Maureen Litchveld named new public health dean

One of Pitt’s graduate schools will have a new dean next year.

Maureen Lichtveld has been named dean of the Graduate School of Public Health. Lichtveld will start her new position in early January. She will succeed A. Everette James — the interim dean — who took over for Donald Burke after he left the position in 2019.

Lichtveld currently serves as the director of the Center for Gulf Coast Environmental Health Research, Leadership and Strategic Initiatives within the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. She is also a professor at Tulane and teaches graduate and undergraduate classes on health and environmental policy.

Before working at Tulane, Lichtveld spent 18 years working for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. She received her master’s in public health from Johns Hopkins University and a Doctor of Medicine from Anton de Kom University of Suriname and the Leiden University in the Netherlands.

Lichtveld said she is looking forward to being a part of the Pitt community and leading the School of Public Health.

“I am honored to collaboratively lead Pitt Public Health and committed to elevating the school’s top-ranked status, visibility and impact worldwide,” she said. “I am grateful to Dr. Shekhar and the search committee for this exceptional opportunity. Together, we will make science work for our communities — especially those most vulnerable locally, nationally and globally.”