Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH, is the inaugural Margaret C. Ryan Dean of the newly established Washington University School of Public Health, the Eugene S. and Constance Kahn Distinguished Professor in Public Health, and vice provost for interdisciplinary initiatives
As dean of WashU’s first new school in 100 years, Galea will lead the building of a world-class academic institution that will work in myriad ways to advance solutions to pressing, real-world issues involving infectious disease; mental, global and environmental health; dissemination and implementation science; and other key areas of public health.
A population health scientist and physician, Galea comes to WashU from Boston University School of Public Health, where he was the Robert A. Knox Professor and dean for a decade. Prior to that, he served as the Gelman Professor and Chair of the Department of Epidemiology at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. He also previously held academic and leadership positions at the University of Michigan and at the New York Academy of Medicine.
His tenure as dean of Boston University School of Public Health was marked by expansion and innovation. The school launched a new Master of Public Health curriculum, an online Master of Public Health program, a public health communication initiative, and lifelong learning and student-alumni mentoring programs, among other initiatives. During his tenure, the school doubled its research funding portfolio and development revenue, developed new Centers of Excellence, and was continually ranked as a top U.S. public health school.
A prolific writer, author and speaker, Galea’s scholarship lives at the intersection of social and psychiatric epidemiology, with a focus on the behavioral health consequences of trauma. His work has been principally funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and several foundations. Further, he has been engaged in more than $100 million of extramurally funded research.
Galea has served on numerous advisory groups to national and global organizations. Among his newest roles, he serves as editor-in-chief of JAMA Health Forum.
He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, and was named one of TIME magazine’s epidemiology innovators. He has received several lifetime achievement awards for his research, including the Michael J. McGinnis Award from the Interdisciplinary Association for Population Health Science, the Wade Hampton Frost and the Rema Lapouse Awards from the American Public Health Association, and the Robert S. Laufer Award from the International Society for Traumatic Stress.
Galea was born and raised in Malta. He immigrated to Canada with his family as a teenager and later immigrated to the United States. He earned his medical degree from the University of Toronto, graduate degrees from Harvard University and Columbia University, and honorary doctorates from the University of Glasgow and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He has practiced medicine in rural and remote parts of the world, including as a field physician for Doctors Without Borders in Somalia.
Visit Dean Galea’s personal website; his blog, The Healthiest Goldfish; and his