DR. PHILIP C. NASCA
Named Dean of UAlbany's School of Public Health
Dr. Philip C. Nasca sadly passed away on December 6, 2019. He was the former dean of the University at Albany’s School of Public Health and professor of epidemiology. Prior to assuming his position in Albany, Dr. Nasca was a professor of epidemiology, chair of the department of biostatistics and epidemiology, and associate dean for Graduate Academic Affairs in the University of Massachusetts at Amherst’s School of Public Health and Health Sciences. He also previously served as associate dean for research in the School of Nursing as well as a member of the Governor’s Public Health Council for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and co-chair of the SUNY Chancellor’s Task Force on “SUNY and a Healthier New York.”
Carol Whittaker's
Carol Whittaker's curiosity about cultures has brought her to the far corners of the world. But it's her fervent commitment and role as assistant dean for global health that has led Whittaker to confront the world's public health problems.
From Costa Rica to Turkmenistan, Whittaker is expanding UAlbany students' world view by developing program and research collaborations between the University's School of Public Health (SPH) and universities in other countries. Her interest in changing the landscape of international public health was sparked in the 1990s by a trip to Romania. The country, after its break from the Soviet Union, sought to rebuild its health care system -- starting with the need for trained public health professionals.
"We realized that if [the Romanians] just had opportunity to come here, learn more and get the fundamentals, they could have more well-trained professionals and take their program beyond where they were," said Whittaker.
Exploring new horizons isn't unfamiliar territory for Whittaker. She joined SPH in its infancy in the early 1990s, charged with building new programs. She created distance learning courses, set up global health seminars and became involved in public health leadership. Appropriately, she was named Assistant Dean for New Fun.
Kaveh Khoshnood, Ph.D., MPH
Associate Professor,Yale University School of Public Health
Dr. Khoshnood is a co-founder of Yale Violence and Health Study Group and a Steering Committee member of the Program on Conflict, Resiliency, and Health at the Yale McMillan Center. He is an infectious disease epidemiologist and has more than two decades of domestic and international experience in HIV prevention research among drug users and other at-risk populations, including its ethical aspects. Dr. Khoshnood’s teaching includes a course focused on the Middle East and North Africa region at Yale School of Public Health. The course "Responding to Violent Conflict: Epidemiological Methods & Public Health Interventions” focuses on how epidemiological methods are applied to understand specific health consequences of violent conflicts, including infectious diseases, mental health, maternal/child health, and chronic health problems. .
Holly G Atkinson, MD
Assistant professor, Department of Medical Education at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
Dr. Atkinson has an MD from the University of Rochester and an MS from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Dr. Atkinson has worked in global health and the social determinants of health. She was involved with the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize-winning organization Physicians for Human Rights and served on its board for more than 16 years including four years as its president. Her research focuses on documenting the linkages between the social determinants of disease and health outcomes, especially as it applies to the well-being of women and girls. She has conducted research in several countries around the world, including most recently Bahrain and Burma. She is a member and co-founder of the AMWA’s Task Force on Human Sex Trafficking and also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.