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Sandro Galea

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Sandro Galea
Galea in 2018
Born (1971-04-24) April 24, 1971 (age 53)
Republic of Malta
NationalityAmerican
Canadian
Maltese
EducationDoctor of Medicine
Master of Public Health
Doctor of Public Health
Alma materColumbia University)
Harvard University
University of Toronto
SpouseMargaret Kruk
Scientific career
FieldsEpidemiology
Public health
Emergency medicine
InstitutionsBoston University School of Public Health
Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health
Websitewww.sandrogalea.org

Sandro Galea (born April 24, 1971) is a physician, epidemiologist, and author. He is the Robert A Knox professor and dean at the Boston University School of Public Health.[1] In 2025, he will become the inaugural dean of the new School of Public Health at Washington University in St. Louis.[2]

Galea is most known for his research on social and psychiatric epidemiology. His work has focused on the social causes of health, mental health, and trauma. His peer-reviewed academic articles include publications in JAMA, the New England Journal of Medicine, and The Lancet.[3] He has also edited and authored books including Well: What We Need to Talk About When We Talk About Health,[4] The Contagion Next Time,[5] and Healthier: Fifty Thoughts on the Foundations of Population Health.[6] He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and has received awards for this research, including the Michael J McGinnis Award from the Interdisciplinary Association for Population Health Science, the Wade Hampton Frost and the Rema Lapouse Awards from the American Public Health Association, and the Robert S Laufer Award from the International Society for Traumatic Stress.[7] He has received honorary doctorates from the University of Glasgow and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.[8]

Early life and education

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Born on April 24, 1971, in the Republic of Malta, Galea emigrated with his family to Canada at the age of 14. He completed his undergraduate studies in cell and molecular biology at the University of Toronto in 1990. After graduating from the University of Toronto Medical School in 1994, he underwent residencies in family medicine at Northern Ontario School of Medicine University from 1994 to 1996 and emergency medicine at the University of Toronto from 1996 to 1997. While completing his family medicine residency in Thunder Bay, Ontario, he met his wife, Margaret Kruk, who is currently a professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.[9]

Early in his career, Galea worked as an emergency physician in Ontario district hospitals and as a project physician for Médecins Sans Frontières in Somalia. He then completed a Master of Public Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in 2000, specializing in quantitative methods, followed by doctoral studies in Epidemiology at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health from 2000 to 2003.[9]

Career

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Galea worked as a medical epidemiologist at the New York Academy of Medicine's Center for Urban Epidemiologic Studies from 2000 to 2005 and was promoted to associate director in 2002. From 2003 to 2005, he also served as an assistant professor of clinical epidemiology at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. In 2005, he joined the University of Michigan School of Public Health as an associate professor in the Department of Epidemiology, promoted to professor in 2008. From 2008-2009, he also directed the Center for Global Health at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. From 2010 to 2014, he was the chair and Gelman Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at Columbia University. He became dean of the Boston University School of Public Health in 2015 and Robert A. Knox Professor in 2016.[10] He has been appointed as the inaugural Margaret C. Ryan Dean of the School of Public Health at Washington University and the Eugene S and Constance Kahn Distinguished Professor in Public Health, with his duties beginning in 2025.[11][12]

Galea has also served as an associate editor of the American Journal of Epidemiology from 2010 to 2024.[13] He was also a board member and vice president of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies from 2008 to 2009. He was president of the Interdisciplinary Association for Population Health Science between 2017 and 2019 and president of the Society for Epidemiologic Research 2012 and 2013. Between 2021 and 2024, he was a member of the Santé Publique France Scientific Board, served on the Board of Directors for Sharecare, and chaired the Board of Health for the Boston Public Health Commission between 2022 and 2024.[14] He has been appointed as the Editor-in-Chief of Jama Health Forum for the year 2025.[15]

Research

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Galea, through his research, has expanded the understanding of how social factors affect health, of common mood-anxiety disorders and substance use in populations, and of the population mental health consequences of conflict and mass trauma, including those related to firearms. In 2006, his research on the 2003 SARS outbreak among Toronto healthcare workers was profiled in Time.[16] With over 1,000 peer-reviewed journal articles, his work has achieved an h-index of 158.[3]

Galea's research has highlighted the link between specific social environment factors and the incidence, comorbidity, and progression of anxiety, mood, and substance use disorders. By applying novel analytic methods, he advanced classic psychiatric epidemiology, emphasizing the impact of social and economic forces on these disorders. His work also focused into the causes and effects of accidental drug overdose, leading to public health interventions aimed at reducing overdose-related morbidity and mortality in urban areas.[17][18][19]

Galea developed a dynamic model of social and economic vulnerabilities to explain variations in population health and introduced innovative analytic methods to connect health outcomes with complex social processes.[20][21][22]

Galea's work also documented the mental health sequelae of many of the largest human-made and natural disasters worldwide. His research established that the impact of mass traumatic events extends beyond the immediate victims to populations not directly exposed to the events. Additionally, he also conducted inquiry into the consequences of trauma and conflict on military service members and reservists worldwide.[23][24][25][26]

Awards and honors

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Bibliography

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Books

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  • Methods for Disaster Mental Health Research (2006) ISBN 9781593853105
  • Macrosocial Determinants of Population Health (2007) ISBN 9780387708119
  • A Life Course Approach to Mental Disorders (2013) ISBN 9780199657018
  • Epidemiology Matters: A New Introduction to Methodological Foundations (2014) ISBN 9780199331246
  • Population Health Science (2016) ISBN 9780190459376
  • Systems Science and Population Health (2017) ISBN 9780190492397
  • Healthier: Fifty Thoughts on the Foundations of Population Health (2017) ISBN 9780190662417
  • Urban Health (2019) ISBN 9780190915841
  • Well: What We Need To Talk About When We Talk About Health (2019) ISBN 9780190916831
  • Pained: Uncomfortable Conversations about the Public's Health (2020) ISBN 9780197510384
  • The Contagion Next Time (2021) ISBN 9780197576427
  • The Commercial Determinants of Health (2022) ISBN 9780197578759
  • Migration and Health (2022) ISBN 9780226822488
  • Within Reason: A Liberal Public Health for an Illiberal Time (2023) ISBN 9780226822914
  • The Turning Point (2024) ISBN 9780197749685

Selected articles

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  • Galea, S., Ahern, J., Resnick, H., Kilpatrick, D., Bucuvalas, M., Gold, J., & Vlahov, D. (2002). Psychological sequelae of the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York City. New England Journal of Medicine, 346(13), 982-987.
  • Hawryluck, L., Gold, W. L., Robinson, S., Pogorski, S., Galea, S., & Styra, R. (2004). SARS control and psychological effects of quarantine, Toronto, Canada. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 10(7), 1206.
  • Galea, S., Nandi, A., & Vlahov, D. (2005). The epidemiology of post-traumatic stress disorder after disasters. Epidemiologic Reviews, 27(1), 78-91.
  • Bonanno, G. A., Galea, S., Bucciarelli, A., & Vlahov, D. (2006). Psychological resilience after disaster: New York City in the aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attack. Psychological Science, 17(3), 181-186.
  • Bonanno, G. A., Galea, S., Bucciarelli, A., & Vlahov, D. (2007). What predicts psychological resilience after disaster? The role of demographics, resources, and life stress. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 75(5), 671.
  • Galea, S., & Tracy, M. (2007). Participation rates in epidemiologic studies. Annals of Epidemiology, 17(9), 643-653.
  • Ahern, J., Stuber, J., & Galea, S. (2007). Stigma, discrimination and the health of illicit drug users. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 88(2-3), 188-196.
  • Neria, Y., Nandi, A., & Galea, S. (2008). Post-traumatic stress disorder following disasters: a systematic review. Psychological Medicine, 38(4), 467-480.
  • Sherrieb, K., Norris, F. H., & Galea, S. (2010). Measuring capacities for community resilience. Social indicators research, 99, 227-247.
  • Galea, S., Merchant, R. M., & Lurie, N. (2020). The mental health consequences of COVID-19 and physical distancing: the need for prevention and early intervention. JAMA Internal Medicine, 180(6), 817-818.
  • Ettman, C. K., Abdalla, S. M., Cohen, G. H., Sampson, L., Vivier, P. M., & Galea, S. (2020). Prevalence of depression symptoms in US adults before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. JAMA Network Open, 3(9), e2019686-e2019686.

References

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  1. ^ "Sandro Galea - School of Public Health".
  2. ^ Parker, Deb (2024-05-06). "Galea appointed inaugural Margaret C. Ryan Dean of planned WashU School of Public Health". The Source. Retrieved 2024-11-07.
  3. ^ a b "Sandro Galea - Google Scholar".
  4. ^ "Well: What We Need to Talk About When We Talk About Health".
  5. ^ "The Contagion Next Time".
  6. ^ "Healthier : fifty thoughts on the foundations of population health".
  7. ^ a b "Robert S. Laufer Memorial Award for Outstanding Scientific Achievement".
  8. ^ "2024 Master's Commencement of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai".
  9. ^ a b Moran, Barbara (2016). "The Other End of the River". The Brink. Retrieved 10 September 2023.
  10. ^ "Accreditation - Council on Education for Public Health".
  11. ^ "Dean Sandro Galea Leaving BU's School of Public Health for WashU Opportunity".
  12. ^ "Galea appointed inaugural Margaret C. Ryan Dean of planned WashU School of Public Health".
  13. ^ "Editorial board - American Journal of Preventive Medicine".
  14. ^ "Board Members - City of Boston".
  15. ^ "JAMA Network names new editor in chief of JAMA Health Forum".
  16. ^ "Epidemiology: Forging the Future: The Disease Detectives".
  17. ^ "Circumstances of witnessed drug overdose in New York City: implications for intervention".
  18. ^ "Comorbid forms of psychopathology: key patterns and future research directions".
  19. ^ "Modification of the association between serotonin transporter genotype and risk of posttraumatic stress disorder in adults by county-level social environment".
  20. ^ "Urban health: evidence, challenges, and directions".
  21. ^ "A model of underlying socioeconomic vulnerability in human populations: evidence from variability in population health and implications for public health".
  22. ^ "Urban neighborhood poverty and the incidence of depression in a population-based cohort study".
  23. ^ "Psychological Sequelae of the September 11 Terrorist Attacks in New York City".
  24. ^ "Exposure to hurricane-related stressors and mental illness after Hurricane Katrina".
  25. ^ "Prevalence of Depression Symptoms in US Adults Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic".
  26. ^ "The Mental Health Consequences of COVID-19 and Physical Distancing".
  27. ^ "Dean Receives Rema Lapouse Award".
  28. ^ "DOCTOR OF SCIENCE (DSc) - College Graduations Summer 2015" (PDF).
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