Epidemiology

Renowned Scholar Dr. Sandro Galea Joins School as Chair of Epidemiology

Internationally recognized for his seminal contributions in the field of epidemiology, Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH ‘03, joins the Mailman School as the new Chair of the Department of Epidemiology and as the Anna Cheskis Gelman and Murray Charles Gelman Professor of Epidemiology. Dr. Galea succeeds Dr. William Friedewald who has served for the past year as an outstanding interim Chair of Epidemiology.

Previously a faculty member at the University of Michigan where he received accolades for his research, program management, and teaching, Dr. Galea served as Professor of Epidemiology in Michigan’s School of Public Health, Research Professor at the Institute of Social Research, and Professor of Emergency Medicine at the Medical School. Dr. Galea was also the Director of the University of Michigan’s Center for Global Health.

Dr. Galea’s research program seeks to uncover how determinants at multiple levels of influence—including policies, features of the social environment, molecular and genetic factors—jointly produce the health of populations. Over the years, Dr. Galea has focused on three primary areas of research with substantive findings in each topic:

Social and economic determinants of population health: Dr. Galea pioneered the adoption of a social epidemiologic framework to urban population health questions and has been an important leader in the emerging field of urban health research.

Epidemiology of mental health and substance abuse: He has been centrally concerned with how social and economic factors are associated with the natural history of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and drug use.

Consequences of conflict and mass trauma: His particular focus on mental health and substance use resulted in seminal publications documenting the consequences of historic mass traumatic events including the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the March 11, 2004 train bombings in Madrid, and Hurricane Katrina.

Dr. Galea’s work has earned him the prestigious Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Investigator Award. He has also received funding from the National Institutes of Health to conduct large population-based studies in several countries worldwide. He has published more than 250 scientific journal articles and 50 chapters and commentaries in the leading public health, epidemiology, and medical journals. In addition, Dr. Galea has edited or co-edited 5 books, including Cities and the Health of the Public, Macrosocial Determinants of Population Health, and Mental Health and Disasters.

Dr. Galea is an Associate Editor of the American Journal of Epidemiology and the Journal of Traumatic Stress and serves on the editorial boards of Epidemiology and Anxiety and Depression. Dr. Galea just completed a 3-year elected term on the executive committee of the Society for Epidemiologic Research and is currently the Vice President of the International Society for Traumatic Stress. The New York Times, NPR, and NBC have all featured Dr. Galea’s work. In 2006, he was named one of TIME magazine’s epidemiology innovators.

As the Founding Director of the Center for Global Health at the University of Michigan, Dr. Galea strived to catalyze discussion around global health at the University of Michigan and nationally, foster creative transdisciplinary research to address global health questions, nurture junior scholars interested in global health, and build capacity in partner countries in the global south. The Center has successfully engaged students and faculty in its work and in a short time has raised resources for research programs and doctoral fellowships.

Dr. Galea is an excellent teacher and mentor of students. He taught epidemiologic methods, social epidemiology, and psychiatric epidemiology at the University of Michigan and for the past decade has taught in the Mailman School’s core introduction to epidemiology course, consistently receiving top ratings. He has mentored many students including the first University of Michigan student in the past five years to win a Rhodes Scholarship.

Dr. Galea received an MD degree from the University of Toronto Medical School, a DrPH in epidemiology from the Mailman School of Public Health, and an MPH from the Harvard University School of Public Health. From 2000 to 2005, Dr. Galea was a Medical Epidemiologist at the New York Academy of Medicine and has held a part time faculty appointment at the Mailman School.

The recruitment of Dr. Galea is the result of a vigorous international search lead by a search committee chaired by Dr. Jack Rowe and Dr. Frederica Perera.