Dean’s Note: With Gratitude.
With Gratitude
On stepping down as Dean of Boston University School of Public Health at the end of 2024, paving the way for the next generation of leadership at the school who can lead the school into its 50th anniversary and the future.
This week, I let the school community know that I shall be stepping down as Dean of Boston University School of Public Health at the end of 2024, paving the way for the next generation of leadership at the school who can lead the school into its 50th anniversary and the future. Starting in 2025, I shall be taking on the position of inaugural Dean of a new School of Public Health at Washington University.
I wanted here to follow up my earlier communication with a note of gratitude. I have had the enormous privilege of serving as Dean of this school for 10 years. I have had the good fortune of working with wonderful colleagues and friends, contributing to a school I care deeply about, and shepherding a new generation of scholars and scientists who are going to be the future of this school, and of public health, in coming decades. For all this I am so very grateful.
I am also grateful to the broader public health community that has been—and continues to be—my academic and intellectual home now for a quarter century. I started my professional life as a physician. I came to public health seeing this as an opportunity to be a part of a world that generates ideas, that trains the next generation, and that engages in translating those ideas towards creating a healthier and better world. Twenty-five years after I first alighted on the field, I am more optimistic now than ever about the potential of public health.
Public health is an aspiration, a vision of a better world, one that requires the work of all of us across sectors, and one where I find myself repeatedly encouraged by new generations of students who both understand the mission and are committed to building and improving on the work of my generation. What a privilege it is to be part of this community; how grateful I am to continue being part of the community through my new engagement at WashU.
I look forward to the opportunity to express my gratitude many times in coming months to the BU community for all we have done together, and to express my gratitude many times in coming years to the WashU community for welcoming me. For now, I wanted to mark the moment with a very personal, to all: Thank you.
With warmth,
Sandro
Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH
Dean, Robert A. Knox Professor
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