Dear Friends:
We start this 2017-2018 academic year with exciting updates. I have appointed Dr. Susan M. Kiene as Associate Director for Academic Affairs and Dr. Guadalupe X. Ayala as Associate Director for Research. We welcome four new faculty: Dr. Eyal Oren is an Associate Professor of Epidemiology interested in behavioral aspects of infectious disease. He focuses on multidisciplinary, community-engaged approaches to addressing population health disparities. Dr. Tianying Wu is an Associate Professor of Epidemiology. She is a molecular and nutritional epidemiologist and is interested in integrating biological and epidemiologic approaches to study etiological factors of prostate cancer and chronic diseases. Dr. Humberto Parada is an Assistant Professor of Epidemiology. He is an integrative cancer epidemiologist specializing in the epidemiology of breast cancer.
His research aims to identify environmental, behavioral, and genetic factors that influence the development and progression of breast cancer. Dr. Brandy Lipton is an Assistant Professor of Health Management. Her research seeks to understand the connections between health care policies and both health and economic outcomes. The majority of her research leverages policy variation at the state level, with a particular focus on Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program policies. In other faculty news, Dr. Suzanne Lindsay retired this year. We will miss her greatly and thank her for her many contributions to the School! Dr. Corinne McDaniels-Davidson has assumed the role of Director of the Institute for Public Health.
We are proud to announce that out of 178 nationally accredited MPH programs, our MPH program was ranked 33rd by College Choice. This ranking is an important recognition of our faculty members’ dedication to providing an outstanding MPH experience to students. In addition, to meet the needs of working professionals, this fall, we have launched our newly accredited fully-online MPH program in Health Promotion and Behavior Science and welcome our first cohort of 16 students. In the area of research, as has become tradition of the GSPH, our extramural funding was outstanding. Last year, the GSPH brought in $18.7 million representing approximately 14% of the campus’ extramural funding. This funding supports a number of research areas, including assessing toxicity of waterpipe tobacco smoke, using silicone wristbands as personal samplers of tobacco toxicants, evaluation of a program assessing health relationships among vulnerable youth, and understanding sedentary behaviors of Latina women. Additionally, several faculty were recognized for their work, Dr. John Elder received the Faculty Senate Distinguished Professor Award for Teaching Excellence, Dr. Elva Arredondo received the National Cancer Institute mentor award, and Dr. Hala Madanat received the Alumni Award from her alma matter.
Our students have also received funding to support their professional development through the Distinguished Cancer Speaker Series and the GSPH Alumni Series which featured among other speakers; Patrick Kennedy. The series was streamed live on our website. For updates on the GSPH and our events; please check our website https://publichealth.sdsu.edu/, our LinkedIn Alumni pages, and make sure you update your information our alumni database https://publichealth.sdsu.edu/gsph-alumni/alumni-update-form/
Please join us at our Fall events: We will be hosting alumni social event on October 19th and alumni mixer in conjunction with APHA on November 6th in Atlanta. We also ask that you continue to support our mission through your donations. This year’s SDSU one-day give day is scheduled October 24th. Proceeds will support our students’ attendance at professional development conferences among other activities.
Sincerely,
Hala Madanat, PhD
Director- Graduate School of Public Health