Planning for the present, looking to the future
Next steps for building a great School of Public Health at WashU
Dear colleagues:
I hope that everyone had a restful, restorative summer.
As we look ahead to the new academic year and take our next steps towards building an outstanding new School of Public Health at WashU, I wanted to write about how I see our work together unfolding over the coming months and years.
Before I begin, I want to reiterate what I have said before—it is a real honor to be joining the university in January as the Eugene S. and Constance D. Kahn Distinguished Professor in Public Health and the inaugural Margaret C. Ryan Dean of WashU’s new School of Public Health. It is a privilege to build upon the work of so many who have laid the foundations for our School of Public Health, and to engage with all that the WashU community has accomplished in public health over many decades. I am particularly grateful for the work of so many faculty and staff at the Brown School, the School of Medicine, Arts & Sciences, the Institute for Public Health, and the Office of the Provost, who have put in countless hours creating the conditions for public health to thrive at WashU.
It is truly exciting to think about how we are creating a School of Public Health that aligns with, and extends, WashU’s legacy of excellence—both building on what has come before and creating something new. At heart we are working to build a School of Public Health with excellence in interdisciplinary public health science, distinction in educational programs, and a deep commitment to local and global impact. Having this goal in mind at all times can help us ensure that all we do aligns with this fundamental mission, that we work together to build a school that can meaningfully contribute to the health of populations across the region, nationally, and globally.
Now, about mechanics—the steps we are taking towards building such a school—and about communication plans as we move forward.
I will start with faculty. As I said when I was at WashU in June, we first want to make sure we have an outstanding faculty. We will not have excellence in interdisciplinary public health science and scholarship without having world-class faculty leading this work. That is why recruiting such faculty will be a first-order consideration for building WashU’s new School of Public Health. To this end, we have created a Faculty Recruitment Committee that will guide this process. We will soon open a broad range of positions for those interested in joining the School of Public Health faculty, both from outside and inside the university. All full-time School of Public Health faculty positions will be posted and announced, and all faculty interested in a primary position, be they internal or external to the university, may apply by submitting a CV and a letter of interest. Select candidates will then be invited to meet with members of the Faculty Recruitment Committee and, subsequently, a subset of candidates will be invited to present a talk as part of our Talking Public Health seminar series, launching in January. Community members will have an opportunity to provide input on candidates for faculty positions through the latter.
We will post an initial call for faculty sometime in the next month. I know there is also substantial interest in joint appointments for faculty who maintain a primary appointment in other schools at WashU. I anticipate that we will post a call for these positions in January. Candidates for joint appointments will also be asked to submit a CV and a letter of interest to the Faculty Recruitment Committee.
Next, a note about staff. Much as a great school of public health rests on excellent faculty, it also rests on excellent staff. Our goal is to build such a staff body. We will soon open up some new positions for staff, and we will open up more in the fall and spring. All new staff positions, open to internal or external applicants, will be posted, and all applications will be reviewed by relevant leadership. I encourage anyone who is interested in joining the staff to check back often for postings here.
As we engage with this process, our guiding principle in all hiring—faculty and staff—will be to create a community that is diverse, inclusive, and committed to the pursuit of excellence. I have long felt that diversity and excellence are mutually reinforcing values, together shaping vibrant academic communities. As we work to support such a community at WashU, we will embed diversity and excellence into all our processes, starting with our commitment to hiring outstanding faculty and staff from many walks of life, representing a range of identities and perspectives.
Finally, a note about communication. There is much that is emerging, and will continue to emerge, as we take these steps toward a new School of Public Health at WashU. I will communicate these developments in an email at the beginning of each month during the fall of 2024. We will launch a more formal weekly communication vehicle starting in January 2025 when I arrive at the school. Today’s note is going out to a list of faculty and staff we know are interested in public health at WashU, but it is entirely possible that we are missing some people. So please feel free to forward this message to others. If you would like to be added to the distribution list for future mailings, please click here or feel free to send a note to Amanda Rhodes (amandarhodes@wustl.edu), the School of Public Health’s Associate Dean for Strategic Initiatives and Chief of Staff, who will be our point person for such inquiries for the time being until we build up our full communications team.
I also look forward to opportunities to connect in-person. I am going to be at WashU monthly over the fall. In October I will be here for the Public Health at WashU Annual Conference, where I will share a vision for the future of public health at the university and articulate pragmatic next steps as I see them. I will also be speaking in October at the Shaping a Healthy Future: Launching the Undergraduate Program in Public Health & Society event, as we roll out our undergraduate public health program, another key step to our vision to advance public health scholarship and education. Once I am on the ground in January, I will be much more available to meet with anyone and will look forward to visiting WashU schools and programs interested in public health, as invited by the deans and directors of these institutions.
I have been buoyed by the enormous enthusiasm there is for building a great School of Public Health at WashU. It is truly exciting to be joining the university at this moment. I also realize that building a new school represents change, bringing about enthusiasm and excitement, but also, sometimes, anxiety. Some of this is based on not knowing what a new school will look like, what shape it will take, how some processes will happen. I see it as part of my job to engage with these concerns through regular, clear communication, as I am doing here and as I will do in future messages. I am also aware that communication should be a conversation. If anyone has any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me—I am always available by email (sgalea@wustl.edu). I realize, of course, that it is not possible to assuage all anxieties at once and I ask for your indulgence and patience as we collaboratively work towards our goals over the next academic year and beyond. I am hoping this message, and subsequent communication, will reassure all that we will work quickly indeed—but also systematically, fairly, and thoughtfully—toward putting in place processes that fully support the community we are creating.
I am much looking forward to working with all in the coming weeks and months.
Warmly,
Sandro
