VCU School of Public Health
Annual Report 2023-2024
A Letter from the Dean
Welcome to the School of Public Health. Founded in 2023 as the School of Population Health, we are VCU’s 15th and newest school, bringing together four founding departments that were previously part of the School of Medicine. The School of Public Health offers graduate degrees in several areas of public health, including biostatistics, epidemiology, social and behavioral sciences, and healthcare policy.
I am honored to serve as interim founding dean, leading award-winning faculty, dedicated staff, and passionate students. Through our commitment and strong community partnerships, we can address public health and health equity challenges in Virginia and beyond.
We have accomplished a lot in our first full year as a school: significant academic awards, growth in enrollment, and ground-breaking research.
In this report, you’ll find our proudest accomplishments, including our direct partnership with—and impact on—our community as we strive to improve health, well-being, and equity for all populations.
Community Partnerships
NCI-funded VA-ACCERT Center
The VCU School of Public Health, with VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center and Macon & Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences at Old Dominion University, has been awarded a five-year, $9 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to establish a pioneering Cancer Control Equity Research Center. This initiative aims to enhance the dissemination and implementation of health promotion and cancer prevention services for individuals and families residing in Virginia’s Housing and Urban Development (HUD)-administered income-based housing communities in the Greater Richmond region and Hampton Roads.
Chickahominy TRUTH Project
Faculty members Katherine Tossas, Ph.D., M.S., and Maria Thomson, Ph.D., M.Sc., began this project when they were contacted by a member of the Chickahominy tribe who noticed an unusual number of cancer diagnoses in her neighborhood and community. The collaborative efforts of VCU and the community members have contributed to developing a clearer picture of the community’s health landscape, revealing heightened cancer fears and a pervasive mistrust in health care and water safety. Importantly, this project has showcased the power of community-engaged research to address complex public health issues. The project wrapped up in June 2024.
Neighborhood Factors and Heart Disease
Anika L. Hines, Ph.D., an assistant professor and head of the Equity in Cardiovascular Health Outcomes Lab, led a study that suggests chronic stress from discrimination and adverse neighborhood conditions contribute to racial disparities in heart health.
Hines and her colleagues are currently working with community members to design feasible interventions for young Black women to combat stress from these unique racial, gendered experiences with discrimination.
Petersburg Wellness Consortium
This co-founded partnership between VCU, community members and local organizations is in its 12th year and on the path to earning 501(c)3 status. It continues to work directly with and for the people of Petersburg to address disparities in health care access and outcomes, working towards a community living in excellent health and wellness. Katelyn Schifano, community health education specialist, serves on the board.
Professional Impact
Throughout the year, students, faculty, and staff have increased representation of VCU in academic public health professional associations and activities. These include membership in the Association for School and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH), the American Public Health Association (APHA) and the Virginia Public Health Association (VPHA). A cohort from SOPH attended the ASPPH Annual Meeting for Academic Public Health in March and the CEPH Accreditation Orientation Workshop series in May.
APHA Annual Meeting
For the last two years, faculty, staff, and students have attended the American Public Health Association’s Annual Meeting as a School. In 2024, Dipankar Bandyopadhyay, Ph.D., professor of biostatistics, was named the APHS Lowell Reed Lecturer.
Award-winning Faculty
Marcie Wright, Ph.D., associate professor and director of access, opportunity and engagement, received VCU’s Oustanding Term Faculty Award at the university’s faculty convocation in August 2024.
Anika Hines, Ph.D., associate professor, received VCU's Oustanding Early Career Faculty Award at the university's convocation in September 2023. Hines was also recognized in the inaugural class of National/International Recognition Awards (NIRA) scholars in October 2023.
Virginia Department of Health
Founding Interim Dean Vanessa Sheppard, Ph.D. has spoken twice to the Virginia Department of Health (VDH)'s local district offices about our work and ongoing community-focused partnership.
Our partnership with VDH is well-established and spans beyond research and outreach. In February 2024, VDH partnered with VCU Athletics for a Public Health in Sports Week and invited SOPH to attend the VCU Men's Basketball homecoming game. Student volunteers, faculty, and staff attended the event and supported VDH’s efforts.
Virginia Department of Social Services Partnership
In February 2024, the School welcomed Commissioner Dr. Danny Avula (now Richmond Mayor-Elect), Deputy Commissioner Dr. Hari Dulai, and Senior Research Associate Dr. Sarah Smith from the Virginia Department of Social Services. VDSS will continue to meet regularly with our department chairs to discuss opportunities for collaboration and student training. In April, the group met again to share opportunities for research using data from VDSS.
National Public Health Week
The Public Health Student Association (PHSA) led a series of events during National Public Health Week, observed April 1 - 7, 2024. The theme was “Protecting, Connecting & Thriving: We Are All Public Health.” Events included guest speakers, a career and internship fair, a film screening and discussion on climate change, speed learning, and networking events including a school-wide mixer and a community cleanup. The Dean’s Office plans to expand upon these events for National Public Health Week in April 2025.
Progress and Accomplishments
Between Fall 2023 and Fall 2024, total enrollment grew by 10.3% across all programs.
The Master of Public Health program has grown steadily by 10% year-over-year since 2019 and added a new concentration in cancer health equity, which began admitting students in 2023.
In March 2024, the Council on Accreditation for Public Health (CEPH) formally accepted our application to transition to the school of public health category of accreditation. The accreditation team anticipates completing our self-study in February 2026 and is tentatively planning to hold our accreditation site visit in October 2026. All planned dates are estimates and are subject to change.
VCU's Master of Public Health (MPH) degree was first accredited as a public health program by CEPH in 1996 and is accredited through July 1, 2030. The MPH degree, including concentrations in Applied Public Health, Cancer Health Equity Science, and Epidemiology, remains accredited as a program while the School of Public Health moves through the self-study process.
After nearly 30 years of being housed in what is now the Department of Epidemiology, the MPH program was centralized in the SOPH Dean’s Office. This move allows for focused program support from a staff person housed in the Dean’s Office and enables faculty from all departments to engage in the program more readily.
This move came with many administrative steps. A major task has been relocating non-epidemiology courses from the Department of Epidemiology to the new course subject code, PHLT. Eight courses have been moved to the PHLT course subject code, with an additional 2 courses moved to the SBHD and HCPR course subject codes. Although these courses left the EPID course subject code, the Department of Epidemiology has continued to engage with and promote the MPH. For example, over the last few years Epidemiology faculty have developed three new courses to serve as electives and concentration core courses for the MPH program.
The newly structured MPH team worked with VCU Honors College to develop a proposal to include the MPH in the guaranteed admissions program where students in the Honors College can gain early admission to prespecified VCU graduate and professional degree programs, an important recruiting tool. Our proposal was approved by MPH leadership and the MPH Admissions Committee and was implemented beginning in Fall 2024.
To unify the four departments and MPH, the Dean’s Office established a Graduate Programs Committee (GPC). This committee collaboratively drafted and passed a committee charter. The GPC integrated representatives of the School including education staff and faculty from each department. A key accomplishment was examining all school-level policies related to graduate study that were adhered to under the School of Medicine and comparing them to VCU policies and the specific practices in the new School of Public Health. Based on this policy review process, members of the GPC provided a set of recommended school-wide policies which were approved by SOPH faculty in May 2024.
For FY24, faculty members from the School of Public Health excelled as principal investigators, securing $9.5M in grants to tackle critical public health challenges. Our cutting-edge research addresses chronic disease prevention, health policy, health disparities, oral health, cancer prevention and control, clinical trial design, genetic epidemiology, traumatic brain injury, social epidemiology, public health nutrition, and sleep disturbances.
Supported by funding from leading organizations such as the NIH, CDC, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and others, we are dedicated to developing solutions that prevent disease and promote better health for all populations.
Google Scholars List of Publications
Notable grants and studies
James Burch, Ph.D., professor, will co-lead a four-year, $6 million study to explore how HRV Biofeedback can help veterans and service members suffering from long-term symptoms after a mild traumatic brain injury. Read more
Fariha Tariq, PhD candidate in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, received an F99 Transition Award from the National Cancer Institute. Read more
Emily Zimmerman, Ph.D., an associate professor for the Department of Epidemiology, was awarded an R24 grant by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for a five-year study to inform substance use disorder (SUD) treatment research. Read more
The Department of Epidemiology hosted regular invited seminars open to all students and the public. VCU Alum Jordyn Wallenborn, PhD, MPH, returned to campus twice to present maternal and child health research. Vanessa Hill, MFA, MPH, PMP, founder & executive director of Project Nana, Inc. spoke about entrepreneurship in public health. Anika Hines, PhD, MPH, assistant professor of Health Policy shared her research on chronic stress within the context of social environments.
Academic Affairs and various departments host Tuesday Teas and Timeout Tuesdays to connect students with each other, present networking opportunities, and share resources that can help them grow in their education and professional careers.
Our team continues to grow to meet the needs of our School and departments. Between FY23 and FY24, the School employed four new faculty members, six new adjunct faculty, 22 part-time staff and 14 new full-time staff.
Access, Opportunity and Engagement
History of the School of Public Health
Learn More about our School
