Siega-Riz named associate dean for academic affairs

Anna Maria Siega-Riz, PhD, professor of nutrition and of epidemiology in the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, has been named the School’s new associate dean for academic affairs, effective Dec. 1.

 

Siega-Riz will succeed Peggy Leatt, PhD, who has served as associate dean for academic affairs since Sept. 1, 2005. Leatt will continue in her role as professor and chair of the School’s health policy and management department.

 

“In a school of our complexity and size, with over 50 different degrees, more than 1,700 students and over 200 full-time faculty members, the associate dean for academic affairs plays a major leadership role,” said Dean Barbara K. Rimer, DrPH. “We are grateful for Peggy Leatt’s outstanding work in this position. She ushered us through a successful CEPH [Council on Education for Public Health] reaccreditation process and a transition to Schoolwide electronic course evaluations. She also led the School through changes in appointments and promotions processes, particularly, even better documentation of processes. Dr. Leatt has been visionary in her understanding that we are at a tipping point for educational change and that traditional teacher-student roles are being replaced by more collaborative models. We are so glad that she will continue to be part of the leadership team in her role as department chair.”

 

Rimer said the School also was fortunate that Siega-Riz will become associate dean for academic affairs.

 

“Professor Siega-Riz brings a wealth of experience, academic excellence in teaching and research, and high energy,” Rimer said. “In her capacity as associate dean, she will be responsible for the academic vision for the School as a whole, in collaboration with the dean, chairs and other school leaders. Accreditation processes, graduate reviews, appointments and promotions committee, academic programs and many other issues and topics will be in her purview. Most important perhaps, as part of our SPH2020 planning process, she will help to move the School toward changes in teaching and learning appropriate for 21st century students.”

 

Since 2008, Siega-Riz has served as associate chair of the School’s epidemiology department. She is the leader of the department’s reproductive, perinatal and pediatric epidemiology training program, for which she holds a training grant that funds five students across three departments (maternal and child health, nutrition, and epidemiology). In the Department of Nutrition, she has served as director of the nutrition epidemiology core since 2003 and as head of nutrition’s epidemiology division. She has been involved in numerous research studies, funded primarily by the National Institutes of Health, related to improving diet methodology, maternal nutrition, reproductive outcomes, maternal and childhood obesity and minority health. She will be stepping down from her leadership roles in the department and reducing her research portfolio to serve as associate dean.

 

Siega-Riz has been a member of the UNC public health faculty since 1995, when she was appointed research assistant professor of nutrition. She moved to tenure track in 1998, joining the Department of Maternal and Child Health. In 2003, she was appointed associate professor of maternal and child health and nutrition and was named associate professor of nutrition and epidemiology in 2006. In 2008, she became associate chair of the epidemiology department. In August 2009, she was promoted to professor of epidemiology and nutrition.

 

Siega-Riz is an alumna of the School, having received undergraduate and doctoral degrees from UNC’s Department of Nutrition. She obtained a master’s degree from UNC-Greensboro. Her postdoctoral work was conducted at the Carolina Population Center, where she has been a fellow since 1995.

 

Siega-Riz has served on three National Academy of Sciences/Institute of Medicine committees, which were charged to provide guidance about the federal Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program, to determine guidelines for weight gain during pregnancy, and to set standards for systematic reviews used in clinical guidelines. She has held leadership roles in a number of prestigious societies, including president of the Society for Pediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology and governing council member of the American Public Health Association.

 

In November 2007, she received the March of Dimes’ Agnes Higgins Award for outstanding achievement in the field of maternal-fetal nutrition.

 

“Dr. Siega-Riz is a remarkable individual,” Rimer said, “an excellent teacher who students speak of with great respect and appreciation, a very successful researcher whose national reputation has made her sought after for prestigious committees, like those associated with the Institute of Medicine, and a rare individual who has had appointments in three of the School’s departments (maternal and child health, epidemiology and nutrition). She will bring great insight, strategy, enthusiasm and innovation to her new role. She will be a great addition to the School’s leadership team.”

 

UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health contact: Ramona DuBose, director of communications, or ramona_dubose@unc.edu.