The UMD School of Public Health has a new luminary on the horizon, with the appointment of the school’s first-ever Clark Leadership Chair in Global Health, Dr. Heather Wipfli.
Wipfli will bring deep expertise in global chronic disease control, particularly related to tobacco control, employing international cooperation and governance approaches to improve health. She joins SPH from the University of Southern California (USC) Keck School of Medicine, where she is a professor of population and public health sciences and international relations and a member of the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center.
“What I saw at the University of Maryland School of Public Health is a community so ambitious and so enthusiastic and driven to keep growing and to build something new and unique,” Wipfli said. “I’ve been impressed by how much student experiential learning is taking place, and I’m eager to continue that excellence and to increase the opportunities for students to be engaged in real-life problem-solving and programming, in the local community and the state and then around the world.”
“Dr. Heather Wipfli is a true visionary who has extensive experience translating global health research and practice into real-world impact.”
As Clark Leadership Chair in Global Health, Wipfli will take a leading role in advancing SPH’s overall global health research and scholarship infrastructure in SPH’s new Department of Global, Environmental, and Occupational Health (GEOH). She will lead a collaborative, externally funded, interdisciplinary research program and help grow GEOH’s new global health major by teaching and mentoring students and by supporting hands-on undergraduate research.
“We are absolutely thrilled to welcome Dr. Wipfli to GEOH,” said GEOH Chair Dr. Amy Sapkota. “She is a true visionary who has extensive experience translating global health research and practice into real-world impact.”
“Dr. Wipfli directed the USC Institute for Global Health for a decade and has led several large multi-national research and training programs across the globe, including those focused on global tobacco control and environmental and occupational health,” Sapkota said. “We look forward to her charismatic and innovative leadership as we expand our footprint in global health research, training and practice, and accelerate our impact from local to global scales.”
Wipfli currently leads several externally funded research projects, including studies focused on tobacco control and cancer prevention among people living with HIV in Africa. She also serves as a co-investigator of the Eastern Africa GEOHealth Hub, a multi-country program currently focused on air quality and health, occupational health and climate change and health.
At Maryland, Wipfli said, “I want to enhance the research mission of the department and grow the externally funded research activities, including expanding partnerships and collaborations to provide opportunities to researchers and students.”
Funded by the A. James & Alice B. Clark Foundation, Wipfli will hold one of five Clark Leadership Chair positions at UMD. The intent of these positions is to bring world-class faculty members to UMD to promote interdisciplinary learning and research in fields of critical importance to the global community.
“The Clark Leadership Chairs were established to attract visionary scholars whose interdisciplinary research will address the world’s most pressing challenges,” said Courtney Clark Pastrick, board chair of the A. James & Alice B. Clark Foundation. “Dr. Wipfli’s appointment exemplifies this mission, and we’re proud to support her groundbreaking work in global health. Her leadership will strengthen UMD’s reputation as a world-class research institution and help ensure better health outcomes both locally and globally.”
Wipfli will bring to UMD more than 20 years of experience in academic program administration, working with many undergraduate, masters and doctoral students, in addition to serving as the director of USC’s undergraduate programs in health promotion and global health. An award-winning mentor, she is known for her engaging classroom instruction, ground-breaking international immersion courses and applied student-led research lab. She will begin at UMD this summer.
Prior to joining USC, Wipfli served on the faculty at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and was a technical officer at the World Health Organization headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. She has over 100 scientific publications, including her book, “The Global War on Tobacco.”
“We’re building the highest-caliber academic and research institution here at the University of Maryland School of Public Health,” said SPH Dean Boris Lushniak. “The addition of Dr. Heather Wipfli – an internationally lauded global health leader – as our school’s first-ever Clark Leadership Chair is proof positive of the life-changing work we are positioned to accomplish.”
##
Established in 2007 at one of the nation’s leading research institutions, the University of Maryland School of Public Health has more than 30 academic programs – including bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral and certificate programs, in-person and online options – and specialties from global health to family health, kinesiology to epidemiology to health policy, and so much more. At the UMD School of Public Health, we cultivate an educational experience that prepares students to make a positive difference in the world.