Faculty & Staff

This time of year seems to move in fast-forward. One minute new students are finding their way around campus; the next, they are hunkering down for mid-terms. But as I talk with faculty, staff, and leaders from around the School, I know that students are not the only busy ones.

That industriousness is clear just by looking at the events on the School's calendar for this academic year – the short list includes the Global Public Health Conference starting this weekend, our exciting Curriculum Renewal plans - which was rolled out publicly today on an ASPH webinar, the selection of our junior faculty Calderone Prize recipients, and our upcoming Grand Rounds on issues of corrections health systems and their lessons for next-generation health systems. Thanks to your vision and accomplishments, the School is creating an ever- larger footprint in the public health field.

As you know, the School has identified five goals to accomplish over the next few years. For the past two years, we have been working on defining these goals, and now we must focus on developing and sustaining them. The good news is that we are making steady progress toward bringing them to fruition.

As they are the cornerstone of our planning for the next two to three years, I did want to take a moment to restate our five goals and update you on progress in these areas.

• Enhancing Collaboration Between School-wide Roles and Departmental Goals and Recruitment Plans
  School goals represent a shared vision aligned with and enhancing the goals of each department and center, creating synergies that make our School an overall stronger leader.
• Implementing our Strategic Plan
  Substantive initiatives such as Curriculum Renewal and the Valuing Teaching and Teaching Quality Initiative (VTTQ) have made great strides. Dean Davidson and Dr. Galea each made presentations at recent assemblies on the remarkable progress in these areas. The value of these new programs will be seen not just in our classrooms but nationwide as we become a standard for schools of public health. We continue to move forward our cross-school initiatives in global health, chronic disease prevention, aging, and systems science.
• Strengthening Our Support to Faculty and Staff
  It is critical that we equip our faculty and staff with the support, tools, and training needed to succeed; that we continue to enhance our diversity among our faculty and staff – as well as our students; and that we ensure an environment that people feel respected in and want to work in. In November and December you will be getting reports at School Assembly and in this newsletter on our goals and progress in all of these arenas.
• Faculty Compensation
  Key to meeting our goals associated with valuing our wonderful faculty, we need to ensure that faculty compensation is equitable and competitive . Under the leadership of Bruce Levin, a special committee is completing an analysis of our faculty compensation data. We plan to use this to develop plans for faculty compensation going forward.
• Revenue Enhancement
  To accomplish any of our goals and ensure our school's long-term financial health, we must generate additional revenue. Our Research Resources ("R-squared") office and our interdisciplinary work is paying off in developing new grant investment. We are working as a school and within departments to set goals for federal grants and for philanthropic needs.

Our school is a hub of activity and creativity, so there is much more news to report. You can read about other developments and events in this issue of Momentum. Let me just highlight the exciting speakers we have planned for our November's Grand Rounds: Lester Wright, MD, MPH, who has just retired as Chief Medical Officer for the New York Department of Correctional Services, and Elizabeth Ritter, RN, Assistant Commissioner for Health Services, who will talk about the dramatic changes in an integrated health care and public health system across New York State's correctional system and the many opportunities for collaboration in tackling the vicious cycle of imprisonment and recidivism in our country.

I also want to point you to the sections of Momentum highlighting several well-deserved faculty promotions and honors, and important updates on the Global Health Initiative and our Task Force on Valuing Teaching and Learning.

I have saved one topic for last, but none is more important. Our invaluable and much beloved colleague Andy Davidson will soon be moving on to his new position as Columbia University's Vice Provost. I have asked some of Andy's friends and close colleagues to reflect on what he has meant to the School. I hope you enjoy reading their responses in this issue of Momentum. For me, Andy both led the school with great ability, deep commitment, and integrity - and his characteristic wit - while Allan Rosenfield was so ill, and has been my closest - and fabulous - partner in leading the school since I came here in May 2008. I will greatly miss working with him day-to-day.

For those wondering how the School will get by without Andy, it turns out it actually does take an army to fill his shoes. Dr. Melissa Begg, our new Vice Dean for Education, will take on many of Andy's duties, including chairing the VTTQ committee. Dr. Robyn Gershon will lead the mentoring task force on an interim basis, as well as the research resource office. In addition, Anthony Pramberger, Patricia Ribaudo, and I will all take on some of the miscellaneous projects that Andy so deftly handled.

We will miss Andy, but we know that this move is a tribute to him and a plus for the University. Andy assures me that it never hurts to have a close friend in the Provost's office. I hope that you will join me on October 28 at 4 pm in Hess Commons to wish him well and to celebrate his many accomplishments and contributions to the Mailman School of Public Health.

Until then, my best regards,

Linda P. Fried, Dean