Dr. Maureen Lichtveld to become dean at University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health

Dee Boling Dboling@tulane.edu
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Photo of Dr. Maureen Lichtveld

Dr. Anantha Shekhar, senior vice chancellor for the health sciences at the University of Pittsburgh, has announced that Dr. Maureen Lichtveld will become the next dean at the Graduate School of Public Health.

Lichtveld has had a long and successful career at Tulane University, where she has been a professor and, until recently, chair of the Department of Environmental Health Sciences. She has also served as the Freeport McMoRan Chair of Environmental Health Policy, associate director for population sciences with the Tulane Cancer Center, and a member of the Louisiana Cancer Research Consortium’s Scientific Executive Committee. In 2016, she was elected as a member of the National Academy of Medicine, considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine.

As director of the Center for Gulf Coast Environmental Health Research, Leadership and Strategic Initiatives within SPHTM, Lichtveld has led the development and implementation of innovative disaster management, health promotion, and disease prevention strategies to enhance the health and well-being of Gulf Coast communities.

In his announcement, Dean Thomas LaVeist highlighted Lichtveld’s nearly 40 years of experience in environmental public health. “Dr. Lichtveld has represented this school well,” he said. “Her achievement and advancement to the role of dean reflects well on our community here, and I applaud her success.”

“Tulane, and especially the public health community, played a critical role in supporting my mission to make science work for communities-- in the aftermath of disasters, to address the impact of climate and health, and above all to counter the intransigent disparities faced by the most vulnerable among us," said Lichtveld. "The New Orleans community will always be part of my DNA”

Lichtveld will succeed Interim Dean Everette James at Pitt Public Health, who took the helm of the school following Dr. Donald Burke’s 13-year tenure in the role.