Newswise — WASHINGTON (June 14, 2011) – The George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services (SPHHS) is pleased to announce that Paula Lantz, Ph.D., will be joining the faculty as Chair of the Department of Health Policy. Dr. Lantz, who last served as chair in the Department of Health Management and Policy and the S.J. Axelrod Collegiate Professor of Health Management and Policy at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, brings to GW’s SPHHS an outstanding academic career with an expertise in the role of public health in health care reform, clinical preventive services (such as cancer screening and prenatal care), and social inequalities in health.
“We are all extremely pleased that Dr. Lantz will be joining our faculty and bring her experience and leadership to our highly regarded Department of Health Policy,” said Lynn Goldman, M.D., M.P.H., dean of SPHHS. “She is highly respected and widely published in health policy research, especially on the delivery of preventive services. I have every confidence that she will enhance the department’s ability to help shape health policy in the District and our nation.”
Dr. Lantz’s main research interests lie within population health. Throughout her career she has been engaged with some of the most serious health problems in the nation, including cancer prevention and treatment, protection of infants’ health and elimination of the vast inequities in health status and healthcare access in the US. One of her main goals is to continue to develop policy solutions that will break down barriers to care, especially preventive services.
“Conducting research in a place where it can be translated into public policy is very important. I am excited to be coming to GW’s School of Public Health and Health Services, where we have a perfect opportunity to deeply engage faculty and students in shaping and implementing health policy on a national and state level, as health care reform unfolds in the coming years,” said Dr. Lantz. Her teaching interests are focused on policy analysis methods and the role of policy analysis in executive decision-making and strategy.
Dr. Lantz is the author of numerous peer-reviewed papers, books, and reports. Her research has been published in highly regarded journals including the American Journal of Public Health, the Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, the Journal of Women’s Health, the Journal of the American Medical Association, and many other publications. In addition, Dr. Lantz has received funding for research from major national institutions, including the National Institutes of Health, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Dr. Lantz is also committed to educating the next generation of health policy experts and has served as the director of the Robert Wood Johnson Scholars in Health Policy Research Fellowship Program at the University of Michigan since 2002. Within this role, Dr. Lantz worked with the Foundation to attract scholars from other disciplines to the field of health policy to help meet the need for research that informs and advances policies to improve the health and health care.
Dr. Lantz will succeed the outgoing chair, Sara Rosenbaum, J.D., whose work and leadership has positioned the SPHHS’s Department of Health Policy as one of the nation’s preeminent and most influential academic health policy departments. Rosenbaum will remain at SPHHS as the Harold and Jane Hirsh Professor of Health Law, with additional appointments in the Schools of Law and Medicine and Health Sciences.
“On behalf of the school’s entire faculty, I want to thank professor Rosenbaum for her many years of service, her leadership, and the extraordinary influence she has had on our nation’s public health policy,” said Dean Goldman. “Through Professor Rosenbaum’s leadership of the Department of Health Policy, our school has established a strong reputation and influence in this field academically but also in the development and implementation of policy. I am confident that the department and Dr. Lantz are now poised to take our efforts to the next level.”
About the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services:Established in July 1997, the School of Public Health and Health Services brought together three longstanding university programs in the schools of medicine, business, and education that we have since expanded substantially. Today, more than 1,100 students from nearly every U.S. state and more than 40 nations pursue undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral-level degrees in public health. Our student body is one of the most ethnically diverse among the nation's private schools of public health. http://sphhs.gwumc.edu/
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