Dean’s Message – August 2024
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As we embark on another exciting academic year at our School of Public Health and Health Sciences, I extend a warm welcome to each of you. We have many new faces on campus this year beginning with four new vice chancellors: Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Fouad Abd-El-Khalick; Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs and Campus Life Shelly Perdomo-Ahmed; Vice Chancellor and Chief Human Resources Officer Sheri Neshiem; and Vice Chancellor for Equity and Inclusion Marsha McGriff. I look forward to working with them to continue our journey of excellence and tradition at UMass. In the school, we have 10 new faculty and six new staff. Please see below for who they are and join me in welcoming them to our vibrant community.
New Faculty
- Tim DeLuca, Assistant Professor (Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences)
- Michal Horny, Assistant Professor (Health Promotion and Policy)
- Hannah Laue, Assistant Professor (Biostatistics and Epidemiology)
- Josh Liddy, Research Assistant Professor (Kinesiology)
- Thomas Mackie, Professor (Health Promotion and Policy)
- Elizabeth Martin, Lecturer (Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences)
- Aaron Sarvet, Assistant Professor (Biostatistics and Epidemiology)
- Jasleen Singh, Assistant Professor (Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, starting January 2025)
- Leyao Wang, Assistant Professor with IALS (Biostatistics and Epidemiology)
- Meichen Wang, Assistant Professor (Environmental Health Sciences)
New Staff
- Linda Bramhall, Clerk IV (Health Promotion and Policy)
- Mary Brown, Research Development & Support Specialist (SPHHS)
- BZ Catalano, Academic Advisor & Program Coordinator (Kinesiology)
- Mollie Fuller, Research Administrative Support (SPHHS)
- Amy Johnson, Department Administrator (Kinesiology)
- Jaclyn O’Keefe, Events and Communications Coordinator, Student Affairs (SPHHS)
Let me extend an invitation for you to join us on September 10th as we gather to celebrate the start of construction on the SPHHS Hub — a modern, inspiring building designed to serve as the heart of our school, providing a dedicated space for students to come together and truly belong. The event will kick off at 9 am and we welcome all of the SPHHS community to attend. Later that afternoon at 3 pm, we will be hosting our annual ice cream social – please join us for both if you are able.
For those of you working or living near the D.C. area, here is your chance to meet with me. I am attending several meetings in the area (September 12 & 26, and November 20-22) and would love to catch up with our alumni. We are interested in hearing your thoughts on how the school can improve its training of the next generation of leaders and how we can excel in our research and advocacy efforts. Please reach out to David Catrambone at dcatrambone [at] uma-foundation [dot] org (dcatrambone[at]uma-foundation[dot]org) to arrange a meeting with me.
We also hope to see our alumni back on campus in September for UMass Amherst’s Homecoming weekend on September 20-21. We encourage everyone to join in one of the many activities planned for that week and to attend the football game on Saturday when UMass plays against Central Connecticut State.
Public health and health sciences professionals are in a unique position to lead efforts in promoting civic engagement. By coming together, we can advocate for policies that create healthier communities and advance health equity. We’ll be celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Western MA Health Equity Network and its efforts to achieve these goals at our Western MA Health Equity Policy and Advocacy Showcase on September 26.
I’d also like to mention another event on the UMass Amherst campus sponsored by the Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences: Mother Tongue on Saturday, September 28th in Bowker Auditorium. Mother Tongue is an original multilingual physical theater performance created by the Performance Project’s First Generation Ensemble. The performance weaves together movement, music, dance, and stories in Arabic, Swahili, Nepali, Spanish, and English and incorporates themes of language, culture, identity, diaspora, hypermasculinity, transphobia, racism, the school to prison pipeline, and revolution. The performance is free for all students as well as UMass faculty and staff members.
As we head into fall, I also want to remind everyone that it's essential for us, including our students, to actively participate in the democratic process to ensure our voices are heard on critical issues. We rely on elected officials to support our work, services, and funding. I encourage everyone to register to vote for the upcoming election. Students can find more information on voter registration here, and faculty and staff can learn more about the 2024 election on the same page.
In closing, this year, let us reaffirm our commitment to working together, leveraging our diverse expertise to inspire innovation and make meaningful contributions in our field and to understanding our differences in political and societal issues. Together, we will continue to uphold the highest standards of academic rigor, ensuring a transformative learning experience for our students and impactful research outcomes that address critical global health challenges.
I wish you all a very successful start of the semester.