Dean's Message - September 2026
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The School of Public Health and Health Sciences is proud to join the campus community in celebrating the launch of the $120 million Future of Food initiative and the naming of the Paul and Diane Manning Center for the Future of Food, made possible through the visionary support of the Manning Family Foundation, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
As a nutritionist, I've spent my career understanding how food impacts health at both the individual and population level. This center at UMass represents a tangible commitment to this purpose—a place where students will learn, where communities will gather, and where we'll advance the science and practice of food as a tool for health equity and optimizing the quality of life across the life span within Massachusetts and beyond. This incorporates our previous Food is Medicine activities and extends them even further. This investment in our infrastructure means we can now train students not just in theory, but in state-of-the-art facilities where they'll grow into the leaders our food and healthcare systems desperately need. We're humbled by this support and energized by what we'll accomplish together.
The event, held in Boston, to announce the named gift was well attended by dignitaries at the state and local level as well as by UMass system leadership. However, even more impressive was the number of faculty from across campus who attended the launch of the center on the Amherst campus on September 21st, hosted in the new SPHHS Hub. Over 150 faculty expressed interest in participating in one or more of the four pillars of the center’s focus: research for sustainable food systems; for food innovation; for smart choices; and for healthy lifespans. There is no doubt in my mind that UMass will contribute greatly to the Future of Food both locally and globally.
Our semester is off to a great start. In addition to the Future of Food events, the school’s Dean’s Seminar hosted Dr. Perry Halkitis, Dean of Rutgers University’s School of Public Health. Dr. Halkitis gave an inspirational and courageous talk about his lived experience as a gay man, and how it contributed to the writing of his most recent book concerning humanizing public health. We had our best turnout yet for our seminar series, rivaling seminar turnout prior to the pandemic. It was such an honor to hear his wisdom, advocacy, and passion across the two days that left us all motivated and energized to keep up our public health and health sciences work.
We have a very active Student Advisory Board, with graduate student Firas Alijazini and undergraduate student Meghan McNeil serving as the co-chairs. They have been involved in the planning and implementation of all our school’s events and even attended the Wisdom of Happiness film screening event with me on Sept 9th. If you are a student in the SPHHS, please think about becoming involved and make sure to attend the school’s events. I guarantee you will have fun and learn something new.
We have many more exciting events coming your way this fall – including Dr. Liz Evans’ Distinguished Faculty Lecture on October 7th at 4 pm in the Old Chapel; our next Dean’s Seminar on October 23rd at 12 pm in the SPHHS Hub seminar rooms, featuring lightning research talks from Drs. Ned Debold, Sarah Goff, and Jacquie Kurland; and the Right to Food and Nutrition in Massachusetts – a day of dialogue on food as a human right with the goal of ending hunger in Massachusetts. The daylong dialogue, held on October 28th in the Old Chapel, organized by Drs. Mariana Chilton and Megan Patton-Lopez, will bring faculty, staff, and students together with community partners and state and federal legislators to share ideas on how the right to food can strengthen efforts to end hunger on college campuses and throughout the Commonwealth.
Last but not least, please join me in offering congratulations to Dr. Alicia Timme-Laragy on being named a UMass Spotlight Scholar! Be on the lookout for her story the first week of October.