Dr. Richard MacLehose named chair of Department of Epidemiology

Dean Thomas LaVeist announced today that Dr. Richard MacLehose has been named chair of the Department of Epidemiology at the Celia Scott Weatherhead School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine at Tulane University. MacLehose will assume the role effective July 1, 2025, and his hiring follows an extensive national search to fill the role.  

“Dr. MacLehose brings an exceptional record of scholarship and leadership to the role of chair,” said LaVeist in his announcement, highlighting the new chair’s methodological work and applied research across multiple areas including cardiovascular, aging, nutritional, and occupational epidemiology.  

MacLehose joins Tulane after 17 years at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, where he served as assistant, associate, and then full professor in the Division of Epidemiology and Community Health. As an epidemiologist and biostatistician, he has extensive experience designing and implementing epidemiologic studies and developing novel methods in Bayesian statistics, bias analysis, and causal inference. He has also authored the textbook "Applying Quantitative Bias Analysis to Epidemiologic Data."

MacLehose earned his PhD in epidemiology from the University of North Carolina, his MS in epidemiology from the University of Washington, and his bachelor’s degree in microbiology from Miami University. He also spent two years at the National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences in the Biostatistics Branch as a postdoctoral fellow.  

In his announcement, LaVeist thanked both Interim Chair Dr. Lu Qi and Vice Chair Dr. Katherine Mills, who provided leadership to the department during the search. “Their guidance has provided critical stability and continuity to the department throughout the search process,” LaVeist noted.