SPH Welcomes New Assistant Dean for Partnerships, Engagement, and Advancement.
Luciano Ramos. Photo: Megan Jones
SPH Welcomes New Assistant Dean for Partnerships, Engagement, and Advancement
Luciano Ramos discusses his new role, his development priorities, and why he is excited to be part of the SPH community.
With more than two decades of experience leading cross‑sector collaborations, promoting philanthropic initiatives, and driving organizational transformation across the higher education, government, nonprofit, and health‑tech sectors, Luciano Ramos joins the School of Public Health as the new assistant dean for partnerships, engagement, and advancement.
In his career to date, Luciano has secured over $100 million in funding for under‑resourced communities, built national and international partnerships, and guided complex initiatives to strengthen institutional performance and visibility. Prior to joining SPH, he shaped economic mobility efforts as the executive director of the Center for Economic and Social Justice at Roxbury Community College. He also previously served as the director of community partnerships at University of Massachusetts Boston.
“BU has a story that is well known to some, but not to all. And I think there is more that we could do to help government and industry leaders know more about the work that we do,” says Ramos. “SPH has the ability to contribute to solving a lot of issues within our society, and it excites me to be a part of that—to work alongside these incredible experts, whether it’s the [staff] who are coordinating practicum or the faculty who are doing research or the students who are working with organizations in the community.”
Ramos shared more about his vision for his new role, his development priorities, and why he is excited to join the SPH community at this time.
Q&A
With Luciano Ramos
SPH: You are joining SPH at a very exciting time—this year is our 50th anniversary. Approaching that celebration, what do you have in mind for development and alumni relations?
Ramos: Being part of the 50th is tremendously exciting, and it’s a great celebration of all that SPH has accomplished. Our alumni, faculty, students, staff, partner organizations—everyone connected to SPH, and us taking a moment to celebrate that, and understand the tremendous foundation that has been created over these past 50 years. But I am actually more excited about 2027, in which we enter our next 50 years. We are continuing to move forward, especially at this critical time in our nation’s history and in global history, and so making it past the 50th, and looking towards the future is really what I’m excited about.
SPH: What is your main priority as you get started?
Ramos: My number one priority is listening and learning. Again, a lot has been built over the past 50 years, and for me, being able to honor what has worked before I got here is important, but then, also equally as important is creating a framework and a plan for moving forward. I think SPH is in a unique position in which we are going to be able to lead, not just nationally and globally in public health, but also in Boston University’s continued evolution and transformation. We will be good partners as the university, as [President Gilliam] drives things forward.
SPH: What do you think makes SPH a good partner, not only to the larger university but to industry, government, and the local community?
Ramos: I have done a lot of work around economic mobility and the social drivers of health, the social determinants of health as they are known in the field, and so much of health is not related to clinical care but rather to a lot of the factors that SPH is tackling head-on. Whether you are looking at legal matters, environmental issues, issues around justice and economic mobility, we cut across just about every discipline and every field at the local, national, and global level.
I think by our very nature, we are well-suited to [partnership], and public health has been able to thrive in large part because of collaboration, because we are able to connect people who are coming from very different perspectives and backgrounds around a common theme. In a time in which we arguably need to build community more than ever, I think [public health partnership] is what is going to make us successful as a society.
