Patricia Wahl named to lead School of Public Health

Patricia W. Wahl

Dr. Patricia W. Wahl, a leading biostatistician and senior public-health educator, has been named dean of the UW School of Public Health and Community Medicine, President Richard L. McCormick announced today. The appointment follows a national search and is subject to confirmation by the UW Board of Regents at its next regular meeting on Feb. 19.

Wahl, 60, has been acting dean of the school since September 1997. She previously served as associate dean for 12 years and is a former acting chair of the Department of Pathobiology. She has been a UW faculty member since 1971 and will retain her faculty appointment as professor of biostatistics.

Wahl succeeds Dr. Gilbert S. Omenn, who left the UW in 1997, after serving 15 years as dean, to become executive vice president for medical affairs at the University of Michigan.

“Both during the search process and for years preceding it, Dr. Wahl has served the University of Washington and its very fine school of public health with vision and distinction,” said McCormick. “I am pleased that she has agreed to lead the school, thereby helping to ensure a continued steady flow of contributions to public health education and research.”

“Over the years, faculty and graduates of the University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine have made their mark, collectively and individually, throughout the world of public health education and research,” said Wahl. “I am grateful for, and humbled by, this opportunity.”

Wahl, who will receive an annual salary of $180,000, earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from San Jose State University in California in 1960, and a Ph.D. in biostatistics from the UW in 1971.

Wahl currently participates in four collaborative research projects. She is the co-director of a new 10-year coordinating center for Subclinical Cardiovascular Disease, a longitudinal study of risk factors, and principal investigator of the coordinating center for the Sleep Heart Health Study, an epidemiological study of the association between sleep apnea and cardiovascular disease. She is co-director of the coordinating center for the Cardiovascular Health Study, a longitudinal study of cardiovascular disease in elderly men and women. And she is a co-investigator of the Japanese American Community Diabetes study, a longitudinal investigation of Type II diabetes.

Among Wahl’s many activities, she serves on the board of the Infectious Disease Research Institute and the education committee for the American Schools of Public Health. She is a member of the Biostatistics Council of the Associated Schools of Public Health and the American Statistical Association, Biometric Society, American Public Health Association and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She has served on the Board of Directors for the Northwest Kidney Center and Women+Business.

The UW School of Public Health and Community Medicine was founded in 1970. It offers numerous degree programs, and is a leader in academic advances and professional education in public health sciences and public health practice.

The school has five departments — biostatistics, environmental health, epidemiology, health services, pathobiology — and multiple interdepartmental and inter-school programs. There are 660 students and 150 full-time faculty.

In addition to educating and training health care professionals, the school supports research in a wide range of fields. These include cancer prevention, environmental risk assessment, improving the health of older adults and people with disabilities, developing new biostatistical, epidemiological and quality-of-life methods, and evaluating the outcomes and costs of medical care and public health practices.

The school has pioneered teaching innovations, including the Extended Degree Program for the Master of Public Health, direct links to the State Health Department for hands-on epidemiology courses and an inter-school course in Environmental Health Risk Assessment. The school is also in the process of developing new degree pathways (M.P.H, M.S., Ph.D.) in public health genetics. ¶

Julie Rathbun