Dear Friends:
Welcome to a new academic year! Last year, was full of great accomplishments. The School dropped “graduate” from its name recognizing the 600 pre-major and major undergraduate students who are an integral part of the School. Our online MPH in Health Promotion and Behavioral Science ranked in the top 25 online MPH programs in the country by bestcolleges.com. The School continues its outstanding record of securing research funding and contracts. Our faculty engaged in over $20 million of research funding. Dr. Guadalupe X. Ayala was selected as the new Zahn Professor of Creativity and Innovation. In this role, she is hoping to bring multiple disciplines together to in the classroom and improve intervention and healthcare in the community. Associate Director of Academic Affairs, Dr. Susan Kiene received the President’s Leadership Award in recognition of her outstanding efforts to promote student success and contribute to new novel academic programs, and of her national and international reputation as a global health researcher. Our undergraduate student Chase Whittaker received the Zahn Spirit of Innovation award for his work creating a non-profit organization dedicated to helping vulnerable populations in Zambia, Mexico, and San Diego. Our students’ organizations have also received funding to support their professional development including the SPH Alumni Series. This series featured among others a panel of deans of schools of public health across the country and our very own Nick Macchione, Director of the County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency who was honored this year with the Baldrige Foundation Leadership award. The Series also highlighted a number of the school’s alumni including Humberto Monge, Senior Physician Assistant at Stanford University, Rigoberto Vargas, Public Health Director of the Ventura County Health Care Agency, and Dr. Katia Howlett, Deputy Director, Division of Extramural Research at the National Institute on Drug Abuse. You can watch archives of these events.
This Fall, we welcome one new faculty member, Dr. Karilyn Sant, Assistant Professor of Environmental Health. Dr. Sant is a toxicologist who specializes in the health consequences resulting from developmental exposures to common drinking water pollutants. She currently uses the zebrafish model to investigate how emerging surface and drinking water contaminants influence both human and marine reproduction and health throughout the lifespan. While we welcome Dr. Sant to our school, we have had to say goodbye to two of our outstanding faculty who retired: Dr. Robert Seidman, Associate Professor of Health Management and Policy and Dr. John P. Elder, Distinguished Professor of Health Promotion and Behavioral Science. They will be greatly missed!
In addition, The American Public Health Association annual meeting will be held in San Diego November 10-14, 2018. As our own School is the host city’s premier academic public health school, we will have a very visible presence. In collaboration with County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency, we invite you to participate in a tour of Tijuana (Public Health Across Borders RSVP), focusing on urgent public health issues in our binational region on Saturday November 10th, 2018. We will also welcome our alumni to join us at our APHA reception (APHA Alumni Reception RSVP), Monday November 12that the Horton Grand Hotel where San Diego State University’s new President Adela de la Torre will be in attendance. If your organization is interested in sponsoring the event, please check the sponsorship opportunities on the registration page.
We hope to see you at our events throughout the year. For updates on the SPH and our events, please check our website, our LinkedIn Alumni pages, and make sure you update your information in our alumni database. We also ask that you continue to support our mission through your service and donations. This year’s SDSU one-day give day is scheduled September 25th, 2018.
Sincerely,
Hala Madanat, PhD
Director- School of Public Health