Starting this month, SPH Professor Amelia Arria is expanding her role within the UMD School of Public Health as the new associate dean for research.
In this leadership position, Arria will steer SPH’s strategic research leadership, collaborating across school communities and university leadership to increase research proposals and awards. She will also strengthen our research infrastructure, partnering across campus to close gaps, manage data and streamline processes. As well, Arria will ensure regulatory compliance and ethics, foster development and sustainability of SPH research centers and multidisciplinary collaborations, among other responsibilities.
“I'm very much looking forward to matching our many excellent assets and capabilities with available funding opportunities to expand our research portfolio,” Arria said. “The time has never been more urgent for rigorous research approaches and science to drive practical solutions to promote public health.”
Already a wearer of many hats, Arria is currently the SPH associate dean for strategic initiatives, professor in the SPH Department of Behavioral and Community Health and director of the Center on Young Adult Health and Development. She will remain in these roles.
Arria’s expertise focuses on substance use and untreated mental health problems among adolescents and young adults, with care given to ensure scientific findings are accessible to parents, policymakers and community members.
A successful scholar and researcher with more than 185 peer-reviewed publications, among many achievements, Arria served as principal investigator of the National Institute on Drug Abuse-funded prospective College Life Study, which annually assessed the behavioral health of 1,253 college students through their young adult years. She also co-leads the Maryland Collaborative, which provides training and technical assistance to 19 colleges across the state to help align their substance use prevention and intervention strategies with scientific evidence.
As a first-generation college student, Arria is committed to ensuring higher education can serve as a pathway to success.
“Dr. Amelia Arria is already a force for good across our school, and with this new role, I know her breadth of experience, strategic savvy and compassionate, collaborative approach will benefit us all,” said SPH Dean Boris Lushniak.