he gives this advice to anyone who feels burdened by the weight of the world’s problems: “Make sure you’re the kind of person who sees a problem and does something about it. If you do that, I think you’ll find that your life will be considered—by yourself and many others—a real success.”