Description

Chair, Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences

The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

Peter O’Donnell Jr. School of Public Health

Dallas, Texas

The Peter O’Donnell Jr. School of Public Health (OSPH) at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UT Southwestern) invites nominations and applications for the inaugural position of Chair of the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences (The Department). Reporting to the Dean of OSPH, the Chair will work collaboratively with the Dean, other department chairs, and university administration to ensure the academic vision of the Department is aligned with the strategic plans of the school. The successful candidate will play a crucial role in shaping and advancing the public health program, enabling collaboration with scientists and clinicians across UT Southwestern. This will involve ensuring high standards of curriculum delivery, fostering a positive learning environment, recruiting and developing a world-class faculty, promoting excellence in public health research, expanding strong community engagement, and generating discoveries that impact the health of the public.

OSPH was founded in 2022 with a $100 million gift from the O’Donnell Foundation and has grown to include more than 70 primary faculty members, over 60 scholars with secondary appointments, and more than 85 staff members. The school continues to actively recruit faculty with innovative expertise and is on track to grow further. Faculty expertise in the Department spans behavioral science, medical anthropology, qualitative research methods, public health interventions, health economics and policy, and implementation science. Their work focuses on evidence-based strategies and community partnerships that address health inequities, strengthen trust in public health systems, and improve health communication.

The School collaborates closely across departments, the Medical School, and major health systems, including Parkland Health, Texas Health Resources, Children’s Health, and the North Texas Veterans Affairs Healthcare System, to advance research and prepare future public health professionals. Key opportunities for future partnerships for the Department include a new 292-bed state psychiatric hospital located across the street from the Children’s Health Dallas campus and the development of a $5 billion pediatric campus developed in collaboration with Children’s Health, allowing expansion of the existing OSPH Center for Child and Adolescent Population Health.

OSPH is well-funded, actively hiring, and has provisional plans to build a new facility within the next five years. Its location in Dallas, Texas—where health needs are significant and opportunities for impact are substantial—combined with a large and diverse population, robust clinical operations, and strong cross-disciplinary partnerships, creates an ideal setting to build a nationally recognized program. The inaugural Chair will join an energized faculty in a collaborative, mission-driven environment that emphasizes scientific rigor, community engagement, and improving population health.

The successful candidate will be a transformational and consequentialist leader in public health with a proven track record of securing research funding, mentoring junior colleagues in grant acquisition, and building successful programs. Leveraging UT Southwestern’s position as one of the world’s foremost research institutions and a premier academic medical center with a large and diverse patient population, the Chair will foster innovation through interdisciplinary collaborations, recruit and mentor faculty, and strengthen partnerships that advance research, education, and community impact at local, state, national, and global levels. A strong history of competitive research funding (e.g., NIH, CDC, AHRQ, PCORI, NSF, VA, DOD, etc.) is critical for this position. Experience as a principal investigator is essential, as is demonstrated support and development of junior colleagues as co-investigators, and partnering with colleagues in single- or multi-institutional research efforts.

UT Southwestern has engaged Isaacson, Miller, a national executive search firm, to assist in the search. Inquiries, nominations, and applications, which will remain confidential, should be directed to the Isaacson, Miller website: https://www.imsearch.com/open-searches/university-texas-southwestern-medical-center/chair-department-social-and-behavioral

Greg Esposito, Partner 

Tiffany Weber, Managing Associate

Berlinda Mojica, Senior Associate

Isaacson, Miller