Director and Founding Dean, School of Population Health

Dear colleagues,

On behalf of Chancellor Gillman, it is our privilege to announce that Bernadette Boden-Albala, Dr.P.H., has been appointed director and founding dean of UCI's planned School of Population Health in the Susan and Henry Samueli College of Health Sciences.

Dr. Boden-Albala will join us in July from New York University's College of Global Public Health, where she is a professor and the senior associate dean of research and program development. In 2014, Dr. Boden-Albala came to NYU as part of the dean's leadership team tasked with building a school of public health, and she has been involved in many aspects of the growth of NYU GPH. As a researcher, and later as a research dean, she has been committed to establishing strong research programs, both domestically and globally, with an emphasis on community engagement and the reduction of health disparities. She also led program development, working with GPH faculty and organizations – including UNICEF and the United Nations World Food Programme – to co-create courses focused on innovative solutions to health challenges such as responses to emerging diseases and a system's approach to food access. She helped develop the Cross-Continental M.P.H., a one-year program that combines classroom learning, collaborative research with faculty mentors, and public health practice experience across three continents. She served as interim chair of the Department of Epidemiology and professor of epidemiology and health promotion in the NYU College of Dentistry and professor of neurology in the NYU Langone School of Medicine.

Dr. Boden-Albala's dedication to inclusion and collaboration between research and practice will be crucial in forging partnerships that support integrative health, interdisciplinary research and interprofessional educational opportunities. An internationally recognized expert in the social epidemiology of stroke and cardiovascular disease, Dr. Boden-Albala specializes in the design of intervention strategies for prevention and preparedness, and her National Institutes of Health-funded research has contributed to a wealth of knowledge on stroke prevention. Dr. Boden-Albala has held leadership roles on national and local committees and task forces to improve vascular health and reduce disease, including the American Heart Association Nutrition and Physical Activity Behavioral Task Force, the American Heart Association Stroke Quality and Outcomes Committee, the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health Research Deans Group, and the NINDS INSPIRE working group to improve recruitment and retention.

Dr. Boden-Albala's leadership will be key in realizing UCI's vision of bringing the planned School of Population Health to national prominence. The proposal for the school is expected to reach the UC Board of Regents for final review and approval within two years. In the meantime, she will support the application process and expand UCI's public health program.

We are grateful to the search committee and its chair, Hal Stern, professor of statistics, for their dedicated efforts and vital contributions to the search process.
Please join us in welcoming Dr. Boden-Albala to UCI.

Sincerely,

Enrique J. Lavernia, Ph.D.
Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor
Distinguished Professor, Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Steven A. N. Goldstein, M.A., M.D., Ph.D., FAAP
Vice Chancellor of Health Affairs
Professor of Pediatrics and Physiology & Biophysics