Dear Tulane Community: Following an extensive national search, we are pleased to announce that Anita Raj, PhD, a Tata Chancellor Professor of Society and Health and director of the Center on Gender, Equity and Health at the University of California San Diego, has accepted the appointment as the new executive director of Newcomb Institute, effective July 1, 2023. Anita will also serve as the Nancy Reeves Dreux Endowed Chair at the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.
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A native of Jackson, Mississippi, Anita has held joint faculty appointments in the School of Medicine and School of Social Sciences at UC San Diego. Her research, including epidemiologic and intervention studies, focuses on sexual and reproductive health, maternal and child health, women’s empowerment and gender inequalities, including gender-based violence and child marriage. Anita has authored approximately 300 peer-reviewed publications. Her work has been featured in major media outlets in the United States, the United Kingdom and India. At UCSD Anita created and led the EMERGE platform, which provides open access to evidence-based measures on gender equality and empowerment for tracking progress toward Sustainable Development Goal 5, one of 17 Sustainable Development Goals established by the United Nations in 2015 as part of its “blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet.” She also created and led the California Study on Violent Experiences (CalVEX), which involves state-wide survey research and supportive qualitative data on violence and health in California. She will be bringing this work to the Newcomb Institute and expanding its focus to Louisiana. Anita has served as an advisor to UN Women, a United Nations entity working for gender equality and the empowerment of women. She has also served as an advisor for UNICEF, the World Health Organization, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the David and Lucille Packard Foundation. Anita spoke at the UN General Assembly on the issue of child marriage and serves as advisor and grantee to the Blue Shield of California Foundation and Kaiser Permanente on matters of social and health policies for California, based on the work of CalVEX. After enrolling as a 16-year-old at Newcomb College in 1987, Anita eventually returned to Mississippi, where she received a bachelor’s degree in biology from Mississippi College in 1991. She earned her master’s (1995) and PhD (1996) in psychology from the University of Georgia. Anita was a postdoctoral fellow at Boston University, where she obtained her first faculty position and served as a faculty member from 1998-2011. Please join us both in welcoming Anita back to the Tulane family. We want to recognize and thank our search committee and committee chair, Mimi Schippers, professor and chair of the Department of Sociology, for their efforts in bringing such an eminently qualified and visionary leader to the Newcomb Institute. Anita is an innovative leader, author, researcher and voice for racial and gender inequalities, violence prevention and numerous health-related initiatives. We are so thrilled she is coming back home.
Mike Fitts, President
Robin Forman, Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost
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