Deans ASPPH
20 CONGISP
Perry N. Halkitis
Dean
Distinguished and Hunterdon Professor of Public Health & Health Equity Director, Center for Health, Identity, Behavior & Prevention Studies (CHIBPS) Rutgers School of Public Health.
Perry N Halkitis, PhD, MS, MPH, is a public health psychologist, infectious disease epidemiologist, applied statistician, researcher, educator, and advocate. He is also an actively sought-out expert for television, print, and other mass media.
For three decades, the focus of his research has been on the emergence, prevention, and treatment of infectious diseases, specifically, HIV, HPV, and other sexually transmitted infections, and more recently SARS-CoV-2. His program of study has sought to disentangle the biological, behavioral, psychosocial, and structural mechanisms that predispose people and populations to these infectious diseases, and the synergies of infectious disease with mental health burden – including drug abuse – in sexual, gender, and racial, and ethnic minority populations.
Dr. Halkitis is currently dean and professor of biostatistics and urban public health at the Rutgers School of Public Health. He is also the founder and director of the Center for Health, Identity, Behavior & Prevention Studies (CHIBPS) and a primary member of the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey and the Global Health Institute. He holds the status of Professor Emeritus at the College of Global Public Health at New York Univesity.
Dr. Halkitis is the author of the 2019 book, Out in Time: The Public Lives of Gay Men from Stonewall to the Queer Generation. His 2013 book, The AIDS Generation: Stories of Survival and Resilience, is a 2014 Lambda Literary Award nominee. Both books received the American Psychological Association Distinguished Book Award in LGBT Psychology. Dr. Halkitis is also the author of Methamphetamine Addiction: Biological Foundations, Psychological Factors, and Social Consequences, and lead editor of two additional books. He has authored some 300 peer-reviewed academic manuscripts and also actively disseminates knowledge to mainstream media, appearing frequently on television, radio, print, and podcasts.
Dr. Halkitis has been the Editor in Chief of Behavioral Medicine since 2013 and is the Founding Editor in Chief of Annals of LGBTQ Public and Population Health, which published its first issue in 2020. Throughout his career, Dr. Halkitis has been on the forefront of fighting for the rights of those infected with and affected by HIV, as well as being an outspoken advocate for the rights and health of the LGBTQ+ population. Dr. Halkitis is actively involved in all aspects of community building and empowerment through the dissemination and translation of the innovative, timely, and valuable public health research that he and his teams at Rutgers and CHIBPS undertake. Dr. Halkitis has received numerous awards from both professional and community-based organizations. He is an elected a fellow of The New York Academy of Medicine, The Society of Behavioral Medicine, The European Academy of Translational Medicine, the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, and in four divisions of the American Psychological Association.
Dr. Halkitis serves on the Board of Directors of the Association for School and Programs of Public Health and the Hyacinth Foundation. He also serves on the advisory boards of both the New Jersey Public Health Advisory Committee and the Behavioral Risk Factor Survey Advisory Committee, the Tyler Clementi Center, and Safehouse, and is a Commissioner on Newark Mayor’s LGBT Advisory Committee. He previously served on the boards of Body Positive, GMHC, the Generations Project, the HIV League, the New Jersey Public Health Association, and the New York State Public Health Association.
Dr. Halkitis holds degrees in psychology, education, and public health and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Delta Omega (Public Health), Kappa Delta Pi (Education), and Sigma Xi Research Honor Society.
Rodney S. Lyn
Dean and Professor
Georgia State University School of Public Health.
Dr. Rodney Lyn serves as Dean of the School of Public Health at Georgia State University. He is also Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Behavioral Sciences. His research is focused on childhood obesity prevention, school and community health, and the reduction of health disparities. He has special interest in identifying effective policy and system approaches to increasing physical activity and healthy eating in children and has published numerous peer-reviewed articles on these topics.
Dr. Lyn has led or contributed to funded grants totaling over $16M from federal and state agencies, foundations, and not-for-profit organizations. He currently co-directs the Georgia State University Prevention Research Center in Clarkston, which works in partnership with community leaders and organizations to identify pressing community health needs and to intervene through applied research. Other recent projects include the Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health, a CDC-supported partnership with Morehouse School of Medicine to address food deserts; the Georgia Childhood Obesity Prevention Program, a multi-county initiative to support and accelerate local policy and environmental interventions for obesity prevention, with funding from Healthcare Georgia Foundation; Partnerships to Improve Community Health, a CDC-supported partnership with Fulton County Health Department focused on tobacco prevention; and, a study examining mortality disparities and resilience in low-income, minority communities in the South, funded by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Dr. Lyn previously served as Deputy Director for GSU’s NIH-funded Center of Excellence on Health Disparities Research.
Dr. Lyn has advised and worked closely with state and federal agencies, professional associations, not-for-profits, and the philanthropic community on a variety of public health topics. He teaches graduate courses including Public Health Policy, Analysis, and Advocacy; Public Health Leadership and Policy; and Childhood Obesity Prevention. He is an active member of the American Public Health Association.
Shafik Dharamsi
Professor and Dean
University of North Texas Health Science Center School of Public Health.
Born in Tanzania, Dharamsi is a first-generation college graduate who began his career as an inner-city schoolteacher. After completing his graduate education, he joined the Aga Khan Development Network as regional director of an early childhood development program in East Africa.
He holds a doctoral degree in interdisciplinary studies and a Master of Science in dental science from the University of British Columbia, a Bachelor of Science in dental hygiene from the Medical College of Georgia, and both a Bachelor of Arts in human geography and a Bachelor of Education in teacher education from York University in Canada.
Education & Experience: I completed my PhD in interdisciplinary studies at The University of British Columbia (UBC). Prior to my academic career, I served as the Regional Director of a transformational early childhood development and poverty alleviation program with the Aga Khan Development Network in East Africa. I established my academic career at UBC, earning tenure in the department of family medicine. I also helped lead the Center for International Health and served as Research Director of the St. Paul’s Family Medicine Residency Site. A sabbatical from UBC in 2015 allowed me to help establish a new School of Osteopathic Medicine at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio. I was subsequently recruited to serve as Dean of the College of Health Sciences at The University of Texas at El Paso, which houses several accredited health professional programs, including Public Health. Most recently, I served as Senior Advisor to the Provost on transdisciplinary initiatives at New Mexico State University, and as visiting professor at the Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine to help develop the Mission Medicine initiative designed to provide experiential learning opportunities for medical students while engaging community partners and helping develop solutions to meet community-identified needs.
Teaching Areas & Public Health Interests: I have over 25 years of experience establishing public health education, research and community development initiatives designed to improve health outcomes around the world. I have led the development and implementation of curriculum in the areas of global health, ethics, community-engagement, health equity, advocacy and the social determinants of health. Using community-engaged learning activities, I endeavor to nurture social responsibility and inspire students’ hearts and minds to enhance the quality and conditions of life in the communities they will serve.
Professional Activities & Awards: I have served on several national and international boards and have been recognized internationally for my work in the areas of ethical global engagement and advancing public 3 health education and research in health professions education.
Scholarly Interests: My research is at the intersection of global public health, social epidemiology, ethics and health professions education. I am particularly interested in the question of how to better prepare the next generation of health professionals to be responsive to health inequities and the social determinants of health, and to take an inclusive, diverse and community centric approach to addressing these challenges.
Thomas A. LaVeist
Dean
Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.
Dr. Thomas A. LaVeist became dean of the Tulane University, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in July 2018. Previous to that he served as chairman of the department of health policy and management at the George Washington University (GWU), Milken Institute School of Public Health. He joined GWU after 25 years on the faculty of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health where he was the William & Nancy Richardson Professor in Health Policy and Founding Director of the Hopkins Center for Health Disparities Solutions. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, his doctorate degree from the University of Michigan and completed postdoctoral studies in gerontology and health management & policy at the Michigan School of Public Health.
Dr. LaVeist’s research focuses on health equity, having conducted major studies of cultural competency in healthcare, social determinants of health, and health policy analysis. In addition to his extensive record of publication in scientific journals, he has written for Newsweek Magazine, Baltimore Sun, and other mass media outlets. He has authored or edited six books, and is executive producer, and narrator for The Skin You’re In, a documentary series about racial inequalities in health that is currently in production.
His research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, Center for Disease Control, Department of Defense, Commonwealth Fund, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Sage Foundation and the Agency for Healthcare Research.
He is the recipient of the “Innovation Award” from the National Institutes of Health, and the “Knowledge Award” from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Minority Health. In 2013 he was elected to membership in the National Academy of Medicine.
