- Faculty & Staff, Message from the Dean, Students
- September 5, 2025
Dear Colleagues,
A warm welcome to our new community members: students, staff, and faculty. We are delighted you have joined us, and to our returning community members, a heartfelt welcome back.
As we embark on this new semester, school leadership is writing a series of notes to provide an overview of School functions and operations, with links to relevant resources, to introduce the School to the new members of our community, and to hopefully serve as a useful refresher for long-time community members. This first note is on the structure of our school.
The school is informed by our current Strategy Map and we will work on our next iteration to be launched at the start of 2026.
The school’s structure mirrors our core purpose: Think. Teach. Do. For the Health of all. Our senior leadership team is structured with an Associate Dean who leads each of our core areas of Education, Research, Practice, and Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice. Rounding out the Associate Dean group is our Associate Dean for Administration and Finance, responsible for the operational and financial well-being of the school.
A bit about each of these groups.
Our Education team, under the leadership of Dean Lisa Sullivan, works towards advancing our aspiration of innovative and excellent education. Our Education team comprises five units: Admissions Office, Career and Practicum Office, Educational Initiatives Team, Graduate Student Life, and the Registrar’s Office. The Education team oversees a full suite of resources that are available to help all our faculty and staff involved in teaching. In addition to our degrees and programs, our faculty and staff work to offer lifelong educational opportunities for everyone.
Our Research and Faculty Development team aims to support our faculty and research staff in developing the scholarship that leads our Think agenda. Under the leadership of Dean Mike McClean, the Faculty Resources Office regularly engages with the School’s academic departments, other units in the school, and relevant partners at the University level to ensure we have the right infrastructure to advance our scholarship and research, and to make sure that faculty are supported towards success in their career. See here for more details.
Under the leadership of Dean Craig Andrade, Associate Dean for Practice and Activist Lab Director, we aim to give life to our Do mission through engagement in the practice of public health. The mission of the Activist Lab is to be a catalyst for bold public health practice that disrupts injustice with compassion. Dean Andrade works closely with all units of the School, and offers resources and programs to support advocacy and practice being done by faculty, staff, and students.
We are committed to infusing Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice throughout our work, doing so under the leadership of Dean Yvette Cozier. The DEIJ team works closely with all units in the school to embed the principles and goals of DEIJ within our Education, Research, and Practice portfolios, in our classrooms, research, hiring, retention, staff, and faculty development, and all aspects of student engagement.
Under the leadership of Dean Ira Lazic, our Administration and Finance team supports the School’s mission by delivering programs and connecting our community members to resources, people, and systems that are core to the School’s success. Responsible for human resources, operational excellence, safety, infrastructure as well as financial stability, the Administration and Finance team works in close collaboration with all School departments.
And finally, the Office of the Dean has three units relevant to central functions: Marketing and Communications, Development and Alumni Relations, and the Dean’s Office Executive Team. These units communicate the work of the school, ensure our ongoing engagement with the world, connect with alumni, and identify resources to advance the School’s mission.
I hope this quick overview is of use, but please note that much work of the School is done at the Department and unit level, so not discussed here. I hope to have highlighted the (often less-seen) work of the central administrative units, to the end of supporting all as best as possible.
Welcome back!
AH
Adnan A. Hyder, MD MPH PhD
Dean & Robert A. Knox Professor