SPH faculty hires reflect five-year plan to underscore research

SPH this year adopted a new five-year strategic plan aimed at helping the school become more effective in areas of national-caliber research. The plan’s three themes are: involved, interconnected, and global. After a decade of growth, SPH has been transformed from a locally focused MPH program for mid-career professionals to a nationally and internationally relevant academic institution engaged in groundbreaking teaching, research, and service. In addition to working with local populations, the school conducts research, trains public health workers, and serves diverse populations around the world.

New hires include Deborah Maine, who comes to SPH from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health where she served as professor of clinical public health and director of its Averting Maternal Death and Disability (AMDD) program in the Heilbrunn Center for Population and Family Health. In 2001, she won the Carl S. Shultz Award of the Population, Family Planning and Reproductive Health Section of the American Public Health Association, for professional achievement, personal dedication and long-lasting contributions.

School of Public Health — Appointments

Irene Cramer, research assistant professor of health services. Cramer will continue as an investigator at the Center for Organization, Leadership and Management Research (affiliated with the health services department), and will likely be a principal investigator on future health services research grants.

Kristen Heaton, research assistant professor of environmental health. She will continue working in neurotoxicologic research with Roberta White and will also work on career award funding applications as the principal investigator.

Shih-Jen Hwang, adjunct research assistant professor of biostatistics. Hwang’s primary responsibility is for the genetics research at the Framingham Heart Study. She will also collaborate with the biostatistics department faculty on genetics projects and mentor students in genetic epidemiology.

Peter Koutoujian, adjunct professor of health services. He will have opportunities to contribute to the health services department by guest lecturing in class or through the department’s health policy initiatives.

Deborah Maine, professor of international health. She will teach reproductive health policy and other courses that she will design consistent with the department’s needs. She will also advise students at the MPH and Ph.D. levels.

David Mohr research assistant professor of health services. He will continue working as an investigator at the new Center for Organization, Leadership and Management Research.

Laura Murray, assistant professor of international health. She is a core member of the team of mental health experts that Paul Bolton has assembled at the Center for International Health, working on mental health issues in the developing world.

Amy Rubin, adjunct assistant professor of social and behavioral sciences. She will teach and conduct research in substance abuse.

Michele Shaffer, assistant professor of biostatistics. Shaffer will have responsibilities in the department that are similar to other full-time faculty. She will teach Introduction to Statistical Computing, and in addition, will be working two days a week with the Hebrew Rehabilitation Center on projects studying risk factors for falls among the elderly.

School of Public Health — Promotions of nontenure track faculty

Bei-Hung Chang, associate professor of biostatistics and health services, from the rank of assistant professor of biostatistics and health services.

Mari-Lynn Drainoni, associate professor of health services, from the rank of assistant professor.

Timothy Lash, associate professor of epidemiology, from the rank of assistant professor. This appointment is in addition to his appointment as assistant professor of medicine in the School of Medicine.

Elena Losina, associate professor of biostatistics, from the rank of assistant professor. This appointment is in addition to her appointment as research assistant professor of medicine in the School of Medicine.

Jean Maguire van Seventer, associate professor, from the rank of research assistant professor.

Promotion, jointly between School of Medicine and School of Public Health

Louis David Fiore, associate professor of medicine and epidemiology in the schools of Medicine and Public Health, from the rank of assistant professor.

Named professor emeritus jointly between the School of Medicine and School of Public Health

Raymond Edward Stephens, professor emeritus of physiology and biophysics, from rank of professor.